Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 22 May (BelTA) – The entire education system in the Public Administration Academy under the President of the Republic of Belarus needs to be remodeled. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko made the relevant statement as he appointed Gennady Palchik the academy’s new rector on 22 May, BelTA has learned.

Alexander Lukashenko said: “Running the Public Administration Academy will be a busy job. It is necessary to rework the entire education system over there. It is necessary to decide what we want from the Public Administration Academy. When we make up our minds, we will see who we should train. Then it is necessary to change the curricula. The institution trains and offers postgraduate education to civil servants. The relevant curricula are needed for that. Then it is necessary to hire professors. They should be genuine patriots, although we don’t complain much about professors of higher education institutions, but they should be people with state interests at heart.”

“It is necessary to rework the system entirely. I don’t know how the Belarus President Administration is trying to rework it, but if the rector is not part of the process, we will not have a system in the end. This is why it is necessary to clearly understand that today’s executives should be people, who know economics, who can speak foreign languages, and who can talk to anyone. It is the attitude you should teach. It means it is necessary to study foreign languages more, to invite people with economic or legal dispositions. If we want executives with political science degrees, then we have to teach these sciences,” noted the head of state.

“We don’t want something like the BSSR Supreme Party School. And definitely not what we have now. Today these students seek education for the sake of education. A second degree, a third one, a fifth one for some… They don’t need this education in the end. This is why the admittance process needs to be reworked. If we want full-time attendance, we should think what kind it should be. It seems to me we should retain full-time attendance for some smart kids, who can enter the academy right after leaving secondary school and should get trained there. They will be good executives. But first of all, it is necessary to polish skills and offer postgraduate training to the executives, who have jobs now and who represent the reserve,” stressed the Belarusian leader.

Alexander Lukashenko remarked it is necessary to rework the system fast in order to be able to select the people, who definitely need to be educated in the Public Administration Academy by 1 September. “Don’t you try to tweak the numbers and shape the education system bearing in mind the available premises. If there is excessive space, get rid of it. But I don’t think there is any excessive space. We just have to get together and think about things. It is a public administration academy under the aegis of the head of state. It is the only educational institution, which reports directly to the president, yet we have been unable to build a proper education system over there,” pointed out the head of state.

At the same time Alexander Lukashenko gave instructions to promptly find a new person to fill Gennady Palchik’s previous position as the chairman of the Supreme Personnel Review Board. “As far as I can understand, you’ve found a replacement already just like you promised. It should be a very decent and honest person. The Supreme Personnel Review Board is the forge of top-qualification workforce, the source of future and current scientists. It is a very important agency, too. Delaying the appointment of the new head of the agency is not a good idea,” said the president.

Alexander Lukashenko also approved the appointment of Vadim Bogush and Alexander Dragan as rectors of the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics and the Brest State Technical University respectively. Alexander Lukashenko underlined that the three new rectors face a very serious task: to introduce something new into the work of the higher education institutions.

“I gave instructions to start rotating personnel a long time ago. Because too many have been doing these jobs for too much time already. We don’t get what we need anymore. It is necessary to update the higher education institutions. It is necessary to raise them one step higher and give the society and the economy the human resources they need. We have to keep up with the times. This is why new people are needed,” said the president.