Lukashenko hosts meeting on education

The meeting gathered more than fifty specialists. These included not only the country's top officials and heads of government bodies, but also governors, heads of higher education institutions and organizations affiliated with the Education Ministry, chairpersons of the relevant commissions of the House of Representatives and the Council of the Republic, heads of the regional education departments as well as the education committee of the Minsk City Hall, heads of district education departments and employees of educational institutions from different regions of the country.

“We are revisiting education issues today. I wish it to be a rare case for gathering such a number of experts. Education has recently become a frequently-discussed topic both on TV and in the press. Indeed, as it turns out, it is not only me but the whole society that is concerned about the educational process in the country. This is good. We agreed during the previous report of the education minister on the country's readiness for the new academic year that we would meet in September to take stock of the work done,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

On 18 August, Aleksandr Lukashenko held a meeting to discuss the readiness of the country's education system for the new academic year. The routine reporting of the minister and the deputy prime minister to the head of state turned into a large-scale conference. The meeting was also attended by the heads of the General Prosecutor's Office and the State Control Committee to present their assessments on the state of education in the country. The meeting was very critical in its nature. Aleksandr Lukashenko did not accept the reports of either the minister or the deputy prime minister.

“Everything was too good on paper. In reality everything turned out to be much more prosaic: schools were not ready to receive children, there were unresolved issues related to students' transportation, nutrition and others. There were a lot of questions at that time. I hope that today I will hear not statistical data, but concrete information about the measures taken by the government to address the identified issues and proposals for further work in this area,” the president emphasized.