Zharko: Economy Doesn't Need So Many Professionals

The Deputy Prime Minister spoke in defense of the 5-grade system and reduction of enrollment in universities.

"I'm not against the 10-grade system, but it must be objective," – Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vasil Zharko said in the Main Air program on the Belarus 1 TV channel.

Criticizing the current system, Zharko noted that with a ten-grade system there are no negative assessments, that is, there are no unsatisfactory results.

"What is the former 4 points? This is 6, 7, 8 ..." – Zharko argued, noting that the current system is more subjective. "And previously it was clear - 4 is 4, 5 is 5," – he is sure.

He said that the issue of returning to the five-grade system will still be discussed with the public and with educators, including at the big republican pedagogical council.

He also said that the enrollment campaign was smooth this year, the results are 10-15 grades higher than last year, especially in humanitarian subjects. The Prime Minister believes that the reason was that they had removed questions that were not part of the school academic program (they were studied in lyceums, gymnasiums, were marked with asterisks in the textbooks - there were few such assignments, but they were in CT in all subjects, Zharko specified).

He also told that they plan to reduce the enrollment in universities in Belarus, which is already reduced by 7% this year. "There is no desire to reduce higher education - but we have 57 thousand graduates, and 53,5 thousand people we enroll to universities. Is every student of the school able to master the program of the university? Does the economy need it?" – he asked a rhetorical question.

The TV presenters asked if that would lead to the fact that the graduates would go abroad to study. But Zharko promised that there would not be any radical reduction, but the volumes of enrollment would be determined not by the rectors interested in taking as many students as possible, but by the authorities. He noted that 27 universities in Belarus trained economists, 17 – lawyers. And he wasn’t sure if so many of them were needed. The Vice Prime Minister was sure that the number of students of different specialties should be determined by the state, and the students should be chosen by competition.

But the tests should not be made more complicated – there should be social justice, the deputy prime minister said. "But we do not make them easier, we adjust them to the school curriculum," – he said.

Vasil Zharko also turned the attention on the issue of state employees’ salaries, noting that it should be worthy, and that the government was doing its best to raise it from the teacher’s 650 rubles in June to the desired 800-1000 rubles.

Concluding the conversation, the deputy prime minister said that his grandson was going to start the first grade in September, and not at a gymnasium, but at a regular school. "There is no difference in the first four years of study. A child gets used to the class better in an ordinary school," – Zharko believes.