Education serves the regime. The ideologisation and militarisation of the Belarusian education system
Education serves the regime. The ideologisation and militarisation of the Belarusian education system

Author(s): Piotr Żochowski, Kamil Kłysiński
Subject(s): Government/Political systems, Military policy, Political behavior, State/Government and Education, Pedagogy
Published by: OSW Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia
Keywords: Belarusian education system; legal framework for the education system; military-patriotic education; militarisation of education;
Summary/Abstract: As the Belarusian regime has intensified its policy of repression against society since August 2020,its other domestic policy priorities have come to include an overhaul of the education system and stricter supervision over Belarusian schools. Particularly strong pressure has been put on private institutions which the authorities view as hotspots of anti-state ferment. On the basis of laws enacted in 2022, a requirement was introduced for operators of educational facilities to obtain a special licence to run their schools, which resulted in a significant reduction in the number of private schools. A major overhaul of curricula has also been launched, particularly concerning topics such as history and literature. This is intended to eliminate or marginalize topics which emphasise Belarus’s European identity from school curricula. As a consequence, the content taught to students now resembles the content prevailing in the Russian narrative. Belarus’s politics of memory has been subject to similar attempts to align it with Russian standards.

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