MINSK, 3 April (BelTA) – Agrarian universities should admit students, who know the countryside and the way things are done in agriculture. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko gave the relevant instructions during the government conference held on 3 April to discuss the development of the countryside and ways to bolster agribusiness effectiveness, BelTA has learned.
Alexander Lukashenko attributed failures to observe technologies in Belarusian agriculture primarily to the inaptitude and unwillingness of executives and specialists to properly organize work.
Alexander Lukashenko said: “We often train specialists, who have no desire to work in the countryside. Such graduates will quit after working for two years, after doing more damage than benefit. The government should come up with an optimal system. Prospective students, who know the rural way of life and agribusiness, should be admitted to agrarian universities every year.”
This is the kind of students, who should be taught in vocational schools and universities using contract-based education, stressed the head of state. “I've given instructions to use the best agricultural enterprises to create schools and admit 10-15 or maybe 6-7 promising young people, who will see the way things should be done firsthand. We will polish them within six months, one year tops. They don't have to stay there all the time but during peak events: a sowing campaign, a harvesting campaign, forage harvesting, and other technological operations. They should be free to choose which ones they want to see and for how long. Every oblast should have schools like that. We have enough fitting agricultural enterprises,” believes the president.
The president also rebuked agricultural enterprises for the lack of attention to personnel training. “As future employers you should be directly involved in the training of the workforce. You should organize proper internships for them, additional training taking into account needs of specific enterprises, enable the necessary conditions for the duration of the education process and at the start of their careers,” noted the Belarusian leader.
Alexander Lukashenko mentioned IT companies as an example. They are ready to finance the training of the necessary specialists in state-owned universities. “I don't hear your proposals for some reason,” the president told heads of agricultural enterprises. “This is why I would like to hear how the minister intends to work with the oblast governors to take care of training the workforce to resolve countryside problems.”
The head of state also drew attention to the frequent appointment of new heads and specialists of agricultural enterprises. In his words, such decisions are made to tackle the reasons that slow down the development of the said enterprises. Last year saw 273 cases like that in agricultural enterprises. For instance, every third head of an agricultural enterprise was replaced in Gomel Oblast.
“If we replaced such people, we probably had our reasons. But, as a rule, if the head of an enterprise gets replaced one after another within two to three years or sometimes within one year, things end up in a failure. And nobody gives me answers — neither the head of the district administration, nor the head of the oblast administration, nor the presidential aide in charge of inspecting the oblast,” stated Alexander Lukashenko.
The president stressed that personnel issues cannot be resolved without enhancing the prestige of countryside professions and improving the labor remuneration system. “I've demanded and will continue demanding that salaries must be paid to our workers on time. Instructions to raise salaries apply to agriculture, too. Maybe agriculture is the primary target of these instructions. People in the countryside are not that rich, but they work harder than city dwellers. But certainly even then one has to earn his or her salary,” stressed Alexander Lukashenko.
