Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed on May 28 that the results of the check-up of "the data bank of talented youth" in Belarus were rather poor as it was impossible to track whether the young people worked in their profession or not. We have decided to ask political scientist and the European Humanities University teacher Victar Martsinovich where young people were hiding.
Euroradio: Fewer and fewer people prefer working in their profession. Why is that? Did they chose the wrong faculty and do they want more lucrative jobs?
Victar Martsinovich: It seems to me that young people do not want to make 200 dollars when they can get 2000 for the same job in a neighbouring state. The only thing our state can create is "a prison for talented people", not a data bank. They can add everyone on the list of travel banned and they will stay in Belarus and try to do something like one o’clock. They used an indirect strategy for it – they reduced the number of foreign language classes everywhere. But our young people are so talented that they leave anyway and find places where their talents are in demand.
Euroradio: How do you think, has the number of talented young people decresed recently?
Victar Martsinovich: It is difficult to denote a talent. Speaking about the quality of liberal education, the education level and entrants has decreased. But the desire to study is growing stronger. People understand that the gap between Belarus and the rest of the world in getting wider. That is why they have to study a lot to fill in the gap in their school education.
Euroradio: What should the authorities do to change the situation?
Victar Martsinovich: Just join the Bologna Process. That’s it! Nothing else is needed. As far as we know, the Bologna Process provides academic degree standards, autonomy and students’ mobility - everything the current Belarusian liberal education lacks. Then foreign teachers will come and they will teach the introduction to philosophy in English. Belarusian teachers will have a stimulus to be more modern and understand that a teacher is not meant to lecture but has to help find information on the Internet, to be an administrator and even a DJ.
Euroradio: Aren’t you afraid that the Bologna Process will encourage students “to flee” from Belarus after the first cycle?
Victar Martsinovich: I am not afraid of it as I do not think that we have to be captured in "a data bank". The modern world of knowledge is a world without boundaries. We are not in Belarus now. I will return to Belarus tomorrow and you will become head of the Belarusian State Braodcsating Company. Belarus will not lose anything. It will only do better as we will bring new technologies and knowledge – everything we have seen in other countries. That is why we should not keep people in "data banks". We should abandon the jailer’s psychology and use modern categories for thinking – the categories of the world without boundaries.
