Meeting with prominent Belarusian pedagogues

The education system is a strategic industry. It is not part of the sphere of services. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement as he met with prominent Belarusian pedagogues on 29 June.

The head of state said: “You don’t simply produce qualified specialists. First of all, you raise citizens of our country, form the intellectual elite of the society.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that such meetings of the head of state and top pedagogues are regularly held although not frequently. “There is an objective need to talk about accomplishments and prospects of development of the education system as well as today’s problems,” the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that a lot of opinion shapers have emerged recently, particularly online. “Some do it for the hype. Some just post comments online. While I believe you are the genuine opinion shapers. It is the university professors, political analysts, members of the parliaments that shape the opinion of our nation today,” he noted.

“We should move forward and think about the development of our country,” the Belarusian leader stressed. In his speech he spoke at length about the development of the education system since Belarus became independent. Back in the day the authorities decided to improve the existing system instead of remodeling it.

“We, the young country of Belarus, were being bombarded with various ideas in favor of the radical reformation of the education system. People, who are a bit older, remember how it happened. I am confident that if we had embraced those ideas, today we would have been lagging behind, we would have lost the schooling traditions and the human resources. We found out in time all the undercurrents disguised as genuine assistance. There is only one question: who in Europe needs a potential competitor, an independent, smart, and well-developed one?” noted the head of state.

Aleksandr Lukashenko reminded that in the past “nationality conscious” people were in charge of the government and were making blunders, primarily in the education system, under the guise of fighting for sovereignty and independence. “You remember what was happening. When I became the President, I had to take care of the education system as part of the efforts to save the country,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “Back then I identified the thread that needed support. I stated that there was no need to break things and devise ideas, that we should improve the education system that we had, have, and will have. Through great labor we managed to return to the system that we had. We improved it and certainly didn’t prune new branches.”

“Instead of simply preserving we’ve enhanced the best traditions of our university education system,” the head of state stressed.