Opinions & Interviews
Lukashenko comments on higher education, brain drain, patriotism in healthcare
MINSK, 21 September (BelTA) – Belarusian universities need to focus on patriotic component of the educational process, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he appointed new rectors to the Academy of Public Administration under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus and the country's medical universities on 21 September, BelTA has learned.
“Our education is great. Our specialists who receive education in Belarus are valued across the globe. We always complain about a human capital flight and even our so-called opposition lament it. Are foreign countries interested in fools? No, it is brain drain. It is means we have such people. It means that they receive good education and go abroad to work,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
He also noted that a reverse process has been observed in recent years: people who once left the country start coming back. “It is impossible to hold anyone by force today. We need a wise approach here. People should value their land. As for the Academy of Public Administration, it should cater only to patriotic people, loyal to the state and people. I have asked a humanities scholar to head the university. We lack patriotism in our people today,” the president said.
The head of state noted that the same is true about the country's medical universities as they “are focused on their concrete medical training programs”. “This is a right thing to do. It was not good when students had to study, for example, the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for four years. Yet, if universities teach history of Belarus for two years, then it should be done properly,” he stressed.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said that the other day he was reported about an incident when a doctor in one of the clinics refused to treat a three-year-old child of a military. The president expressed anger at the incident and gave orders to deal with it. “During the war we treated our enemies caught on the battlefield. What kind of doctors are these? This is the reason why I have instructed to take a close look at our medical universities and their management. A doctor must be the most patriotic person, because their main task is to save the life of any person,” he stressed.
The head of state also mentioned another recent incident when a man set himself on fire in front of the local police department in Smolevichi. In his words, doctors did what they should. “The man was transported to a burn care facility and is being treated there because he is a human being,” he said.
The president said that doctors and teachers are the mainstay of society and that he has always had admiration for them. “Please, pay close attention not only to education but also to the patriotic competent of the educational process in the universities you are going to lead,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he addressed the new rectors.
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