Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya held a video conference with representatives of schools from Belarusian regions. Olga Shparaga, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's representative for education, took part in the meeting as well.
Olga said that the Office for Education is discussing creating an online learning platform with various stakeholders. She also shared the plans to launch a series of discussions of education reforms. Sviatlana thanked the teachers and school principals who joined the conference and encouraged them to share their view of the current education system from school leaders' perspectives.
Some important issues were raised at the meeting:
1. Principals are summoned to the executive committees for their critical notes in the media. Overall, since Election Day in August, teachers and school leaders who disagree with the regime have been under tremendous pressure.
2. There is a problem of dual power in the system: the Ministry of Education and local executive committees do not work together. As a result, the decrees from the ministry go to schools with distortions of the executive committees.
3. There are many grassroots initiatives in the field of Belarusian education. Still, local authorities are afraid to take the plunge: “The government only pretends to govern.” As a result, new forms of education appear not because of but in spite of the system.
4. If teachers leave pro-government trade unions, they may be deprived of bonuses and repressed in other ways.
5. The education system is now working for the competition and is not inclined towards solidarity in any respect. Thus, it is difficult for teachers to unite, but the process is still going on.
Suggestions for work:
1. Create strike committees and independent associations in schools.
2. Develop a draft of an alternative to the Belarusian Republican Youth Union.
3. To unite the existing solutions for the reform of school education. It has three directions: reform of educational goals, reform of methods and reform of management. However, we need to start with the mission and values that unite the educational space of the new Belarus.
4. Prepare the online school project's solutions and look for other alternative employment opportunities for teachers.
5. Create a working group to implement these proposals.
6. Find opportunities to provide financial assistance to teachers who are being repressed and involve them in discussions on reforms.
