Uladzimir Dunaeu: Organization of educational process in education sphere needs reconsideration

There is no time to learn how to do something good; that’s where overload with homework, extra hours, and shortening of summer vacations come from.

After visiting Minsk secondary school #56 on August 31, Aliaksandr Lukashenka called Belarusan educational system competitive and highly valued in the world.

However, he still stated the problems of the Belarusan education that the authorities are now trying to solve: excessive overload with homework, the fact that schools work on Saturdays, and quality of books.

According to Lukashenka, the system should work so that children get main knowledge in school. “A student shouldn’t have a need to get home after 6-7 hours in school and prepare homework for another 5-6 hours. Look, whom we are turning our children to”, - said Lukashenka in indignation, noting that junior school students should prepare their homework for 1.5-2 hours, senior school students – 3-3.5 hours.

Saturday, assumes Lukashenka, shouldn’t be a day off in schools – students should devote it to PE-classes and labour classes. “Saturday is not a day off, especially for school. It is labor training and PE classes”, - he said, proposing to move labor classes and PE lessons from Monday-Friday schedule to Saturday.

Lukashenka also criticized the quality of today’s textbooks. According to him, by the end of the next year they will be adjusted to the modern requirements.

- If we are talking about low quality of school education, the call for its improvement is quite appropriate, - stated Uladzimir Dunaeu, professor of philosophy, a former Vice Rector of the EHU, the member of the public Bologna committee in the interview with the EuroBelarus Information Service. – But the thing is that Lukashenka changes his assessment almost during one day: one time he says that our education has unsurpassed quality and our graduates are in great demand all over the world, another time – that half of what is studied in schools is garbage.

- Is the problem of homework really that relevant now?

- It is a specific problem related to the methods of education. I think it is quite solvable; all the more that there are many examples of how it is solved in the world.

But this problem will inevitably be raised. By cutting the education by one year, the authorities have created a lot of problems that are obviously appearing one after another. Quite recently it was finally admitted that the elimination of specialized forms was a wrong decision. After that we started their restoration with great enthusiasm, as if it is not the recognition of mistakes, but an insight and something creative.

It is impossible to study the secondary school program in 11 years, which doesn’t mean that it is possible in 12 years with poor teachers and methodology, poor organization of learning process. But it’s obvious that with the poor average level of secondary education, poor teaching staff, and unbalanced program it cannot be done in 11 years.

That is why we are facing the possible shortening of vacations, which might be reasonable. But it results from the lack of time. In the end we’ll have to admit that a mistake was done in 2008 and we should correct it.

- What is the advice to move labor classes and PE to Saturday related with?

- With occupying the 6^th day, since it’s impossible to study the school program in five days. They made a mistake that used to be even worse in the beginning: it was planned to eliminate lyceums and grammar schools, which, fortunately, didn’t happen, and part of the students got more or less proper education.

There is no time to learn something properly in school; that’s where overload with homework, extra hours, and shortening of summer vacations come from.

- Lukashenka also offered to rewrite textbooks, adjusting them to modern requirements.

- It has to do to the same problems. Both textbooks, teachers’ education programs, organization of educational process, and quality of teaching staff require revision, which would be true with the 12-year system as well.

Of course, our textbooks are often of bad quality – both parents and students complain about it. But they were also made to fit some program of school reform.

There is also one factor that we need to take into account when we talk about textbooks: whatever the textbooks are, parents always remember that they had better ones, even if it’s objectively not so. System of education is such sphere where everyone thinks of themselves as an expert.

- Belarus starts this year as a member of the Bologna process. What changes can we expect in this relation?

- There is a roadmap and we should check with that. For now there are no changes. If the actions of the authorities will coincide with the schedule of roadmap demands, we will record the progress.

For now Belarus isn’t a full-fledged member of the Bologna process; it is admitted there by convention. The question of its complete admission will be decided in 2018 in Paris.

- Do you see the authorities’ aspiration for fulfilling the road map?

- We can only see it towards the end of the year. There were certain statements that can be interpreted as intentions to follow the roadmap. But these are only intentions, while we see no real steps now.

There is a coordination control group that should cooperate with the Belarusan government. From the beginning of an academic year there will probably be some reviving; we’ll see that Belarusan side offers in terms of roadmap’s execution.