Bologna system of education in Belarus. Belarus completely failed the first stage of joining the Bologna process

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The Bologna Process. What is it and why is it in Belarus

For almost a year and a half Belarus has been a member of the Bologna process. On May 14, 2015, our country joined the European space on the second attempt higher education. But she did not join completely - but on the terms of fulfillment until 2018 ". What kind of process is this, what does Bologna have to do with it and why do we need it? "Journal" puts everything on the shelves.

What is the "Bologna Process"?

The Bologna process is a process of harmonization European space higher education.

It includes the creation of a system of easily understood and comparable degrees (qualifications), common system measurement of learning credits (“credits”), assistance academic mobility, European cooperation in ensuring the quality of education.

talking in simple words, is an attempt to make higher education systems European countries understandable to each other, make it easy for everyone to study and, subsequently, work in different countries of Europe, and not only in the one where he/she was born or studied at the university.

This process got its name from the oldest university in Europe, since 1088 working in Italian city Bologna. It was there in 1999 that the first conference of ministers of education of thirty European countries was held. They adopted the declaration "European Higher Education Area", in which they outlined the main goals leading to the harmonization of national higher education systems in European countries.

So right away and agreed? What happened before that?

The Bologna Declaration was a transitional moment in a process that began much earlier.

Back in 1986, preparing for its millennium, University of Bologna invited European universities to sign the Magna Charta Universitarum. It proclaimed the universal values of university education and the need close ties between universities.

In 1988, it was signed by 80 rectors European universities(Now even the universities of Turkmenistan have signed Magna Charta, and its pathos of “universal values of university education” has somewhat waned).

In 1998, on the occasion of the anniversary of the now Sorbonne University, the Ministers of Education of France, Great Britain, Germany and Italy signed the Sorbonne Declaration "On the Harmonization of the Architecture of the European Higher Education System" there. It for the first time sounded the strategic goal of creating a common area of European higher education. The Sorbonne Declaration a year later launched the Bologna process, the goals of which were supposed to be achieved by 2010.

It turns out that the Bologna Process ended in 2010?

Yes and no.

In March 2010 in Vienna, the Ministers of Education of the countries participating in the Bologna Process announced official creation European Higher Education Area (EHEA). In this sense, the Bologna process can be considered completed, since this is exactly what it should have led to.

At the same time, the ministers of education acknowledged that not all the goals of the Bologna process have been fully realized, so it was decided to continue working on them in order to more fully harmonize educational systems, improve mobility and employment, and provide access to quality higher education to everyone.

Therefore, both terms are still used: both the Bologna process and the EHEA, often as synonyms (and in this text too).

"European Higher Education Area" - are the universities of the EU countries?

Not only. Although the EU states stood at the origins of the Bologna process, today it includes 48 countries - almost twice as many as the EU.

The EHEA also includes non-EU countries Switzerland and Norway, six Eastern Partnership countries (including Belarus), Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan. Conditions for entry - ratification of the European Cultural Convention and readiness to implement the goals of the Bologna process in own system higher education.

The European Commission is also a full member of the EHEA with the right to vote, and the Council of Europe, the European Student Union (ESU), and UNESCO have an advisory vote. Despite this, the EHEA is independent of the European Union. Its main governing body is the conference of ministers of education of the participating countries. It was on it that decisions were made first on the non-admission of Belarus to the EHEA (2012), and then on conditional admission (2015).

Why did Belarus join the Bologna process only on the second attempt?

In July 2011, the Belarusian Ministry of Education sent a statement to the Bologna Secretariat on the start of the procedure for the inclusion of the Republic of Belarus in the Bologna process, and on November 29 - the final national report on the readiness of higher education in Belarus to join the Bologna process.

However, the Public Bologna Committee prepared an alternative report, the main conclusions of which are that without a preliminary deep reform of Belarusian higher education, the country's participation in the Bologna process will not be effective, the Belarusian Education Code does not correspond to the letter and spirit of the Bologna principles.

As a result, the Europeans considered the arguments of the alternative report more convincing than the report of the country's official authorities. In January 2012 in Copenhagen, the Working Group of the Bologna Process concluded that Belarus was not ready to join the EHEA. And although the opinion working group was only advisory, the Belarusian issue was removed from the agenda of the conference of ministers of education of the EHEA countries in April 2012. Thus, for the first time, a country that ratified the European Cultural Convention applied but failed to join the Bologna Process.

What is the “Public Bologna Committee”, where did it come from and what are its powers?

The Public Bologna Committee (PBC) was established at the end of 2011. This is a civil initiative of independent experts in the field of education and a number of public organizations. They propose reforming the country's higher education, including "abandoning the use of higher education as a tool political repression” and “ensuring a wide public participation in the internationalization and liberalization of Belarusian higher education” to “really overcome the isolation of our education system from the European educational space”.

The activities and successes of the OBK are based on the authority of its experts, the quality analytical materials and effective promotion of its agenda among European colleagues. It is the UBC that organizes the most representative in Belarus open on the issues of higher education reform, experts of the UBC invite on the state Belarusian television.

By 2018, Belarus must complete the road map. What is it and why was it imposed on Belarus?

"Roadmap" doesn't really have anything to do with roads or maps. English term"roadmap" is used in the meaning of an action plan (changes, reforms) to move towards the target state.

Thus, the EHEA Roadmap for Belarus is a plan of concrete actions that Belarus must take by 2018, when the next summit of the Ministers of Education of the EHEA countries will take place. The requirement to implement the road map is enshrined in the communiqué of the Yerevan conference, at which Belarus was accepted into the Bologna process in 2015.

Indeed, Belarus is the only country that joined the Bologna process on the terms of the implementation of the road map. The reason can be considered distrust of Belarus, doubts about its fulfillment of the second condition of entry – readiness to implement the goals of the Bologna process in its own system of higher education.

“The roadmap is not a proposal, but a requirement that must be met… We must closely monitor what is happening in Belarus, whether academic freedoms, the principles of mobility and, in general, human rights are respected there,” said the Minister of Education before the admission of Belarus to the EHEA , Science and Culture of Iceland Illugi Gunnarsson, and colleagues from Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands supported him.

However, the road map itself does not contain any requirements specific to Belarus – everything is in line with the values, goals and principles of the EHEA.

Some points of the roadmap do not cause political difficulties - for example, the introduction of a three-tier system in accordance with the agreed Bologna model (bachelor's degree - master's degree - doctoral studies); development of the National Qualifications Framework according to the EHEA standards; ensuring automatic free issuance of the Diploma Supplement.

Other demands are more sensitive, such as the obligation to limit the forced allocation of state-funded students to only certain professions, or the idea of the state's responsibility to ensure academic freedom and institutional autonomy of universities.

Some officials say that the Bologna process threatens the Belarusian education system. Is it true?

There is no evidence for this. Extremely high financial cost of participation in the Bologna process, the dictate of low standards of education, the destruction national traditions, the colossal brain drain resulting from academic exchanges - all these fears in more are connected with the low awareness of the Belarusian society about the essence of the EHEA, rather than with the real shortcomings of the Bologna process.

On the contrary: participation in the Bologna process creates new opportunities for university graduates in the labor market. The experience of student and academic exchanges actualizes their education for a globalized world, and with a single European diploma it is easier to get a job.

In the opinion of experts, Belarus should not count on the rapid changes in the education system inherent in the countries that have joined the Bologna Process in the near future.

It should be reminded that Belarus officially joined the Bologna Process in 2015, although “in advance”, on the terms of the implementation of the road map, which spells out all the conditions for accession, which are expected from Belarus by 2018.

It is expected that the commitment to introduce a three-stage system of higher education (bachelor's degree - master's degree - doctoral studies) in accordance with the agreed Bologna model, including a credit system, will be fulfilled.

Belarus is also required to introduce a European Diploma Supplement and ensure the international mobility of teachers and students.

In particular, the state must ensure and respect academic freedom and university autonomy.

What specialist should be trained by the university, the employer decides

As for the possibility of moving from a five-year to a four-year education at the first stage of higher education, experts say that today we are not quite ready for this step, although some universities in Belarus have already switched to a shortened period of study.

“The term of study at the first stage, corresponding to a bachelor's degree, is 3-4 years. In the European interpretation, it means lightweight higher education, without deep specialization, and it is generally not assumed that the output is a specialist, ”said the candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, head of the department of the Belarusian State technological university, former Vice-Rector of the Republican Institute of Higher Education Sergei Vetokhin.

If we talk about Belarus, a simple reduction in the terms of study will not do anything good, since a complete restructuring of the entire higher education system is required, the expert believes.

“The thing is that we are accustomed to the Soviet system of education, when it was given once and for all life. The man went to the enterprise, where he spent his entire career. And today, education should make it possible, if necessary, to easily complete their studies, retrain, change jobs,” said Sergei Vetokhin.

Another problem lies, in the opinion of the expert, in the fact that employers do not understand the new educational system Bologna process, considering people with a short period of study as dropouts. Although they should think first of all about how to use these people.

In this regard, Sergei Vetokhin pointed out another important circumstance, the closeness of contacts between universities and employers. For example, production should give instructions to universities on who and how to train, and not vice versa: here we can prepare in this way, and then you can deal with them there. In short, it is the employer who must determine what kind of specialist the university should train, and the education system should meet the demands of the labor market.

Among other things, since this reform means abandoning the usual schemes, one should expect dissatisfaction from the groans of the university community. Because the reduction of training periods means a review of all programs, curricula, changing the content of training, and this is a gigantic work.

Universities are afraid to give more independence

As the expert of the Public Bologna Committee Vladimir Dunaev has rightly stated more than once, in the Belarusian education system “there is no main thing that determines adherence to European values – academic freedoms”.

So in the opinion of Sergei Vetokhin, quite serious problems Belarusian system higher education lies in the lack of academic freedom and university autonomy.

The absence of the former, in his opinion, is associated with the fear of leaders domestic education give universities more independence, teachers and students - more rights and freedoms.

“As for dependence on the ministry, unfortunately, we must admit that our governments do not trust universities. Here's an example: in most countries, money is simply given to the university, and how to dispose of it is, in fact, his business. For some reason, we have strict control over the use of budget funds,” Vetokhin said.

In general, as the expert noted, today we remain captive to old ideas, and it is not possible to get rid of them quickly.

Therefore, if one asks how far Belarus has progressed in fulfilling its obligations to date, given that a year and a half is left until the next summit of the Ministers of Education of the EHEA countries, experts are unanimous in their opinion that restructuring in the field of higher education is so far at too low a rate.

On August 24, the Republican Pedagogical Council ended in Minsk. Speaking at the meeting, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and Minister of Education Igor Karpenko focused their attention on specific changes in the current education system. This is far from the first transformation of the educational model in Belarus over the past 20 years. What forced the president and the relevant minister to raise the issue of education reform right now? What are the prospects for reforms? About this and not only in the material of the co-chairman of the editorial board of "Eurasia.Expert" Petr Petrovsky.

Post-Soviet Syndrome of Belarusian Education

The young independent post-Soviet Belarus inherited a fairly high-quality educational model of the USSR, the experience of which was adopted by many countries. However this system also had its disadvantage. It was quite costly and did not have differentiated approach to students. The last factor led to an average attitude towards everyone and the absence of specialized education. The big expenses put before the young state the question of optimizing the system, making it cheaper.

It is also impossible to discount the factor of geopolitical breaking. Whom should young Belarus look up to in education, even if its close ally Russia in the 1990s copied elements of the educational systems of Western countries?

Therefore, numerous proposals and reforms carried out in the 1990s and 2000s. can be called a "shit" between financial optimization, maintaining efficiency and integrating into new geopolitical realities.

Thus, specialized education appeared in Belarus in the form of lyceums and gymnasiums, a ten-point system, first the transition, and then the rejection of the twelve-year system, as well as the transition from a six-day to a five-day school week. The list can also include the reduction of some subjects (International Artistic Culture, etc.) or courses (social studies for one year) and the reduction of hours in almost all subjects. The first stage of higher education was reduced from five to four years. The second stage of higher education was introduced - magistracy, academic hours reduced, sometimes drastically. Such actions were especially strong in the camp of the basic general educational disciplines of higher education, which mainly consist of humanitarian classical subjects (philosophy, sociology, logic, rhetoric, Latin and ancient Greek etc.). The latest reform led to the creation of so-called blocks, combining in one course various items with minimal hours dedicated to teaching them, which meant curtailing classical approaches to university education.

Belarus' sometimes vague position on the Bologna process played a significant role in these actions. Depending on the views of the newly appointed minister, Belarus either steered towards the Bologna system, or refused to join it. Ultimately, in 2015, Belarus was the last European country to join the Bologna process.

To the above list, one can add the transfer of functions hitherto uncharacteristic of schools and universities as a result of optimization and savings, which led to excessive bureaucratization and overloaded schedules of educators.

All this testifies to the absence of a strategy in the field of education and upbringing. In post-Soviet Belarus, and this must be admitted, they do not yet know what exactly they want to get from education. And this is understandable. Education is the area that, to a greater extent than others, is dependent on values and resources. Indeed, by investing in education, the state actually invests, which will pay off in the best case in thirty years, when new generations will realize themselves. Belarus, as a state that has lost the ideological Soviet core of Marxism-Leninism and does not have free resources, had to find a way to build its own educational system by touch. This is exactly what was expressed in the given examples of the instability of the entire education system and the eclecticism of the reforms that were implemented.

Reforms by communist hands

The resignation of Mikhail Zhuravkov from the post of Minister of Education at the end of 2016 and the appointment of the leader of the Communist Party of Belarus Igor Karpenko to this post came as a surprise to many. The liberal part of the Belarusian expert community criticized quite harshly this personnel decision and expressed, sometimes in sharp forms, all their indignation. The President knew about the possibility of such a reaction, but went to the appointment. And here there are several reasons for choosing Igor Karpenko. First, the previous ministers of education pursued for five years a policy of introducing Western educational standards, especially in high school. The result of all this was the entry of Belarus into the Bologna process, about which there were justified fears in the circles of managers and some experts. Here is the problem of "brain drain", and the reality of specific bonuses that a particular student and the whole country as a whole could receive from the Bologna process.

Two years of being in the Bologna system brought to educational environment Belarus some disappointment. Academic exchange in most cases was focused on the areas of gender, human rights, European values, etc. In the fundamental and breakthrough areas, no positive effects from the Bologna process were observed.

Secondly, the factor of the president of Belarus himself, who wittingly or unwittingly faced all the pluses and minuses of the education system not by hearsay, but through the education of his own youngest son at school. Therefore, Alexander Lukashenko began to pay much more attention to the issues of the education system, not only as the president of the country, but also as a parent. Perhaps including negative feeling experience of some reforms on own child including forced the president to make personnel changes.

Thirdly, from year to year in the country there is a deterioration in the quality of school graduates, a decrease in passing scores for entering universities. This, too, cannot be overlooked. And this is despite the policy of facilitating the content of the tests themselves.

At the same time, the presence of a paid form of education actually led to universal higher education, lowering the level of both its quality and vocational secondary education. All this indicates an inevitable decline in the quality of graduates, and therefore raises the question of the effectiveness of the stage itself.

Under these conditions, the appointment of the communist Igor Karpenko was the result of disappointment with the innovations and a certain conservative nod to Soviet system education, of which the new minister is a supporter.

Prospects for change

After the appointment, the Minister of Education, together with the deputies of the House of Representatives, began to work on changes in the education system. The main task today seems to be precisely overcoming the mistakes and wrong actions that have been committed in the education system over the past two decades. During the Republican pedagogical council these issues received the most attention.

1. Pre-school education

The main problem before school education is the shortage of staff. This problem was indirectly acknowledged by the President of Belarus, speaking about overcrowded groups of 30 or more people and low salaries. By the way, changing the last factor should encourage preschool workers to stay in their places, reduce staff turnover and make this profession more attractive to citizens.

2. School transformation

Regarding the school, the country's leadership had questions about the effectiveness of previous reforms. Among the deputies, the ideas of returning to the five-point system were even expressed. However, the president himself criticized this idea at the teachers' council.

The problem of knowledge assessment today largely comes from the dependence of schools, gymnasiums and lyceums on ratings and tests, which actually dictate to teachers the level of averaging knowledge assessment.

In fact, today's ten-point system has turned into a five-point system, where it is implicitly not recommended to put marks below 4 and above 8 points. It turns out a certain grey mass, which does not attract the attention of regulatory authorities and helps to keep the school in the regional academic rankings. In the graduating classes, due to the introduction of taking into account the average score of the certificate upon admission, there is a problem of overestimation of grades and biased assessment of final exams. Minister Igor Karpenko also raised this issue, proposing the creation of an independent body for conducting and evaluating final exams for basic and secondary school courses.

The second problem is the uneven distribution of students of all levels of academic performance across educational institutions. The creation of gymnasiums of various profiles gave rise to the concentration of the most successful students in them. Simple schools lost students with high academic performance. Therefore, in the mid-2000s. many schools went on to create numerous specialized and specialized classes. This process has received such general character that in 2008 it was decided to eliminate any profile of classes within general education schools.

Now, the Minister of Education Igor Karpenko (and here his belonging to the CPB affected) doubted the expediency of having such a large number gymnasiums. First, the question arises as to whether numerous institutions bearing such a sign correspond to the level of gymnasium education. Secondly, the very form of selection through examinations after elementary school raises doubts. How conscious is the choice of a student entering a gymnasium? Or is it the choice of parents who sometimes do not consult with the child and do not even ask him about the prospects of studying at the gymnasium? All this is intended to be solved by the introduction of a personal interview with the child, during which the level of awareness of his decision to enter the gymnasium should be determined.

Third negative factor school education are textbooks. The lack of a clear strategy, the transition from six days to five days, from eleven to twelve and vice versa, the reduction of hours, the optimization of programs, the change in concepts led to the fact that teaching aids were changed almost every two years.

All this led to the instability of teaching and the lack of clear requirements and criteria for educational effectiveness.

Representatives of academic science were mainly involved in writing textbooks. It has become main problem post-Soviet education. Before the collapse of the USSR, most teaching aids, with the exception of Belarusian language, literature and history of the BSSR, were developed in Moscow. After 1991, due to lack of experience, the development of national textbooks was transferred to the academic community. The error, which consisted in the absence of practical teachers in the teams of authors, was quickly revealed. The complexity and incomprehensibility of textbooks also stimulated the Ministry of Education to rewrite them year after year. Now the President and the Minister of Education have set the task of creating new textbooks by September 1, 2019, and practicing teachers must be involved in their writing.

3. Secondary education

In the 2000s, due to the introduction of a paid form of higher education, it became available to everyone with the availability of finances, practically regardless of the level of preparedness of the applicant. In the mid 2000s. among some experts and officials, they began to talk about the introduction of universal higher education. However, the very fact of the expansion of higher education has led to a decrease in the popularity of secondary and vocational education. In institutions of this orientation began to enter mainly students from low-income families or with poor academic performance.

Demand in the labor market for specialists with vocational secondary education remained quite high. But the offer has fallen sharply both in quality and quantity.

There has been a shift. The crowded market for people with higher education began to satisfy the markets for vocational and secondary education specialties. Lawyers-builders, economists-merchandisers appeared. All this requires a change in the approach to secondary education. Igor Karpenko made the following suggestions:

a) make secondary education compulsory; each student in the 9th grade will be forced to either stay in grades 10-11 or enter secondary specialized institutions;

b) to unify secondary education on the model of colleges;

c) reduce enrollment in universities and reduce their number in the country, which should free up part of the applicants for admission to secondary specialized educational institutions.

4. Universities

Integration into the Bologna process, a full transition to four years of study at the first stage of education, as well as an unbalanced policy of the number of training of certain specialists have led to specific disproportions in universities. Today there is a duplication of numerous specialties in various universities of the country. Also 1990s. spawned many new higher educational institutions, and their number greatly exceeds the need for them. Therefore, the labor market is overflowing with lawyers and economists.

The Ministry of Education proposes to streamline the release of specialists in various specialties, to make universities specialized, and to abandon duplication. This will reduce the recruitment to universities themselves. It is also proposed to reduce the number of universities themselves, which today are located even in regional centers.

Thirdly, it is proposed to maintain five- and six-year education for especially important and responsible specialties. The Minister of Education expressed the idea to keep the title specialist for bachelors, among other things.

5. Postgraduate education

The deterioration in the level of general university training makes itself felt at the level of postgraduate education. At the same time, graduate school also suffered from the introduction of the second stage of higher education - the magistracy. Candidate's exams were transferred to the magistracy, which in itself violates the logic of university and postgraduate education. It is proposed to return candidate examinations to postgraduate studies, and to orient master's programs on those programs that are typical for the second stage of higher education.

The quality of the dissertations themselves also suffers, starting with the choice of topics. Therefore, in the future, it is proposed to transfer doctoral studies to a grant basis. This should contribute to the actualization of topics at the level of doctoral enrollment itself and link it with the needs and orders of the state.

Integration perspective

Another aspect of Belarusian education was not discussed at the teachers' council, but is being actively discussed in the relevant ministry. It is a matter of using integration mechanisms Union State(SG) as an aspect and mechanism of modernization educational sphere. Unfortunately, today the level of integration of the education systems of Belarus and Russia is more associated with formal obligations to recognize diplomas, certificates, translation five-point system scores to ten points and vice versa. To date, our education systems have an insufficient amount of academic exchange, joint educational programs in various specialties. There is no coordination and joint actions for the training of specialists.

Against the background of general disappointment with the Bologna system, today there is good ground for developing coordination of education systems within the framework of the SG.

This autumn, a meeting of the ministers of education of the two countries is being prepared, where it is planned to sign a document on coordinating educational policy and deepening cooperation between the two ministries.

in the Bologna process. However, to say that our universities are actively exchanging students and teachers with Western universities, still early. First, we need to bring the Belarusian standards of higher education closer to the European ones. TUT.BY found out how far we have progressed on this issue over the year.

Our country filed its first application for joining the Bologna Process back in 2011. She was rejected, and the issue was frozen for 4 years. In 2015, we requested membership again, and this time we were approved. According to the procedure, the accession of new states to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) provides for the adoption of a roadmap - step by step plan actions to reform the educational system. We accepted it too.

Roadmap of Belarus 3 years for reforms. Our country should gradually move closer to the EHEA: move from two-stage to three-stage education (bachelor's degree - master's degree - doctoral studies), introduce a system of transferable credit units (credits) to measure study load and start issuing a free European Diploma Supplement. All these innovations should make it easier for students to transfer to other universities and ensure the recognition of learning outcomes in Belarusian universities abroad.

RIVS: Belarus is preparing a legislative framework for reforms

A group of 14 experts headed by the First Deputy Minister of Education is responsible for educational convergence with Europe in Belarus. During the year of participation in the Bologna Process, our country has prepared legislative framework for the phased introduction of EHEA tools, said the Vice-Rector for scientific and methodological work Republican Institute of Higher Education Igor Titovich.

"European" Diploma Supplement

The draft of the new edition of the Education Code includes norms that will allow, instead of an extract from the test and examination sheet, to introduce a national supplement to documents on higher education. It will become more informative than the extract, and will correspond in structure and content to the Common European Diploma Supplement.

National credit system

The development of a national credit system has begun, which correlates with the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System. The system of credits will serve to describe the workload of students and will become the main unit for recording their progress. Credits will be used when organizing the transfer or restoration of a student to another educational institution, to another specialty or form of education.

Specialty Optimization

The national classifier of specialties and qualifications is currently being revised. They want to bring it into line with the international classifier of education and types of economic activity of Belarus, and, in general, “clean it up”: enlarge specialties and exclude those that are not in demand or duplicate each other.

Updating educational standards

In 2015, the development of new generation educational standards for the first and second stages of higher education began. It provides for redesigning the content of each level of higher education. The updated educational standards will comply with the requirements of the European Higher Education Area.

Development of online learning

In Belarus, since 1994, training in network form. It is a student-teacher exchange: teachers from one university come to another to give a course of lectures, and students from one university can study at a partner university for a semester or a year. Today 17 Belarusian institutions higher education are involved in the implementation of 32 network educational programs. The Ministry of Education is going to expand this practice in order to develop the academic mobility of students and teachers.

The first Belarusian university signed the Magna Carta of European Universities

September 18, 2015 International University MITSO is the first among Belarusian universities joined the Magna Charta Universitatum Europearum. This document, adopted in 1988 by the rectors of higher educational institutions in Europe, aims to unify the educational systems and development policies of the European university community.

Active collaboration with European universities— members of the Great Charter of European Universities involves the development of student and academic mobility, the implementation of joint educational projects, organization scientific conferences, explained Vice-Rector for Educational Work and International Relations of MITSO, Dr. legal sciences, assistant professor Elena Dovgan.

— At the same time, it should be noted that the Great Charter of Universities does not contain detailed regulations on the rights and obligations of universities or their responsibility for non-compliance with the norms of the document. The charter is quite general in nature and establishes general guidelines in the field of educational process, as well as the main forms of interaction between participating universities. In this regard, the degree of involvement in the European educational space significantly depends on the activity of the higher education institution itself, which has signed the Magna Carta of European Universities, its readiness to interact with foreign partners, and the availability of qualified teaching staff.

MITSO, which had been developing international projects even before the signing of the Charter, in recent times develops documents for the creation of several summer schools together with foreign partner universities and negotiates the opening of a master's program with double diplomas with the University of Hamburg in European Studies.

Public Bologna Committee on distribution and other "weak points" of the education system

The implementation of the EHEA educational standards in Belarus is monitored by a non-governmental initiative called the Public Bologna Committee. The organization bases its reports only on open sources and complains about the informational secrecy of official bodies. Even the ministerial order for the implementation of national system education tools of the EHEA in 2015-2018 is not in the public domain, an example was given by a member of the EHEA, professor of philosophy Vladimir Dunaev.

The new Education Code was returned for revision

The results of the OBK monitoring suggest that the Ministry of Education is still unable to coordinate serious legislative changes with other ministries. Thus, the draft Education Code, which contains such important innovations as the “European” Diploma Supplement, was supposed to be submitted to parliament for discussion in December 2015. However, after the profile meeting, the president will once again agree on a new version of the Code with all interested structures.

Academic freedom - "no progress"

The situation with student freedoms Last year has not improved, according to the OBK. This refers to the campaign against the introduction of payment for retakes at BSU, which was launched in November and December 2015. Students wrote letters to the Ministry of Education, tried to make an appointment with the rector and, finally, to a protest march.

Two of its participants were later fined for violating the procedure for holding mass events. In addition, one of them, a student of the philological faculty of BSU, later graduated from the university. According to his version, civil position, according to the BSU administration - for poor progress.

The monitoring organized by the StudentWatch campaign in November-December recorded 78 cases of pressure on students within a month after the start of the “Students Against” campaign.

Will they refuse distribution?

Among other things, the reform roadmap stipulates the distribution of state employees. The European partners insist that by the end of 2016 this practice should be limited to only those professions for which there is "significant unmet demand".

Meanwhile, the state program "Education and Youth Policy" approved in March by the government for 2016-2020 does not contain indications of an intention to limit the practice of distribution, a representative of the UBC said. Moreover, the target indicator for the fulfillment of the task “Improving the planning system and optimizing the structure of training specialists with higher education » is called "The share of employed graduates from total strength graduates subject to distribution.

The intention to preserve the distribution is also visible in the president's statements, Vladimir Dunaev drew attention. He again referred to the presidential meeting on education, which took place on 1 April. At it, Lukashenka instructed to provide the first workplace to all "state employees", as well as - if they wish - to "payers".

The Bologna Process is a process of convergence and harmonization of higher education systems in European countries with the aim of creating a single European higher education area.

In order to join the Bologna Process, the country undertakes to provide all university graduates with European Bachelor's and Master's Diploma Supplements free of charge ( uniform pattern), as well as to reform the national education system in accordance with the main provisions of the Bologna Declaration.

The young independent post-Soviet Belarus inherited a fairly high-quality educational model of the USSR, the experience of which was adopted by many countries. However, this system also had its drawbacks. It was quite expensive and did not have a differentiated approach to students. The last factor led to an average attitude towards everyone and the absence of specialized education. The big expenses put before the young state the question of optimizing the system, making it cheaper.

Thus, specialized education appeared in Belarus in the form of lyceums and gymnasiums, a ten-point system, first the transition, and then the rejection of the twelve-year system, as well as the transition from a six-day to a five-day school week. The list can also include the reduction of some subjects (International Artistic Culture, etc.) or courses (social studies for one year) and the reduction of hours in almost all subjects. The first stage of higher education was reduced from five to four years. The second stage of higher education was introduced - the magistracy, academic hours were reduced, sometimes radically. Such actions were especially strong in the camp of the basic general educational disciplines of higher education, which mainly consist of humanitarian classical subjects (philosophy, sociology, logic, rhetoric, Latin and ancient Greek languages, etc.). The last reform led to the creation of so-called blocks, combining various subjects into one course with a minimum allocation of hours for their teaching, which meant the curtailment of classical approaches to university education.

Reforms by communist hands

The resignation of Mikhail Zhuravkov from the post of Minister of Education at the end of 2016 and the appointment of the leader of the Communist Party of Belarus Igor Karpenko to this post came as a surprise to many. The liberal part of the Belarusian expert community criticized quite harshly this personnel decision and expressed, sometimes in sharp forms, all their indignation. The President knew about the possibility of such a reaction, but went to the appointment. And here there are several reasons for choosing Igor Karpenko. First, the previous Ministers of Education have been implementing for five years a policy of introducing Western educational standards, especially in higher education. The result of all this was the entry of Belarus into the Bologna process, about which there were justified fears in the circles of managers and some experts. Here is the problem of "brain drain", and the reality of specific bonuses that a particular student and the whole country as a whole could receive from the Bologna process.

Two years of being in the Bologna system brought some disappointment to the educational environment in Belarus. Academic exchange in most cases was focused on the areas of gender, human rights, European values etc. In the fundamental and breakthrough areas, no positive effects from the Bologna process were observed.

Secondly, the factor of the president of Belarus himself, who wittingly or unwittingly faced all the pluses and minuses of the education system not by hearsay, but through the education of his own youngest son at school. Therefore, Alexander Lukashenko began to pay much more attention to the issues of the education system, not only as the president of the country, but also as a parent. Perhaps, including the negative feeling of the experience of some reforms on his own child, and forced the president to make personnel changes.

Under these conditions, the appointment of the communist Igor Karpenko was the result of disappointment with the innovations and a certain conservative nod to the Soviet education system, of which the new minister is a supporter.

Prospects for change

After the appointment, the Minister of Education, together with the deputies of the House of Representatives, began to work on changes in the education system. The main task today seems to be precisely overcoming the mistakes and wrong actions that have been committed in the education system over the past two decades. During the Republican Pedagogical Council, these issues were given the most attention.

1. Pre-school education

The main problem preschool education is the shortage of staff. This problem was indirectly acknowledged by the President of Belarus, speaking about overcrowded groups of 30 or more people and low salaries. By the way, changing the last factor should encourage preschool workers to stay in their places, reduce staff turnover and make this profession more attractive to citizens.

2. School transformation

In fact, today's ten-point system has turned into a five-point system, where it is implicitly not recommended to put marks below 4 and above 8 points. It turns out a certain gray mass, which does not attract the attention of regulatory authorities and helps the school to keep the bar in the regional academic rankings. In the graduating classes, due to the introduction of taking into account the average score of the certificate upon admission, there is a problem of overestimation of grades and biased assessment of final exams. Minister Igor Karpenko also raised this issue, proposing the creation of an independent body for conducting and evaluating final exams for basic and secondary school courses.

The second problem is the uneven distribution of students of all levels of academic performance across educational institutions. The creation of gymnasiums of various profiles gave rise to the concentration of the most successful students in them. Simple schools lost students with high academic performance. Therefore, in the mid-2000s. many schools went on to create numerous specialized and specialized classes. This process has become so universal that in 2008 it was decided to eliminate any specialization of classes within general education schools.

Now the Minister of Education, Igor Karpenko (his affiliation to the Communist Party of Belarus had an effect here too) has questioned the expediency of having such a large number of gymnasiums. First, the question arises as to whether numerous institutions bearing such a sign correspond to the level of gymnasium education. Secondly, the very form of selection through examinations after elementary school is questionable. How conscious is the choice of a student entering a gymnasium? Or is it the choice of parents who sometimes do not consult with the child and do not even ask him about the prospects of studying at the gymnasium? All this is intended to be solved by the introduction of a personal interview with the child, during which the level of awareness of his decision to enter the gymnasium should be determined.

The third negative factor of school education is textbooks. The lack of a clear strategy, the transition from six days to five days, from eleven to twelve and vice versa, the reduction of hours, the optimization of programs, the change in concepts led to the fact that teaching aids were changed almost every two years.

All this led to the instability of teaching and the lack of clear requirements and criteria for educational effectiveness.

Representatives of academic science were mainly involved in writing textbooks. This has become the main problem of post-Soviet education. Before the collapse of the USSR, most textbooks, with the exception of the Belarusian language, literature and history of the BSSR, were developed in Moscow. After 1991, due to lack of experience, the development of national textbooks was transferred to the academic community. The error, which consisted in the absence of practical teachers in the teams of authors, was quickly revealed. The complexity and incomprehensibility of textbooks also stimulated the Ministry of Education to rewrite them year after year. Now the President and the Minister of Education have set the task of creating new textbooks by September 1, 2019, and practicing teachers must be involved in their writing.

3. Secondary education

Demand in the labor market for specialists with vocational secondary education remained quite high. But the offer has fallen sharply both in quality and quantity.

a) make secondary education compulsory; each student in the 9th grade will be forced to either stay in grades 10-11 or enter secondary specialized institutions;

b) to unify secondary education on the model of colleges;

c) reduce enrollment in universities and reduce their number in the country, which should free up part of the applicants for admission to secondary specialized educational institutions.

4. Universities

Integration into the Bologna process, a full transition to four years of study at the first stage of education, as well as an unbalanced policy of the number of training of certain specialists have led to specific disproportions in universities. Today there is a duplication of numerous specialties in various universities of the country. Also 1990s. have spawned many new institutions of higher education, and their number far exceeds the need for them. Therefore, the labor market is overflowing with lawyers and economists.

5. Postgraduate education

The deterioration in the level of general university training makes itself felt at the level of postgraduate education. At the same time, graduate school has also suffered from the introduction of the second stage of higher education - the magistracy. Candidate's exams were transferred to the magistracy, which in itself violates the logic of university and postgraduate education. It is proposed to return candidate examinations to postgraduate studies, and to orient master's programs on those programs that are typical for the second stage of higher education.

Integration perspective

Another aspect of Belarusian education was not discussed at the teachers' council, but is being actively discussed in the relevant ministry. This is a question of using the integration mechanisms of the Union State (SG) as an aspect and mechanism for the modernization of the educational sphere. Unfortunately, today the level of integration of the education systems of Belarus and Russia is more associated with formal obligations to recognize diplomas, certificates, transfer a five-point assessment system to a ten-point one and vice versa. To date, our education systems have an insufficient amount of academic exchange, joint educational programs in various specialties. There is no coordination and joint actions for the training of specialists.

Against the background of general disappointment with the Bologna system, today there is good ground for developing coordination of education systems within the framework of the SG.

This autumn, a meeting of the ministers of education of the two countries is being prepared, where it is planned to sign a document on coordination educational policy and deepening cooperation between the two ministries.

Peter Petrovsky