Education ministry official: reference letters to help involve students in community life

January 4, BPN. People seeking admission to universities must submit reference letters so that academia can involve them “in public life and various sports and cultural activities,” a senior education official, Siarhiej Kaśpiarovič, has told a press conference in Minsk.

The requirement to file references from secondary school teachers and administrations is stipulated in the new edition of the “Higher and Special Higher Education Admission Rules.” An edict to that effect was signed by Alaksandr Łukašenka on January 3. Reference letters from schools gave applicants advantage during Soviet times but were scrapped in the post-Cold War era.

Kaśpiarovič said that distance learning applicants and workers may submit references letters from their employers.