The article presents an analysis of one of the preconditions for effective functioning of human capital – education. The author points out that, on the whole, the reforms in the Latvian education system have not been well-substantiated, which has told on the quality of higher education as well as the inability of Latvian higher schools to train the required number of specialists for the national economy. Due to the ill-considered secondary school reforms, higher schools fail to train specialists in engineering and natural sciences.