MINSK, 26 January (BelTA) – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has ordered another detailed review of the project to set up a new educational center in the country for training personnel in promising fields, Belarusian Education Minister Andrei Ivanets told the media following a meeting with the head of state on 26 January, BelTA has learned.
“All aspects regarding a new educational center, essentially a new university in the country, for training specialists in the most promising sectors of our economy were comprehensively discussed at today’s meeting with the head of state. Various points of view were expressed; there were many arguments for and many against. Therefore, the meeting concluded with the president instructing that this issue be studied once again in detail by the broadest possible circle and that the government’s proposals be submitted to the head of state in the shortest possible time,” the minister said.
“Despite the debates, everyone ultimately agreed that the creation of this educational center must be considered a national project,” the education minister emphasized.
Andrei Ivanets noted that Belarus has a so-called “golden fund” of young people who are winners of international and national olympiads, recipients of the President’s Special Fund awards, and graduates of the National Children’s Technopark. “These individuals are prepared today to not simply study according to a standard first-year university syllabus, but to assimilate it in giant strides. For such youth, we must develop unique experimental programs. These must be saturated with serious, fundamental theoretical knowledge and, crucially, be fully incorporated into engagement with the real economic sector,” the minister said.
This means that students of the proposed educational center will also work on specific projects and tasks that need to be addressed in the domestic economy.
“The proposed learning model suggests that during the first two years, students of this center will cover the entire program of a traditional four-year university education. Starting from the third year, they will work within an individual learning framework on specific projects and tasks. This is a fundamental difference - a project-based and research-driven principle for organizing studies,” Andrei Ivanets explained.
In this way, the necessary conditions will be created for all gifted young people to remain in Belarus to continue their studies and subsequently meet the national economy’s demand for highly qualified personnel.
“We fully understand that our country is quite compact. To work with such young people, we must utilize the full potential not only of teachers but also of practitioner-specialists and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus,” the minister said.
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