Female activist of “European Belarus” expelled for “politics”

Irina Petrova, an activist of civil campaign “European Belarus” and a junior student, has been expelled from Belarusian State Pedagogical University.

“That was my third year of distant study at the Department of Physical Training in BSPU. My grades have always been 6 out of ten or higher, I never had to retake an exam in three years. During this term we had to take a test in skiing. Even when I was taking the test with the whole class everybody noticed particular attention the teachers gave me and wondered why I was the only one who hadn’t passed. And the test was arranged in a peculiar way: everybody was required to demonstrate only one classic style of skiing to pass. I faced completely different requirements. As a result they decided to send me for a retake before a special panel.

As I supposed that they might have failed me because of my political activity, I tried to prepare for a test to the best of my abilities. But all preparation was in vain: as soon as I started answering I was literally bombarded with questions. There were a lot of them and they all were very tough. I was under impression that my teachers intended to fail me by all means. Eventually, the panel didn’t give me a credit. When my classmates and some teachers learnt of that they couldn’t believe: “Our university is notorious for using every trick in the book to help reckless students, they usually allow to retake exams up to 5 times before a panel.”

In the end I told them that I was sure that they were trying to expel me for my political views and vigorous political activities. The panel members cast down their eyes and weren’t able to respond to that. It turned out that they had been well informed about my political involvement and didn’t conceal their awareness”- the activist reported to the press-service of “European Belarus”.