Vitebsk Belarusian Language Society Demands Discharge of Education Minister
Vitebsk regional council of the Belarusian Language Society made a statement on 18 march, by which it demands discharge of Belarusian Education Minister Alexander Radzkou. Iosif Navumchyk, head of Vitebsk BLS, told BelaPAN:
“During the last two years the Ministry of Education is purposefully squeezing the Belarusian language and literature out of the education process. As we learned from the mass media, the Ministry of Education, as well as the pro-governmental Union of Writers of Belarus, decided to deprive the school students of the possibility to learn enough about the works of such honored Belarusian writers as Yanka Kupala, Vasil Bykau, Ryhor Baradulin and Nil Hilevich; and such well-known writers as Henadz Buraukin, Sviatlana Aleksiyevich, Volha Ipatava, Siarhei Zakonnikau, Uladzimir Niakliayeu, Uladzimir Arlou, Vitaut Charopka, Mikhas Skobla, and otehrs”.
Iosif Navumchyk explains, the regional council of BLS is indignant over such barbaric actions of the Ministry of Education and the union of Writers in Belarus towards the heritage of the Belarusian literature and its creators: “We demand to stop the attack on the Belarusian language and the Belarusian literature. We impeach credibility of the officials of the Ministry of Education and demand discharge of minister Alexander Radzkou. We call upon other organizations and the society to support our statement”.
Besides that, Vitebsk BLS demands “to return the course of “Belarusian studies” to technical schools and higher educational institutions, to restore Belarusian language as the language of instruction of the courses of Belarusian history and geography in Russian-language secondary schools, to return the subject of “Belarusian language: professional lexicon” to the standards of higher education, and to cancel the ban on the official meetings with members of the independent Writers’ Union in all cultural and educational institutions”.
According to Navumchyk, the statement was sent to the Ministry of Education, the Council of Ministers, the Office of the President, the pro-governmental Union of Writers of Belarus, and Belarusian mass media.
