BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

2005-11-15

Belarus Education Minister Says University Staff Should Follow State Line

BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

Excerpt from report by Belarusian news agency Belapan

Minsk, 15 November: Belarusian Education Minister Alyaksandr Radzkow believes that the provisions of the draft law "On higher education" under which the heads of private institutions of higher education will be appointed and dismissed on approval by the education minister are well-justified.

"The head of an institution of higher education is a political figure," Radzkow said on 15 November at an expanded session of the Standing Commission for Education, Culture, Science and Scientific- Technical Progress of the Belarusian National Assembly's House of Representatives [parliament's lower house].

He believes that the "most worthy people" should be university heads. They should hold degrees of a candidate of science, and "even better, doctoral degrees".

Radzkow stressed that there should be no opposition figures among the leadership of institutions of higher education and that "lecturers should occupy the state position". "They should not spread disunity among youth but work for creativity," the minister said. Unfortunately, Radzkow said, quite often students "do not see the state position on the part of lecturers".

He said that if the Western states had paid more attention to youth problems, there would have been no riots in Europe that have been taking place for several weeks.

[Passage omitted: Radzkow praises the activities by the pro- government Belarusian Republican Youth League; Radzkow and MPs discussed privileges for separate categories of university applicants at the meeting.]

Source:

http://www.blackenterprise.com/yb/ybopen.asp?section=ybng&story_id=85459924&ID=blackenterprise