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- Contents
– Civil Society and Education
– Repressions
– Regime Politics
- Civil Society and Education
From September 28th to 30th, an important conference titled “Decolonizing Education and Science in Belarus and Ukraine: Theoretical Challenges and Practical Tasks” was held at the European Humanities University. Dr. Tatyana Shchitsova, a Doctor of Philosophy, professor at EHU, and an advisor to Svetlana Tikhanovskaya on education and science matters, gave an extensive interview. In the interview, she discussed the conference's themes and the significance of the chosen topic. She addressed the issues that hinder the development of Belarusian national education and science and explored how “decolonization” can be applied to these fields. The interview also delves into the practical outcomes of the conference and the value of the participation of Belarusian and Ukrainian scholars in this shared event. Read more about these topics and much more in this interview with Tatyana Shchitsova.
The second call has opened for Social Camp – an educational and mentoring project for Belarusians interested in developing the country and strengthening ties with it, regardless of where they live. Program participants who have ready-made project proposals and teams for their implementation will be able to apply for financial support for their project (from 5 to 20 thousand euro) in 2024. Social Camp consists of two programs: Social Camp. Education – application deadline is October 1 + Social Camp. Mentoring – application deadline is October 8. Details and registration here.
October 1-8, the 11th Festival of Independent Belarusian Culture will be held in Wroclaw. The slogan of the festival is “Better Together”. The program includes master classes, performances by Belarusian theaters, excursions, poetry evenings, concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, debates and solidarity actions. On the first day of the festival – October 1 – there will be an action of solidarity with Ukraine and political prisoners in Belarus. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Aliaksandar Milinkevich, Alina Koushyk will take part in it. You can find out about the significant events of the following days here.
The 11th Congress of Belarusian Researchers took place in Gdansk. Tatsiana Shchytsova notes that this year’s Congress program has increased the number of events with a clear focus on practical results, social and political significance. Scientists, experts, civil activists and politicians discussed together the current problems of our society: the preparation of the Constitution, prospects for Belarusian-Ukrainian cooperation, integration of the Belarusian diaspora, organization of Belarusian education for children forced to emigrate, and so on. This reflects a good trend that demonstrates the public demand for objective critical thinking and independent science. You can read about other results of the Congress here.
The “Octopus” project held a conference on cooperation between educational organizations and identified two concepts for school reform. 36 representatives of educational organizations, foreign experts and teachers took part in the two-day conference both online and offline. Participants from Belarus, Germany, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland spoke about their projects supported by the Octopus grant program, got acquainted with innovative approaches in online pedagogy and discussed ways of cooperation. Most of the event program was devoted to a conceptual laboratory for reforming the education system of Belarus. Details about the work and results of the conference can be read here.
The Belarusian sphere of education and science is “aging”. Siarhei Alsheuski noted that according to the Main Information and Analytical Center of the Ministry of Education of Belarus, as of September 1, 2022, 86.7% of school teachers are women, 19.9% of them are over 55 years old. Another trend is a decrease in the number of teachers in universities (in 2020 there were 18,931, in 2022 – already 17,488). The number of doctors and candidates of sciences is also decreasing, while at the same time the average age of scientists is growing.
A new website Bellit.info has opened. The authors of the project have an ambitious aim to collect “everything about Belarusian literature”. The resource was created on the initiative of the International Union of Belarusian Writers and will contain up-to-date information about events in the literary world, forming a virtual encyclopedia of Belarusian literature.
The intellectual book festival “PRADMOVA” will be held at four venues outside of Belarus: Batumi – September 30-October 1, Warsaw – October 6-9, Vilnius October 14-15, Bialystok – October 28-29. A number of events will take place online on October 21, 22 and 30. This year's festival is dedicated to the search for the future of Belarusian culture. This year's participants include renowned Belarusian writers and cultural figures, as well as writers and intellectuals from around the world, who will join the event offline and online to discuss the current challenges and pressing issues facing Belarusians today. The festival program is published here.
- Repressions
In Naroulia, three graduates did not stand up during the playing of the national anthem. According to human rights activists, administrative violation reports were drawn up against the young people and the case was brought to court. At a meeting of Naroulia District Court on August 2, the case of one of them, Maxim Halavatski, was considered under the article on illegal actions in relation to state symbols. The court's decision in this and two other cases remains unknown.
A resident of Brest was sentenced to three months of arrest for insulting a government official. The verdict was handed down by the Moscow district court of Brest on August 17, reports the Viasna human rights center. According to the case file, the man wrote a comment in a telegram “about the minister named I”. The examination found in the commentary a negative assessment of the minister, expressed “in a non-standard form of speech”.
On September 19, it became known about the detention of a 4th year student at the Belarusian National Technical University, Kiryl Martynovich. A “repentance” video with his participation appeared in one of the telegram channels of the security forces. In 2020, Martynovich left a number of comments in telegram chats related to the protests. According to the media, they were able to find the young man after he changed the security settings in the messenger – if in 2020 his account was hidden, then this year all the data is visible, including the Belarusian phone number.
Since the beginning of the current academic year at the Vitsebsk State Academy of Veterinary Medicine, some teachers have not returned to work. The students were told the official version, according to which one of the employees “left for a conference”, and someone “changed jobs”. However, as the students themselves informed the media, most likely the teachers were fired – the names of some of them were removed from the list of employees on the institution’s website. The university itself has tacitly introduced a ban on taking photos and videos of what is happening at the academy, as well as on discussing political topics.
Belarusian universities are conducting checks among first-year students – students must provide links to their profiles on social networks, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, VK and Odnoklassniki at the request of the administration. Some first-year students have already been called “for a talk” at the police department, and were also required to sign a document stating that they undertake not to write comments in “extremist chats” and were warned of criminal liability for such actions.
Ex-political prisoner Asia Bulybenka (“Students’ Case”) gave an interview to “Solidarity”, in which she talked about how she went through detentions, trials and imprisonment. Why Asia did not write a petition for pardon, what became the most difficult thing after her release, about the struggle to lift the travel ban and what decision the new detention led to in the summer of 2023 – read here.
On September 26, a video of a detained teacher of the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics appeared in one of the telegram channels close to the security forces. He claims that he administered the university chat, and also wrote about 15 thousand messages in various groups allegedly aimed at supporting the protests. It is currently unknown under what specific article this teacher was detained.
- Regime Politics
Starting this school year, Belarusian schools have organized an elective on healthy eating. The program is designed for students in grades 5-9 and includes various modules. The elective should develop in schoolchildren literacy “in the field of healthy nutrition culture” and cultivate the culture of nutrition itself, as well as an awareness of health as the main human value.
In the 2023/2024 academic year, Belarusian schools and gymnasiums will purchase tickets for excursions for students in grades I–XI at the expense of the republican or local budgets. The corresponding resolution was adopted by the Ministry of Education “in order to improve the educational process, develop in students respect for the cultural and historical heritage of their people, events during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period, including those related to the genocide of the Belarusian people, as well as fostering patriotism and active civic position”.
Another update: the subject “Fundamentals of Family Life” will appear in Belarusian schools. The classes will be taught by specialists “with high moral and ethical qualities.” According to Raman Sidarenka, senior prosecutor of the department for supervision of the implementation of legislation on minors and youth of the General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus, the goal of this course is to prepare “the younger generation to start a family.” Its appearance is associated with measures to develop a bill on administrative liability for propaganda of LGBT people, gender reassignment and childfree ideology.
Wagner PMCs held a master class with the participation of children attending the “Lynx” military-patriotic club. The video showed classes in which minors were taught how to use firearms, first aid, and rock climbing. At the end of the master class, schoolchildren were awarded PMC badges.
At the beginning of the academic year, the Lyceum of the Belarusian State University was left without a headmaster – on September 21, information appeared on the telegram channel of the educational institution that Hanna Chubarava was “leaving her post.” At the time of publication of the digest, there was no information about the reasons for leaving the post, and it is also unknown who will head the lyceum. Hanna Chubarava worked in the leadership position for two years, taking it in August 2021 after the departure of the previous director Ihar Varaksa.
On September 18, it became known that a new group of children from Donbass arrived in Belarus – they will spend three weeks in Navapolatsk. These visits are organized by the foundation of Paralympian and pro-government activist Aliaksei Talai. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus claims that children arrive temporarily, for the purpose of health improvement and in compliance with all legal procedures. At the same time, it is known that children from the occupied territories of Ukraine have been brought to Belarus since 2016. In April 2023, PACE adopted a resolution in which it recognized the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia as genocide, and Alexander Lukashenko and the government of Belarus are accomplices in it.
Alexander Lukashenko held a meeting on September 21 on improving the educational sector. Among those present were governors, parliamentarians, and employees of educational institutions. At the meeting, they discussed what measures had been taken to solve problems with children’s nutrition and the readiness of schools for the school year, and the issue of a fundamental assessment of the new system of admission to higher education institutions was also raised. Lukashenko also touched upon the collection of money from parents for the needs of schools. According to him, “there will be money in the country for schools,” but there is nothing terrible in the fact that “the parent will participate in this with some of his own money”. There was also a talk about the quality of Belarusian textbooks, about which questions remain and this is “a serious shortcoming of the Ministry of Education”.
At the same meeting, Belarusian textbooks were also criticized by Prosecutor General Andrei Shved. According to him, the Ministry of Education should pay more attention to improving existing textbooks instead of publishing new ones. The official also noted that “the so-called teaching manuals are not very adaptable to secondary school.” Andrei Shved was also indignant at the number of hours of English in Belarusian schools and noted that it exceeds the number of hours for studying the Belarusian and Russian languages.
Alexander Lukashenko demanded to consider the issue of introducing mandatory state employment of paid education for students and increasing the working period for state employees and targeted employees. According to independent experts, such measures can indeed become a short-term solution to the problem of personnel shortages in the regions. What are the long-term prospects for the country's economy and why the government's proposed solutions will only worsen the problem of the outflow of human capital, what the low efficiency of forced labor will lead to, and why such a policy can be compared to serfdom – read the economist's commentary here.
The number of students from Belarus in Russian universities is growing every year. According to open data, in March 2023, more than 12.5 thousand Belarusians studied at Russian universities. Experts attribute the trend to the cessation of international support programs for higher education in Belarus, as well as the consequences of the isolation of Belarus as an accomplice of the aggressor country after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. As a result, many projects in the educational and scientific spheres are reoriented towards Russia.
