Belarusian education needs overhaul – former schoolteacher

September 1, BPN. Only when teachers engage in real education, not making nonsense of it, their profession will be prestigious and free, Uładzislaŭ Bochan, former history teacher at Minsk School No. 134, has told BPN.

Bochan is pessimistic about Belarusian education. He noted that teachers lack unity and keep following orders from supervisors even if they don’t like them. “There are almost no ardent [Alaksandr] Łukašenka’s supporters in schools. If anyone supports him, it is usually out of a desire to advance careers,” he said.

“The average teacher is someone who came to school as a university student, often a woman, sometimes after a maternity leave, afraid of losing her job,” Bochan noted. “Then there is pressure from above, the contract system . . . In the end, we get a group of people who are afraid to change anything. They’re afraid they won’t be needed anywhere else.”

According to the former teacher, Belarus’ school has always been part of the state system, being the venue for elections and ideological warfare.

Bochan predicted a further deterioration of education in Belarus following the 2021 “purges” at schools of teachers deemed unreliable from the political viewpoint. He also hinted at possible staffing issues in the future, stressing that many teachers are already fed up with brainwashing.

Bochan now lives in Białystok, Poland, where he fled on crutches through Russia and Ukraine for fear of criminal prosecution.

Read the full version of the interview in Russian and Belarusian on our website, as well as on Pozіrk. Naviny pra Belarus pages on Telegram and Facebook.