Latvia Made Military Training Mandatory in Every High School. Here's What That Actually Looks Like.
Since September 2024, every Latvian secondary school student must complete 112 hours of National Defence Education — including weapons familiarization and field exercises. Latvia is one of only two EU countries to require shooting training in schools, alongside Poland. With a population of roughly 1.8 million living next door to Russia, officials say the math is simple.
The Policy: What Changed and When
On April 16, 2024, Latvia's Cabinet of Ministers adopted amendments to the general secondary education standard mandating the compulsory implementation of National Defence Education (NDE) across all secondary schools. The requirement took effect on September 1, 2024, according to Latvia's Ministry of Defence.
The NDE course runs for 112 lessons total, spread across two consecutive academic years. Classes meet eight lessons one day per month, except in September and January. The curriculum is developed by the Jaunsardze Centre — Latvia's national youth defence organization — and is taught by Jaunsardze instructors, many of whom are military veterans.
The course is structured around three modules, as defined by the Ministry of Defence: civic activism in the context of national security; crisis resilience and leadership; and national defence skills. The third module includes practical weapons familiarization, field navigation, and physical fitness components.
What Students Actually Do
Euronews, reporting from inside Latvia in May 2025, described the curriculum in practice. Students at Riga's School of Tourism — one of the first schools to implement the NDE — learned terrain navigation, camouflage techniques, military alphabet (including NATO alphabet), and how to distinguish between different rifle types. Field exercises included off-road movement drills with instructors using military command language.
Shooting instruction uses compressed air cartridges rather than live ammunition, according to Euronews. Two students interviewed by Euronews, Agnija and Agnese, described the experience matter-of-factly. Agnija said the program made sense given Latvia's population: "Our population is small — about 1.8 million people. Every citizen should have basic military knowledge." Agnese added: "We also learn this in practice. If something happens, we're ready."
After completing the compulsory NDE course, students have the option to voluntarily attend an NDE camp, according to the Ministry of Defence.
Latvia's Security Context
Latvia shares a border with Russia and Belarus. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Latvia — along with Estonia and Lithuania — has accelerated its military preparedness at every level of society.
Latvia currently hosts NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence battlegroup at the Ādaži military base, which according to Euronews now comprises 3,000 NATO soldiers from 14 countries. Latvia's Defence Minister Andris Sprūds confirmed to Euronews that the foreign troop presence is being expanded further. Sprūds stated that Latvia is already spending over 3 percent of GDP on defence and is moving toward 5 percent — a threshold well above the NATO guideline of 2 percent.
Together with Estonia and Lithuania, Latvia has begun construction of the Baltic Defence Line — a system of physical border fortifications including anti-tank barriers (concrete "dragon teeth") and obstacles along the EU's external border with Russia and Belarus. Latvia's share of that project is budgeted at 303 million euros, according to Euronews, with the border expected to be "armour-proof" by 2028.
The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO), a Brussels-based civil liberties organization that tracks military training in schools across Europe, confirmed that the "State Defence Subject" became an obligatory part of Latvia's secondary school curriculum on September 1, 2024, partly taught by military personnel. EBCO noted that shooting training in schools currently exists across the EU only in Latvia and Poland, and that Lithuania was considering introducing a similar program.
The Strategic Argument
Latvia's rationale is demographic as much as military. With a population of approximately 1.8 million — comparable to a mid-sized American city — Latvia cannot field a large standing army. Its active military numbers around 8,000 troops. The National Defence Education program is explicitly designed to produce a broad base of civilians with enough practical knowledge to contribute meaningfully in a crisis, not to create a generation of combat soldiers.
Defence Minister Sprūds framed the approach in Euronews: "The best deterrent is to do our homework." He described Russia as "an aggressive country" whose "expansionist imperialism is firmly rooted in its DNA," and argued that NATO credibility depends on member states demonstrating genuine investment in their own defence — which Latvia interprets as including civilian preparation.
Baltic intelligence services have assessed that Russia could pose a direct military threat to EU territory within a few years, a timeline that has driven urgency across the region. Latvia's decision to build defence awareness into compulsory secondary education is one concrete expression of that threat assessment.
How It Compares to Other NATO Members
Latvia and Poland are, as of this writing, the only EU member states that require shooting training as part of their mandatory school curriculum. Several other NATO members have encouraged or expanded voluntary cadet programs (including the United Kingdom and Germany), but none have made weapons training universally mandatory at the secondary level within the EU.
Lithuania is reportedly considering a similar measure. Estonia, Latvia's northern neighbor, has maintained a strong civic defence tradition including its own home defence league (Kaitseliit), but has not yet introduced mandatory weapons training in schools at the secondary level.
The contrast with Western Europe is significant. In Germany, France, and most of Western and Southern Europe, mandatory military service was suspended or abolished after the Cold War. Latvia never developed that reflex — its modern military was only reconstituted after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 — and its proximity to Russia means the post-Cold War era of reduced military readiness was shorter and less complete than in wealthier Western allies.
What the Program Is Not
Latvia's NDE is not conscription, and the shooting component uses compressed air cartridges rather than live-fire training with military weapons. The programme's official aim, as stated by Latvia's Ministry of Defence, is to "promote civic awareness and patriotism, as well as to provide an opportunity to acquire basic military skills and competences, developing civically responsible and loyal citizens of Latvia." It is designed as an educational foundation, not combat readiness.
Latvia does maintain a separate voluntary reserve force and conscription system for adult citizens. The NDE sits upstream of those systems — it is the entry point through which Latvian youth encounter the language and logic of national defence before they are old enough to make choices about military service.