Look through the text and add some facts about the education in our republic. Discuss them with your partners.

Belarus is a country with a high education level.In Belarus there are 40 higher educational establishments including Universities, 149 specialized comprehensive educational establishments, 51 thousand various schools including primary and secondary ones. Among the secondary schools there are grammar schools, lyceums and colleges. The number of students in Belarus is 338,000. There are 343 students per 10.000.

Our contemporaries working in science, education, literature, art, music follow the traditions of the great compatriots (and develop them). It can be said that Belarus in the country of science, the country of students.

The Republic of Belarus has entered the 21 st century with a developed system of education as evidenced by the macroindicators such as adult literacy rate (99,8 and ratio of employed population who received basic, general secondary or vocational education (98:). Belarus’ leading place among the CIS participating states is largely accounted for by its educational potential.

The Human Development Report compiled by a team of independent international experts to the UNDP order says that in focusing great attention on education Belarus could, in 2003, join the group of countries with a high human development index and reach the 53^rd place in a global rating scale (in 2002 it took the 56^th place), thus leaving behind all the other CIS countries including Russia (56^th place).

In 2004 Belarusian schoolchildren were awarded 17 medals in international contests in biology, matematics, physics and chemistry – 3 gold medals, 7 – silver and 7 bronze medals. In 2005 the students of the Belarusian State University were the first in the world in solving mathematical problems at the international contest.