Latvian youth, according to a report by UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre in Italy, are increasingly viewing education as a key to a better future.

In 1983, the report says, a survey of Latvian students found that they valued education fourth behind a job, family and friends. But a followup survey in 1997 found that education had moved to the No. 1 spot. Indeed, when comparing the enrollment among 15- to 24-year-old Latvians in secondary and more advanced educational programs since the renewal of independence, a sharp increase has been seen. In 1989, 39 percent of this age group enrolled in secondary or later education, but -- after recovering from a decline in the early 1990s -- by 1998 a total of 56 percent was enrolled. UNICEF's Young People in Changing Societies report used as a benchmark 1995 enrollment rates among 15- to 24-year-olds in European Union countries, where the figure stood at 58 percent in 1995. But behind these upbeat findings are several that may suggest problems when it comes time to fill jobs with educated and skilled workers. Throughout Eastern Europe, for example, the number of teenagers completing basic education has fallen since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia, which reported 94 percent of students finishing basic education in 1989, had seen a 6 percent decline by 1997. Ukraine saw a 7 percent drop; Belarus, 10 percent, and Georgia, 24 percent. Latvia, says the UNICEF report, was the only Baltic state to reach 90 percent completion in 1997. That was still less than the 94 to 99 percent completion rates in Central European countries such as Hungary and Slovakia. The latest census figures, released in July, show that of Latvia's 2.3 million inhabitants, 1.2 million (54 percent) are female. According to another study -- UNICEF's 1999 Regional Monitoring Report focused on women in transition countries -- the number of women in Latvia aged 15 to 18 years who were enrolled in general secondary education programs rose to 32.4 percent in 1997 from 22.1 percent in 1989. During the same period, the number of women in tertiary (or post-secondary) education programs rose to 24.6 percent from 15.2 percent. By 1997, almost 55 percent of all students in post-secondary education were women.