PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

About 60 % children under six years of age are in preschools, which are most numerous in urban areas. Formal schooling begins at the age of six and is compulsory for nine years. All children start off in one of the general education schools, the first four grades of which are considered primary. Pupils can attend school for 11 years, from the age of 6 to 17. When pupils finish the ninth grade they may choose their schooling enrolling a secondary or vocational school.

Upon the completion of secondary schools pupils pass national examinations in several subjects and receive a certificate. Those who score well also receive a gold or silver medal. Schools use a number grading scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.

Secondary school requirements include of Russian, Belarusian, a foreign language, literature, mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history, social sciences, physical education, and various disciplines in the arts. In the upper grades students also take computer science, logic, politics, attend optional classes in many subjects and are busy with some forms of job training.

English is the most widely taught foreign language here. They also teach German, French and Spanish in schools.

In regions where Russian is not the primary language, instruction is available in the mother tongue (Belarusian, Polish), and people are given greater opportunities to study their own ethnic and linguistic heritage.

Mathematics is considered to be the key to all sciences and an important instrument in training skilled specialists. Mathematics is a compulsory part of the curriculum throughout the eleven-year school. Maths is now taught with a more functional approach.

Many children with special talents attend special schools. These schools stress individual subjects such as mathematics or physics, languages, or the arts. Some secondary schools emphasize physical education. In addition to physical training two hours a week in all grades, sports from field and track, skiing and ice-skating to swimming are extensively and intensively engaged by the vast majority of schoolchildren.

Belarus also has schools for children with physical or learning disabilities.

After the first nine years of schooling, about 64 % of schoolchildren continue their education in one of two types of vocational institutions. Specialized secondary schools offer a four year program combining academic and professional training. The vocational schools prepare young people for careers as technicians in various branches of industry and agriculture. Vocational-technical schools produce skilled workers in training and apprenticeship programs lasting from one to three years.

Today, public education in Belarus remains free for all citizens. Nine-year primary and secondary education is free and compulsory for all children aged 6 to 15. Students who wish to attend high school for another two years must perform well in a competitive examination.

The system of education in the republic comprises the following stages.

Stage one – general primary education.

Stage two – general profound education. The main task of this stage is to reveal and develop the pupil’s gift.

Stage three – general special training. The task of this stage is to train middle-qualification personnel. It is supposed to give special knowledge but of general character.

Stage four – profound special training, higher education.

Stage five – higher special training.

Such a system is remarkable for its flexibility. The stages are interconnected and mutually determined. It enables to harmonically combine general erudition and a high degree of specialization.

All schools in Belarus are under the general supervision of the Department of Education. Most of the expenditure on education in Belarus comes from the state budget. Government expenditures on education account for 2,6 percent of the budget.

The secondary school provides the youth of the country with a solid scientific foundation and it is on this basis that the higher educational establishments are able to produce the scientists, engineers, doctors and technicians. Time and technological progress had placed great demands on the secondary school.

The teacher has always been the central figure in the teaching and educational process. In addition to the growing demands presented to the teachers, their pedagogue’s and social prestige and authority in the society as well as their salaries should be raised to the higher level, if we think about the future of our country. A teacher is not only a communicator of knowledge, but a model of competence. He forms attitudes not only to his subject, but also to learning, becoming himself a symbol of educational process, a person who is teaching as well as learning all his life to cope with scientific progress which can never be stopped.

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Discuss the achievements and problems of higher education in our republic.