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Lukashenka questions plans for fresh tuition fee hike

 

Alyaksandr Lukashenka questioned on March 1 the government’s plans for a fresh increase in tuition fees.

Speaking at a meeting of the Council of Ministers, the Belarusian leader criticized the cabinet’s failure to calculate the exact hourly cost of university training. “He has blurted out that tuition fees need to be increased by 10 percent. Why is it 10 percent and not 50 percent or two percent?” he wondered.

Mr. Lukashenka criticized the current standard of higher education in Belarus. “We stopped educating children properly a long time ago. There’s a complete mess at our universities and no one pays any attention to that,” the presidential press office quoted him as saying.

Mr. Lukashenka also urged caution on a proposed reform that would reduce the number of people admitted to institutions of higher learning, describing it as “difficult issues that need to be discussed delicately.”

“If there’s demand for certain categories of professionals in the country, it is them who should be trained. The rest should pay [for their education],” he concluded. // BelaPAN