Ludmila Dzitsevich
First vice-chairperson of BLS

    In the latter half of the XIX c. after the rival headed by Kastus' Kalinouski there was started the general Rusification of the primary and secondary schools, deprivation of the right for the opening the institution for higher learning, ban on the use of the Belarusian language in schools, ban on the Belarusian-language printing. Belarusian Mother tongue was declared to be backward and rustic, which must have been extirpated from the use.
    Until 1915 there wasn't a single Belarusian-speaking school in Belarus. The main principle of the manpower policy not to let the Belarusians hold the upper posts was brought to life. In the text-books the Belarusians were called Russians and were characterized as the most backward and illiterate people of the Russian Empire. The first Belarusian-language primary school was opened in 1915 in Vil'nia (Vilnius). The Belarusian library and the book-shop started their work. Later the pedagogical concept of the Belarusian national school began to be realized in the framework of educational policy of Belarusian Popular Republic (BPR) and Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). In the latter 1920s during the Belarusization in Belarus there were 90% of the Belarusian, 3,6% Polish, 3,2% Jewish, 1,4% Russian schools. But during Stalin repressions in 1930-1940, during the years of Russification in 1950-1980 the educational policy was changed completely. The practice of 1958 when the children could be set free from the learning of the Belarusian language led to the situation when 33% of the schoolchildren in Belarus and 90% of the schoolchildren in Minsk were set free from learning Belarusian in 1970. Only 20% of the schoolchildren were Belarusian-speaking. In all cities there were no left Belarusian-language schools. The graduates from the rural Belarusian schools had to continue their education in Russian as there were no Belarusian-language Institutions of higher learning. In 1990 there appeared changes in the educational language policy and Belarusian classes and schools were opened in the independent Belarus. In 1994 which is considered to be the highest point of the renaissance 70% of the schoolchildren went to the primary Belarusian classes, in Minsk - 58%. 40,6% of the schoolchildren were Belarusian-speaking. Primary school was almost transferred to the Belarusian language. Belarusian-language groups were set in institutions of higher learning.
    After the referendum in 1995 the situation changed again. The transference of the pupils into the Russian language was started. 108 schools were converted into the Russian language in 1995. Today 27,8% of children get Belarusian-language education while 72,1% get Russian-speaking education. Belarusian schools are still exist, there are 49 of them. (Minsk region - 21, Hrodna region - 9, Vitsebsk region - 5, Homel' region - 4, Brest region - 2, Mahiliou region - 1). In Minsk 4 Belarusian schools are working. The system of the primary education was changed a lot. While in 1994 in Minsk 58% of children went to the Belarusian classes, in 2001 only 3,8% of them. In Minsk region they are more numerous - 39,5%. Significant negative profit was done to Hrodna region, where 13 institutions of general education were converted into Russian. The development of the language educational system can be seen from the tables below. In Belarus there are 1464744 pupils including 1440984 pupils in day schools ( previous year they were 1498417). Out of them study:

Academic year	In Belarusian.	%	In Russian	%	In Polish	In Lithuanian
1999-2000	463371	30,0	1081798	70,0	874	76
2000-2001	453012	29,0	1062424	70,9	903	78
2001-2002	400869	27,8	1039174	72,1	870	71

    Moreover 9406 pupils of national minorities in 176 schools learn their mother tongues, including 8774 who learn Polish, 441 learn Jewish, 119 learn Ukrainian, 72 learn Lithuanian. Schools with the corresponding language ( in total 4506)

Academic year	Belarusian	%	Russian	%	Bel/Rus.	%	Polish	Lithuanian
1999-2000	2847	61,7	1147	24,8	620	13,4	1	1
2000-2001	2822	61,9	1201	26,3	533	11,7	2	1
2001-2002	2773	61,5	1266	28,1	464	10,3	2	1

    In the table below you can see the changes in the schools network for the last three academic years.

Region	With Belarusian as study language			With Russian study language			With two languages
-	1999-2000	2000-2001	2001-2002	1999-2000	2000-2001	2001-2002	1999-2000	2000-2001	2001-2002
Minsk city	+5	0	-1	+17	+13	+12	-16	-10	-10
Brest region	-8	-4	-8	+19	+2	+10	-22	-7	-11
Vitsebsk region	+3	-1	-6	+5	+14	+10	-14	-17	-9
Homel region	-9	-5	-9	+16	+4	+7	-18	-12	-8
Hrodna region	-5	+4	-13	+3	+4	+9	-6	-13	-9
Minsk region	-7	-14	-4	+7	+12	+13	-14	-22	-22
Mahiliou region	-6	-5	-8	+4	+5	+4	-7	-6	0
Together	-27	-25	-49	+117	+54	+65	-97	-87	-69

    In the latter 90s when the state educational system established phlegmatically the statistics of the extraordinary "recoil" of the Belarusian-language education, NGOs including BLS and BSS(Belarusian School Society) did all the possible to stop the destruction of the national school: they held explanatory work with parents, pupils and teachers, carried on dialogues with the organs of government. Today we have legislative and normative acts on which we can rely on at work of national education renaissance. The adopted Act on Education (30.01.02) declares that " state support is provided to study in Belarusian, publishing literature, text-books and manuals in Belarusian".
    The adopted decree of the Ministry of education ¹ 48 " The programme of additional measures for widening the sphere of the Belarusian language use" (27,08,01) also gives grounds for optimism, because there they speak about the foundation of Belarusian grammar schools in each region of Belarus and in each city region, as well as the opening of the Belarusian groups in Institutions of higher learning.
    Today our aim is to bring to life the theses of these documents, so that the sphere of Belarusian language use corresponds with the results of the census of 1999, according to which 73,7% of the population consider Belarusian their native language and 36,7% of them use Belarusian in their everyday life. Thanks to BLS organs of education turned their attention to the execution of these documents and Minsk municipal executive committee made the decision to open the Belarusian grammar school on the basis of secondary school 23. BLS arranged correspondence with all regional executive committees and institutions of higher learning , which showed that the highest figure of the Belarusian-language education has Minsk region, the lowest Mahiliou. For today there isn't a single institution of higher learning, which would carried out the whole process of education in Belarusian.
    The leader of the Belarusian institution of higher learning renaissance is Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after M. Tank. In May 2000 the Academic Council approved the program of native language support and the Belarusian groups were set up at Physical faculty, Mathematics faculty, Natural History faculty and some others. A number of subjects are taught in Belarusian at Homel State University named after F. Skaryna, at Belarusian State University of Culture and at Minsk State Linguistics University. There are Belarusian-language groups at Historical faculties of Belarusian State University and of Hrodna State University named after J.Kupala. the rest institutions of higher learning have no Belarusian groups and they won't be set up this year, as the institutions of higher learning answered.
    It is necessary to say that during the last decade a number of national manuals were created, before that we used the practice of translating or importing manuals from Moscow. Scientific Methods Center for Manuals and Techniques for study released teaching and methodic literature for pre-school education (42 manuals from 117) for preparatory classes and for I - III classes (94 from 226) on the Belarusian language and literature (99), on foreign languages (37 from 120), on the subjects of esthetic cycle (all 51 are in Belarusian) on history and geography (51 from 87), on mathematics and information science(68 from 129) on the pedagogical work (46 from 146) etc. But Belarusian-language manual is crossing only the boarder of 50%.
    Today the main problem in the system of education is the narrowing of the Belarusian language use in the communication. Pupils do not speak Belarusian. Belarusian teachers switch from Belarusian to Russian during the school breaks. One of the reasons of such situation is the small amount of hours given to the learning of Belarusian. From this year the compulsory examination on Belarusian literature was canceled, which will lead to even greater narrowing of the Belarusian language use. That is why the need for multimedia, interactive audio and video-orientated manuals of Belarusian has appeared now. One should not consider the language problem of the present Belarus only form the homocentric point of view. The choice of the language depends also on the land we live on. Our speech and aural organs are created by the Belarusian land by our ancestors. When we change our primary language we find ourselves in the biological overload and we experience psychological pressure.
    Today the aim of the Belarusians is to return the Belarusian language to all spheres of our life, starting from the educational system. The participants of the round-table adopted the next resolution:
    We, the participants of the round-table, having discussed the position and prospects of the Belarusian-language education, declare about the integration of the state and public organs for the execution of the Education Act of the Republic of Belarus and decree of the Ministry of Education ¹ 48 " The programme of additional measures for widening the sphere of the Belarusian language use"(27,08,01).
    In connection with this we think it's necessary: - to start the admission of the children to the Belarusian preparatory classes in all regional cities - to reestablish the compulsory examination on the Belarusian literature in secondary schools - to set up the student Belarusian groups in all Universities in Minsk and all regional cities. - To propose to Ministry of Education to work out the program "Belarusian-language manual for institution of higher learning" - For Belarusian National Radio and TV Company to include series of educational programs on Belarusian language and literature.