Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Advisor on Education and Science, Tatiana Shchyttsova, comments on the regime’s new “initiatives” in higher education, which show its preference for Soviet legacy instead of genuine reforms and their intent to prevent young people from studying abroad.
“Yesterday Lukashenka embarrassed himself, one could say in an exemplary and illustrative way – surprisingly on February 13, an alarming date in a depressing month. During the meeting with the rectors of Belarusian universities, he couldn’t hold back and revealed everything that torments him: a critical shortage of qualified personnel in the country, and the youth’s dissatisfaction with the quality of education in Belarusian universities and desire to study abroad. Well, this painted their mission clearly: they need to do something to prevent them from leaving!
The embarrassment, of course, is not in the fact of acknowledging the problems. On the contrary, admitting to having a problem is the first step to solving it. One can even praise the agitated tyrant for that. The embarrassment lies in the fact that Lukashenka remained silent about the real causes of the crisis in the higher education system in Belarus. These include:
- a low level of academic freedom;
- a vertical management system that suppresses any initiative on the ground;
- chronic underfunding of the education sector;
- outflow of professional staff.
In the Academic Freedom Index ranking, which reviews 179 countries, Belarus is 5th from the bottom – right behind Syria, surpassing only Turkmenistan, Eritrea, Myanmar, and North Korea.
The nominal average gross monthly salary of education workers has been declining for more than 15 years. In September 2023, it was significantly lower than the national average, standing at 69%. The nominal average gross monthly salary of teaching staff in September 2023 was significantly below the 2012 level. Higher education expenditures to GDP ratio has been declining for more than 15 years, falling by more than a quarter over this time.
There is a significant reduction in scientific personnel. The 2022 data showed the lowest number for the last 20 years – lower than in 2000! The last 10 years saw a continuous decline in defended dissertations.
After 2020, in addition to the 4 reasons mentioned above, we could also name consistent efforts to isolate the country’s education and science from the international community.
Let us summarize taking into account the nature of Lukashenka’s rule. He was reserved talking about his contribution to the current higher education crisis in Belarus. But since he is obviously not going to change his behavior, he came up with a creative political decision. To keep young people from studying abroad, he ordered the rectors to make sure by September 1… That no one leaves!
With this, we will definitely have a new life in the new academic year!”
