Opposition leader takes swipe at authorities over compulsory assignment

November 17, BPN. Authorities are set to “make every student a serf,” said opposition leader Sviatłana Cichanoŭskaja, commenting on a possible obligatory assignment program for all university graduates.

Natalla Kačanava, chair of the upper chamber of the Belarusian National Assembly, suggested on November 16 that the program should apply to all students, even those who pay tuition fees.

“I do not know what triggered her idea, a lack of human resources in the regions, where salaries do not even cover the basic needs of a person or the mass migration of skilled workers,” Cichanoŭskaja said.

She described Belarusian education as “increasingly outdated and sinking into crisis.”

Belarusian students need international exchange programs, qualified instructors, and up-to-date education, while “officials are trying to crush young talents with new repression,” she said. Young people “feel overburdened by the artificial restrictions of the outdated regime” and might leave Belarus to pursue their dreams abroad, she added.

Belarus introduced a compulsory job assignment system longer than a decade ago. It currently applies to Belarusian university graduates who do not pay tuition fees. They must work for two years on graduation at a designated place of employment or pay the cost of their studies.