Meeting to discuss improvements to university admission process

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko held a meeting to discuss improvements to the university admission process on 2 December.

“University admission should not be a lottery or a fortuitous combination of circumstances for individual applicants,” the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko recalled that the last time education was discussed was in August this year. “Back then, during the discussion, I set one specific task for the Belarus President Administration and the Education Ministry: to have another review of the approaches to the final academic assessment of school graduates and approaches to the university admission process that are laid out in the updated Education Code and admission rules. We took a break in order to figure out whether we are doing the right thing, whether our approaches align with my key requirement, which is to conduct a proper assessment of each applicant,” the head of state recalled.

The President urged to ensure fair treatment and create equal opportunities for all young people who want to study in higher learning institutions.

The Education Ministry and simultaneously the Belarus President Administration held public discussions, polled teachers, parents, and all those interested. “It is important that the outcomes of this survey are not distorted in order to validate your opinion. In a word, as I have been told, it was a large-scale survey. Therefore, I would like to hear whether the education system, local authorities, universities are ready for the proposed changes,” the head of state said.

He asked whether everything is in place in order to launch the new mechanism in 2023 and whether there are any problems in connection with this. Aleksandr Lukashenko asked the head of the Belarus President Administration whether these approaches are optimal at the moment, how they will benefit the education system and the country in the future, and whether they might cause any problems.

“You were supposed to analyze all the risks and benefits of the new rules, taking into account public opinion. Report on it. Once again, I draw the attention of the attendees to the fact that these matters directly concern our people; we should not leave anyone behind or, God forbid, alienate anyone,” he said.

The Belarusian leader emphasized that the task of the state is to provide young people with the widest opportunities for professional development and growth in Belarus.

“We will not talk about those vagrants who left Belarus,” Aleksandr Lukashenko added.

The head of state encouraged everyone to speak out if they have any doubts about the decisions that are under discussion or see potential problems.

“We do not have any time. There is no time left. Here and now we need to formulate a mechanism of managing the education system in the future. Today’s discussion should bring to a close constant reforms and improvements! The only thing that you should keep improving are textbooks. You will update them, write new ones. Our people are already annoyed [by frequent changes in education]. You can’t change the rules of the game all the time. Let’s finally put an end to these never-ending discussions and embark on painstaking work,” Aleksandr Lukashenko added.