Human Rights Watch: Belarus OBSTRUCTION OF PRIVATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by Lerner, Sep 3, 2005.

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  1. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    Freedom and human rights or substandard education.
    Belarus former Soviet union.

    This maybe interesting to read for some persons, and may be avoided by others who have no interest in whats going on in this part of the world.

    This is not shilling or any type of trolling.

    I will follow up and we will see who preveled 6 years after.


    http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/belarus/Belrus99-09.htm


    OBSTRUCTION OF PRIVATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
    The current government perceives private education as a threat to its control and influence over the education of students, particularly on politically sensitive subjects such as history and law. The development of private education emerged in Belarus as one of many consequences of the breakup of the Soviet Union.

    Private Universities

    Private universities have come under fire from the government and are now largely subordinate to it.100 Private higher education institutions require a licence from the government to operate that must be renewed every five years, a requirement that is of itself unobjectionable, but which the Lukashenka administration exploits to bring these institutions to heel. Additionally, the Ministry of Education must approve the degrees and diplomas awarded by private universities, a power that critics claim has been misused. Recently, government officials have suggested that they will soon start issuing a new degree certificate to distinguish graduates of non-state institutions from graduates of state institutions, something that staff at non-state institutions claim sends a signal to their students that they will face discrimination after graduation and thus serves as a disincentive to enrollment in the private sector schools.

    The president does not appoint the rectors of private institutions, yet the government applies pressure on these institutions in other ways. Staff of private universities described the licensing process as an initial obstacle to the creation of private educational establishments, and expressed fears that a system of frequent and intrusive inspections of functioning schools provides authorities with a ready made pretext for the potential closure of institutions that are politically out of line. A university lecturer observed that "multiple checks are at work. The checks come one after another, they are searching for defects in order to have a reason to strip the licence from the non-state institute of higher education."101 These pressures, according to the same source, have led some private institutions to proscribe criticism of the government:

    A former deputy minister of education, Tatiana Galko, who is currently working at the independent European Humanities University (EHU) in Minsk, believes that not all private universities were of a sufficiently high standard to be recognized as such and believes some were deservedly closed by the government.104 Yet she criticized the blanket measures taken against private universities in general, in particular the repeated threats to issue graduates of such institutions a different type of certificate.

    The People's University

    During the Soviet era, pro-democracy and human rights activists in Russia and other countries of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Bloc, and Warsaw Pact countered restrictions on educational materials by engaging in underground educational initiatives. In countries of Eastern Europe, such as Czechoslovakia and Poland, these were named, "Flying Universities." These universities were essentially groups of professors who traveled across the country teaching subjects that were otherwise banned by the authorities. Tellingly, human rights and democracy activists in Belarus have come to adopt the concept in response to the authoritarian rule of President Lukashenka.



    Learner
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 3, 2005
  2. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    This was 1999

    So whats changed sinse if anything:

    July 2005

    http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2005/07/22/regime

    NEWS

    Belarus: Regime Increases Pressure On Private Universities, Other Institutions
    11:36, 22/07/2005, By Valentinas Mite, Prague, RFE/RL

    Belarusian authorities are tightening their grip on independent institutions in the wake of popular upheavals that helped unseat governments in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. But the government of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka is not just shutting some schools down and harassing others. It`s also spearheading a new campaign to inculcate the nation`s schools and students with a new "Ideology of the Republic of Belarus."

    Private universities and institutions are having a hard time in Belarus these days.

    Valery Karbalevich is an analyst with Strategy, a political analysis center in Minsk.

    "Last year, the European Humanities University was closed down. Departments of the Institute of Contemporary Knowledge -- one more private university -- are being closed," Karbalevich said. "It is not a coincidence that special attention is being paid [by authorities] to the humanities. They [authorities] seek to impose an official state ideology in the country. A state ideology has been announced, and all state-owned and nonstate owned institutions have to endorse this ideology."

    Yesterday, Belarus expelled U.S. business and law professor Terry Boesch. He had worked in the country since 2003, teaching in state-owned and private universities. He tells RFE/RL that he has no doubts the campaign against private education will continue.

    "The government minister of education has announced this week privately in meetings that in September the government is going to close down more private law institutes and law colleges. It will also do the same with economic institutes or business institutes," Boesch says.

    Belarusian officials justify their crackdown by stating that the country does not need more business, legal or economic specialists.

    However, Boesch dismisses that assessment, saying the government campaign has nothing to do with an abundance of specialists or low standards of education.
    Lukashenka faces presidential polls next year. Boesch, the expelled U.S. professor, calls the campaign against private universities an "anti-Western" cleanup aimed at ridding the country of Western influence ahead of the elections.
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    I hope some of you glaized in to the window of another place in the world, the value of freedom in education, and many other issues, we can appriciate what we have here, do we want state and government controll over our schools?

    I think private RA or NA agencies is better especially after reading what government can do.

    Learner
     
  3. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Thanks for the update on the awful situation in Belarus. I have been following this fairly closely; it's appalling.
     
  4. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    With Lukashenka, I would suspect even a fire inspector to be an instrument of political pressure.
     

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