Belarusian-language Education Is ‘Inexpedient’ – Answers Deputy Minister of Education

According to the BPF press-service

A member of the BPF Youth Andrei Ihnatovich has received an answer to his inquiry to the presidential administration. In this inquiry, which he submitted about 2 months ago, the activist asked to review the new legal acts providing teaching of history and geography of Belarus in schools in Russian. He also proposed the officials to establish a university with solely Belarusian language of instruction. The inquiry was signed by about 2 000 of citizens of Belarus.

The officials of the Ministry of Education considered this document for more than 2 months. The answer states that ‘the possibility of teaching history and geography of Belarus in Russian is provided by the laws of the Republic of Belarus On education, On general secondary education and On languages in the Republic of Belarus. It is quite interesting that these laws guarantee the equality of the two state languages, Belarusian and Russian, whereas the new legal acts give priority to the latter.

What concerns the establishment of a Belarusian-language high school, the officials answered: ‘At present 53 educational establishments function in Belarus, educating specialists in almost 300 specialities and thus completely satisfying the country’s needs. That’s why we consider the establishment of another higher educational establishment untimely and inexpedient’.

The answer was signed by the first deputy minister of education A.Zhuk.