Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Advisor on Education and Science, Pavel Tereshkovich, has prepared a policy paper for independent media, the leadership of the Belarusian democratic forces, political partners, and international donors.
Executive Summary
From April to June 2026, education and science in Belarus continued to develop under conditions of intensifying political control and repression. Key trends included increased pressure on the academic community, the criminalization of ties with independent educational institutions, the militarization of school education, intimidation of young people, and the expansion of Russian influence.
At the same time, the Belarusian academic community in exile has continued to grow. New research networks are being established, conferences, presentations, and expert discussions are taking place, and publications on future education reforms are being released.
The paper concludes that support for education and science should become one of the central priorities of the democratic forces’ strategy, as these sectors are where human capital is developed, civil society resilience is strengthened, and the foundations for the country’s future democratic transformation are built.
Policy Problem
Education and science in Belarus are increasingly being transformed into instruments of ideological control, political indoctrination, and geopolitical dependence on Russia. Repression against students, teachers, academics, and researchers poses long-term risks to the country’s human capital. The militarization of schools normalizes authoritarian practices among minors, while replacing international standards with closed domestic assessment mechanisms further deepens the system’s international isolation. Without a coordinated response from the democratic forces and international partners, these developments could make the future recovery of Belarus’s education and research sectors significantly more difficult and costly.
Purpose and Target Audiences
The purpose of this paper is to identify the key risks facing Belarusian education and science during the reporting period, explain their political significance, and propose practical recommendations for independent media, the leadership of the Belarusian democratic forces, political partners, and international donors. The paper is intended to support advocacy efforts, the development of assistance programs, the preparation of public policy positions, and long-term investment planning for the Belarusian education and research community.
Key Findings
- Repression in education and science has become systemic, affecting not only individual activists but also a much broader group of students, graduates, teachers, researchers, and their families.
- The militarization of school education and children’s summer programs has become a central element of state education policy.
- The regime uses educational and professional mechanisms to restrict young people’s mobility and punish those with ties to independent or foreign educational institutions.
- Russian influence over Belarus’s education policy continues to expand through joint programs, networks of Russian soft power institutions, and ideological initiatives.
- The Belarusian academic community in exile remains a vital resource for preserving expertise, advancing Belarusian studies, and preparing for future reforms.
Analytical Section: Education and Science in Belarus
Repression in the Academic Environment
On April 14, 2026, the Supreme Court of Belarus recognized the European Humanities University as an “extremist organization.” In response, a wave of searches swept across the country in June. In the first half of the month alone, their number reached 60. They were conducted at the homes of alumni, current students, and their relatives. In a number of cases, students’ parents were threatened with criminal prosecution if their children did not withdraw from the EHU within 10 days. There is a known criminal case launched for tuition payment made in 2016.
The European Union, the Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Science, and Sport, the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the democratic forces of Belarus have strongly condemned the Lukashenka regime’s decision.
In April–June 2026, on charges of “facilitating extremist activity,” the following were convicted: Aliaksei Sasnouski, an assistant lecturer at the Department of Radiation Medicine and Ecology of Belarusian State Medical University; Aliaksandr Parkhomenka, a labor education teacher at Secondary School No. 6 in the city of Mazyr; Daniil Brykun, a student at the Faculty of Computer Systems and Networks of the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radio Electronics.
The launch of a state register of tutors is becoming an additional tool of political pressure. A draft of the corresponding decree has been prepared by the Council of Ministers of Belarus. It will affect everyone who works with children as self-employed individuals. This applies not only to tutors who help with college entrance exams but also to those who teach drawing, music, or dance. Anyone not included in the registry will be unable to provide such services. The draft emphasizes that those convicted of “extremist crimes,” regardless of the statute of limitations, are barred from private teaching activities. This means that one of the few opportunities for thousands of repressed university professors and teachers to make a living might be eliminated.
Militarization of Education
On May 25, 2026, military training began for boys who completed the 10th grade. The duration of the training this year has been increased to two weeks. A significant portion of the students undergo the training in field camps based at military units, in conditions similar to those of a military unit, on a round-the-clock basis. The program of the camps includes training in marksmanship, tactics, drill, physical fitness, and military-medical training. There are known cases where not only boys but also girls were sent to these military field camps.
According to comments from the Ministry of Education, those who do not pass the camp will not be promoted to the 11th grade. The conduct of military field training for minors is an unprecedented event in the history of education in Belarus.
Militaristic rhetoric is widely used to promote the summer children’s wellness campaign. It is emphasized that the key vector of rehabilitation is “civic-patriotic upbringing,” which includes solemn assemblies with the raising of the flag and the singing of the anthem and screenings of themed films.
From June 10 to 16, 2026, the republican finals of the children’s games Zarnichki, Zarnitsy, and Arliania were held at a military training ground in Brest. These are militaristic exercises designed for all age groups of schoolchildren.
The scale of children’s participation, including the unification of the games into a single cycle, significantly surpasses the level of militarization in the late Soviet Union.
Intimidation of Talented Youth
In April, the Ministry of Education of Belarus changed the procedure for forming, maintaining, and using databases of talented youth. These lists will exclude individuals who study abroad without state authorization, those who hold foreign documents granting benefits or privileges based on national affiliation (primarily the Pole’s Card (Karta Polaka)), and those convicted of so-called “extremist” offenses.
In June 2026, a campaign called “Five Reasons to Say ’No’ to a Foreign University” was launched. The first of these was that “a number of foreign educational institutions and foundations are officially recognized as “extremist organizations,” their diplomas in Belarus will become a ’ticket to prison,’ and returning home will turn into a huge problem.” Among other things, “zero chances for a good job” were mentioned, as well as the fact that graduates supposedly work for years as waiters, delivery people, or nannies just to hang on to their residency permit.
Expansion of Russian Influence and the “Russian World” Ideology
A joint meeting of the collegiums of the Ministry of Education of Belarus and the Ministry of Education of Russia was held on April 8, 2026, in Smolensk, Russia. Special attention was paid to expanding the activities of the Association of Colleges of Belarus and Russia (currently 882 institutions), the implementation of the 2026–2028 program for the continuous upbringing of children and youth, and the organization of patriotic events for students and educators. The Russkiy Mir Foundation, a Russian “soft power” structure that promotes the Russian language and culture abroad, announced the establishment of a special auditorium at the Faculty of Philology of Gomel State University.
Both events are forms of drawing Belarus into the orbit of the “Russian World.”
International Cooperation in Education
The 10th meeting of the ministers of education of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was held on June 16–17, 2026, in Minsk. The event was attended by heads of relevant agencies and delegations from the organization’s member states (India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan). Such meetings are somewhat ceremonial in nature. Cooperation is more actively developed in a bilateral format.
Belarus’s Minister of Education A. Ivanets held a series of meetings with foreign partners, including with Ri Chang Sik, Vice Minister of Education of North Korea; Firudin Gurbanov, Deputy Minister of Science and Education of Azerbaijan; and Zhang Wenchuan, Ambassador of China to Belarus. The extremely limited information about the meeting with the colleague from North Korea indirectly suggests that the official Minsk did not want to excessively demonstrate their ties with this country. At the same time, China is becoming the number one partner for Belarus in international cooperation in education and science. This is evidenced by direct Chinese investments in educational projects (programs in biotechnology, casting, and additive technologies), a threefold increase in the number of Chinese students in Belarus, and the expansion of the Confucius Institute network to six.
Abolition of Paid Medical Education
Starting in the new academic year, paid education in medical specialties will be abolished in Belarus. This means that all future graduates will be required to work for 2 years in state institutions after completing their studies. Those admitted under a targeted recruitment program (up to 45–70% of students) are required to serve for an even longer period — 5 years. This way, the problem of the acute shortage of medical personnel is being addressed. On April 6, the National Job Bank listed 2,627 vacancies for the search term “specialist doctor” and 2,312 for “nurse.”
National Survey of the Quality of Education
The National Assessment of Educational Quality was conducted on April 28, 2026. It involved 20,000 students who had reached the age of 15. The purpose of the study is to assess literacy levels in reading, mathematics, financial and science literacy. It is reported that all tasks were created exclusively by domestic experts and are based on the Belarusian context. Since 2018, Belarus has refused to participate in the similarly scoped international PISA study. The model for this year’s study was borrowed from Russia, though it is not identical. This approach prevents comparisons of educational levels in an international context and reinforces Belarus’s international isolation. The first National Assessment of Achievement was conducted in 2023, but its results were not made public.
Events Outside of Belarus
Scientific Conferences and Seminars
In April–June, several scientific forums were held, both traditional and dedicated to non-standard topics.
Among them, the 11th Annual London Conference on Belarusian Studies (May 8–9, 2026) should be noted. Its organization was the result of a joint effort by the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College London, the Ostrogorski Center, and the Francysk Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum. The conference was attended by over 40 researchers of Belarus from the United Kingdom, Germany, the USA, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, Canada, Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Montenegro. The topics of the presentations covered the Belarusian heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, contemporary political processes in Belarus, international relations, the state of Belarusian society, culture, language, and library and archival affairs.
More than 40 researchers in history, ethnology, sociology, heritage studies, literary studies, and art studies participated in the interdisciplinary conference “Culture Captive to the Past” at the Ivan Luckevich Belarusian Museum in Vilnius (June 11–13, 2026). The event was supported by Scholars for Belarus by akno e.V. The discussions concerned the role of canons in Belarusian culture, history, and heritage and the need for their rethinking and transformation.
The academic seminar “The Search of Viciebsk Latgale: Rethinking a Borderland Region from a Transnational Perspective” was held on May 29, 2026, in Riga. It was organized by the Belarusian Institute in Prague, the University of Latvia, Daugavpils University, and the Academic Network Eastern Europe (akno e.V.). Seminar participants discussed a wide range of issues, including the ethno-confessional landscape of the region, the identity of local population groups, and the state of regional studies.
Discussions on the State of Belarusian Studies, Belarusian Researchers in Exile, and the Paths of Future Democratic Reforms
This issue was the focus of numerous events during the reporting period. These included a series of online roundtables organized under the European Union’s EU4Belarus: Support to Advanced Learning and Training (SALT II) program: “Belarusian Researchers and Belarus Studies in the German-Speaking World” (April 9, 2026), “Belarusian Researchers and Belarus Studies in the English-Speaking World: Opportunities and Challenges” (May 30, 2026), and “Institutional Future and Practical Solutions: The Possibility of Establishing a Belarusian University in Exile” (April 21, 2026).
A closely related event was the conference “Beyond Displacement: The Future of Universities and Scholars in Exile” (June 8–10, 2026, Vienna), organized by the Central Project Management Agency (CPVA), the EU4Belarus program, and the Central European University. Participants focused on safeguarding academic freedom in the face of authoritarianism, strengthening the resilience and mission of universities in exile, and developing innovative models for teaching, research, and civic engagement under conditions of forced displacement.
The first seminar of the project “Belarus Forum: Educational Reforms for a Democratic Belarus” took place on June 11–14, 2026, in Krzyżowa, near Wrocław. The seminar, and the project as a whole, were organized by the German Association for East European Studies (DGO e.V.) in partnership with the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe. Belarusian experts, university lecturers, school teachers, civil society activists, and invited Polish education researchers discussed a broad range of issues, including the de-ideologization of school education, personnel policy and lustration, academic freedom and university autonomy, internationalization, and the future of Belarusian education in exile.
Scholarly Publications
An academic seminar, “Between Continuity and Change: Rethinking Politics, Society, and Identity in Belarus” (May 22, 2026, Stockholm), was dedicated to discussing the texts for a future monograph in the “Voices of Belarus” series. It is expected to be published this year. The seminar was organized by the Center for Baltic and Eastern European Studies at Södertörn University. It featured presentations by Belarusian scientists and researchers of Belarus from Lithuania, Poland, Denmark, Germany, and the USA. The discussions covered the functioning of the Belarusian language in the mass media and identities, authoritarian rule and everyday life in Belarus, the historical heritage and multiculturalism of Belarus, and the role of culture in resistance and in the future transformation of Belarus.
In April–June, presentations of academic publications on Belarusian topics were held. These included the monograph “Collective Farmers: An Anthropological Study of the Identity of Belarusian Village Residents at the Turn of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries” by Polish researcher Hanna Engelking (June 18, 2026, Warsaw, during the public program of the 4th Belarusian–Polish Expert Forum named after Raman Skirmunt); the monograph “Belarusians in the Lithuanian Republic” (1918–1940) by Tomasz Błaszczak, a lecturer at the Vytautas Magnus University (April 15, 2026, Ivan Luckevich Belarusian Museum in Vilnius).
In addition, the second volume of Mirosław Jankowiak’s monograph “Contemporary Belarusian Dialects in Lithuania. Volume 2: Šalčininkai District” was published; as well as the monograph by Radosław Kaleta, “My Belarusian Studies: Polish–Belarusian Linguistic and Glottodidactic Research,” dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Department of Belarusian Studies at the University of Warsaw; and the collective monograph “Belarus Through the Eyes of Youth: Studies on Decolonization.”
Political Consequences
The described trends have not only educational but also political significance. They affect the ability of Belarusian society to maintain professional competencies, critical thinking, cultural subjectivity, and its connection with the European academic space. For democratic actors, this means the need to move from reactive support for individual cases to a long-term policy of preserving and developing the Belarusian educational and scientific infrastructure. For international partners and donors, this requires multi-year funding, the protection of vulnerable groups, and support for institutions capable of functioning now and being useful in a future transition period.
Conclusion
The developments of April–June 2026 point to a further deepening of the crisis in Belarus’s education and research sectors. Within the country, the education system is increasingly being used as a tool of ideological control, political repression, and the militarization of young people. Repression against the academic community, restrictions on access to education abroad, expanding Russian influence, and the lack of transparency in national education quality assessments all reflect a shrinking space for academic freedom and independent development.
At the same time, an independent Belarusian academic community continues to grow and strengthen outside the country. Conferences, seminars, research projects, and scholarly publications across Europe and beyond demonstrate the resilience and expertise of Belarusian scholars, their ability to maintain professional networks, advance Belarusian studies, and lay the groundwork for future democratic reforms in education and research.
The reporting period is therefore marked by two contrasting trends: increasing control, isolation, and dependence within Belarus, alongside the continued development of an open, internationally connected Belarusian academic community abroad. This external academic ecosystem has the potential to become a vital resource for restoring the autonomy, quality, and freedom of Belarusian education in the future.
Policy Recommendations
The recommendations below are aimed at four groups of actors who can influence the preservation of the Belarusian educational and scientific community, increase international attention to the repression, and lay the groundwork for future democratic reforms.
For independent media
- Systematically cover topics of repression in education and science, the militarization of schools, and pressure on students, faculty, and parents, avoiding the fragmented presentation of individual cases.
- Explain to a broad audience that attacks on academic freedom and independent education are not just a problem for individual universities or faculty but also a threat to the country’s future development.
- Pay more attention to positive examples: Belarusian educational initiatives abroad, scientific publications, research networks, and projects supporting future reforms.
For the democratic forces
- Treat education and science as one of the priority areas of democratic policy, not as a narrowly professional or secondary sphere.
- Prepare a public framework for future reforms: de-ideologization of schools, restoration of academic freedoms, university autonomy, transparent personnel policy, and support for the Belarusian language in education.
- Coordinate work with universities in exile, research centers, and teacher and student initiatives to build expertise for the transition period.
- Consistently raise the issues of the persecution of students, faculty, scientists, and graduates and accountability for them on the international agenda, including in contacts with governments, parliaments, and European institutions.
For political partners
- Include issues of education, science, and academic freedom in political dialogue with the democratic forces of Belarus and in strategies on Belarus.
- Maintain and expand scholarship, academic mobility, visa, and legal support programs for students, faculty, and researchers at risk of persecution.
- Recognize the particular vulnerability of individuals associated with independent educational institutions and take this into account when considering issues of legal procedures, security, and humanitarian protection.
- Support international mechanisms for monitoring human rights violations in the field of education, including persecution for studying, teaching, conducting research, and participating in academic networks.
For international donors
- Shift from short-term support for individual events to multi-year programs for the institutional development of Belarusian education and science in exile.
- Fund not only scholarships but also research groups, Belarusian academic centers, digital educational platforms, archives, translation projects, and mutual aid networks.
- Invest in training personnel for the future democratic transformation: school governance, university autonomy, educational policy, assessment of educational quality, and reform of scientific institutions.
