Quality of education hindered by de-ideologisation fears

The Belarusian Education Ministry has launched a public debate on the Draft Law amending the Education Code.

The Belarusian authorities aspire to join the Bologna process in 2015, yet they ignore the Bologna Secretariat’s notes about the lack of students and employers’ participation in the management and the lack of academic communities’ autonomy. The Belarusian authorities would like to integrate into the European educational process in order to increase the international ranking of Belarusian universities and increase export of educational services, which means foreign exchange proceeds. The authorities are least interested in increasing students’ self-governance, employers’ participation in the management or greater autonomy for academic communities, because all that is a threat to the ideology in the education system. Authorities do not plan major changes in the educational policy. They want to maintain maximum control over the state education system.