Andrei Stryzhak: They Will Get In Our Pocket Once Again

The introduction of the school uniform is nothing but lobbying the interests of “Bellegprom”.

A second-grader's father, activist of the independent trade union REP Andrei Stryzhak said this in an interview to the Charter97.org, commenting on the latest school "reforms".

— Today, the "Republican Pedagogical Council" began its work in Minsk. There is a hope that parents will finally receive an answer to the question – at what time they should take their children to school. How do you personally feel about the introduction of the "schedule for Kolya"?

— I think that there is nothing good for those who are accustomed to going to school by 8 a.m. to switch to 9. And considering that the authorities have a tendency to rewind everything afterwards, judging by education sphere: they introduce 12 grades, then 11, then a 10-mark or a 5-mark grading system — this all creates a very nervous situation at school and distracts from the most important thing, which, in fact, school must handle - the educational process.

In general, I am negative about the idea of transferring the beginning of school lessons to 9 a.m., because I am more than sure that they will come up with some new ideas again later.

— What do you think about some schools having obliged the parents to purchase the school uniform by the start of the academic year?

— It seems to me that the introduction of the school uniform is lobbying the interests of "Bellegprom", since for sure the parents will be offered the uniform made by the Belarusian manufacturer. Considering the quality and costs of the “Bellegprom” products, we can say that they will once again get in our pocket in order to pay for non-competitive goods that should not be produced at all. I am sure that a child in such clothes will feel worse than if they were dressed in a better, high-quality foreign-made clothes.

Again, there is a big question about the composition of the suit, so I think that this is a bad innovation, an attempt to solve economic problems at our expense in the end.

I also consider the introduction of a uniform for teachers. There is a certain concept of a business style. Practically in all schools headmasters prescribe in internal documents that teachers should wear business style clothes at work. I think this is enough to ensure the proper appearance of a teacher and thus solve this issue.

Introduction of some special uniform for teachers is an absolutely unreasonable decision, because, firstly, it will burden a small budget of the teaching staff, and, secondly, again, "Bellegprom" will lobby its interests and it's no good.

- How normal, in your opinion, is to introduce such changes only due to the whim of one kid’s father?

- I understand that many processes in our government are not visible to us, because it is a very closed structure. We are trying to understand what happens there by such sketchy statements.

It is possible that they have some other reasons for starting school lessons at 9 a.m., but I think that it is abnormal that instead of improving the quality of education, we start doing these things and the form becomes more important than the content, including the school uniform becomes more important than what is taught at school.