Lukashenko: There will be no substantial changes in the education system anymore

In conclusion of his speech during the conference Aleksandr Lukashenko mentioned a number of main requirements for the education system and identified the main strategic tasks that the education system will have to accomplish in the near future.

“We’ve been reforming the education system for many years in a row. We’ve already lost count of the reforms and we’ve confused the people. As I’ve already promised, there will be no more substantial changes in the education system. We cannot plunge the pedagogical community, the authorities, and our own selves into reformation, redesign, demolition, and construction of new things in the education system every year. We will not do it because a lot has already been done. We have to stop, work a bit, make the relevant conclusions about what you and I have created. We will take care of polishing the system wherever necessary. Fine-tuning will always be necessary,” the head of state said.

He stressed that the country sees all the bottlenecks in the education system. “Before coming to the teaching conference I studied a huge amount of information starting with people’s petitions, data of sociological surveys and ending with analytical materials of oversight agencies,” the Belarusian leader noted. 

Aleksandr Lukashenko identified the key areas where fine-tuning will be necessary. Despite all the fine-tuning and innovations the basic approach has to remain the same: equal access to education. “It is sacred!” the Belarusian leader stressed. 

The prestige of the teaching profession

The head of state is convinced that it is futile to talk about the effectiveness of education without raising the prestige and authority of teachers and school administration. “A teacher should be more than a holy person at school! Therefore, we must do our best in this regard. First of all, you should do it, you [teachers] should want it, and we [authorities] should provide all possible support. A teacher is a person of the president. Therefore, a half of your workload is my workload. We will not allow anyone to leave teachers alone to tackle the issues related to dysfunctional families, living conditions of socially vulnerable children, preventive and organizational work,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

“It is unacceptable at all that prosecutors and state control go to some schools more often than education inspectors,” the Belarusian leader stressed. The audience applauded this statement.

He stated that the prestige of any profession implies decent wages. “For the first time in Belarus’ history we are close to the national average in terms of wages. The arithmetic here is simple: you prepare competitive specialists, the economy grows and your income rises,” the president said.
 

Patriotism as the foundation of the education system

Aleksandr Lukashenko called patriotism the foundation of education. The head of state said: “A lot has been done. We can talk about concrete results. We see high competition for military specializations. We see the growing interest of young Belarusians in search and recovery of relics of fallen WW2 soldiers, in the student volunteer movement. The number of school graduates, who leave Belarus to study abroad, is falling.”

“The work needs to continue. And remember that only patriots can raise a patriot,” Aleksandr Lukashenko added.

Talented people need to stay in their home country

“Talents should stay in the country! Work with talented children in schools and universities should be strengthened. There is one goal: they should live and work in their own country,” the Belarusian leader said.

“In the next five years we will set up a world-class educational hub in Belarus. On par with Harvard,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “For example, we may build the most up-to-date campus on the basis of one of the Belarusian State University faculties and start offering university education using a full factory cycle in some specialty.”
 

Professions of the future and artificial intelligence

Speaking about professions of the future, the head of state mentioned weak efforts to promote specializations sitting at the junction of several disciplines. For instance, telemedicine, agrocybernetics, and biohacking.

“But we have to remember that artificial intelligence will not replace you, human teachers. Particularly the ability to teach adaptiveness skills and the need to bear perspectives in mind,” the president stressed. 

Export and the ability to operate aggressively

Aleksandr Lukashenko spoke in favor of training specialists, who will have the necessary skills to successfully promote Belarusian products on foreign markets.

“Export is the most important economic indicator for us. It is a matter of life of our country. Export is a brand of Belarus as a country with an open economy. We don’t use the full potential of the export of education services. We train nearly no specialists with external communication skills. Specialists, who know how to operate aggressively on tough foreign markets. But we should [train them]. Right from the secondary school,” the president said.