Opinions & Interviews

Lukashenko urges children to make most of school years

MINSK, 2 September (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko urged children to make the most of their school time as he visited new school No.93 in Minsk on the first day of the 2019/2020 academic year, BelTA has learned.

“If you want to be on top of competition in your life, you need to break a sweat and finish school with good grades and good knowledge, no matter how hard it is sometimes to study and motivate yourself,” the head of state said.

He emphasized that good education and most importantly knowledge are needed to be a success in life. Now you need many more skills to get a job with an enterprise or a collective farm. “Being a blue-collar worker is no longer a simple job. Today’s workers need to know how to operate sophisticated machinery. This trend is particularly visible in the agricultural sector. The sector used to employ those who were rejected by the manufacturing industry, because agricultural work involved simple tools. Now such workers are no longer needed in agriculture,” the head of state said.

“My advice to you is the following (I will not say ‘learn, learn more, learn forever): make the most of your school experience and make up your mind about a career you want to pursue after school,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The president emphasized that parents, just like teachers, should play an important role in children’s education and upbringing. “If you try to pass the buck into teachers and think that teachers alone should bear the sole responsibility for the education and upbringing of our children, you are wrong. Education and upbringing should involve children, parents and teachers,” he noted.

The head of state recalled his requirement not to overburden children with homework. “The bulk of information should be given in the classroom. After spending 5-6 hours at school, a student should not study another 5-6 hours at home. It was not like that before and will not be. This is self-deception,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. According to him, students should get 75% of information through classroom learning and the remaining 25% of information by doing homework.

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