MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

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A round table meeting on youth policy issues between Belarus and China took place today online in the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus under the leadership of the Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Natalya Kochanova and the Deputy Chairman of the All-China Committee of the People's Political Consultative Council of the People's Republic of China Shen Yueyue.

The parties considered key areas of interaction: “State youth policy”; “Education of citizenship and patriotism among young people in context of the fight against modern challenges”; “Support for young personnel and youth initiatives.”

It is noted that state youth policy in the Republic of Belarus is a strategic direction for the socio-economic development of society. In Belarus, there are about 20% of the total population of young citizens aged 14 to 31 years.

The Strategy for the Development of State Youth Policy until 2030 is being implemented. It defines common approaches to working with youth at the republican and local levels, intersectoral and interdepartmental interaction. Indices of the effectiveness of state youth policy and the degree of formation of positive behavioral attitudes of young people have been developed.

The State Program “Education and Youth Policy” for 2021–2025 continues to function successfully.

Belarusian youth can express themselves in all spheres of society. To implement the initiatives of youth and children's public associations, the Ministry of Education provides financial, organizational and information support on an ongoing basis.

The state provides Belarusian youth with a fairly large selection of forms for self-realization: from student self-government, the volunteer movement to assistance in starting their own business and employment.

Currently, in our country, more than 64 thousand young people are volunteers, more than 300 youth public associations are registered, and the Republican Union of Public Associations “Belarusian Committee of Youth Organizations” operates.

The Ministry of Education has opened a Republican Youth Center, where not a single initiative of young citizens goes unattended. Current information on state youth policy is posted on the Internet information platform “Molodezh Belarusi”.

In his speech, Minister of Education Andrei Ivanets indicated that Belarus and China have formed a huge base for the development of bilateral mutually beneficial cooperation, including in the field of education and youth policy.

To date, more than 560 direct cooperation agreements have been signed between educational institutions of the two countries, more than 100 of them over the past two years. Within the framework of these documents, scientific and educational projects, academic exchanges are being implemented, and joint structures are being created.

Specialists are being trained who are able to use the Chinese language in professional activities, including on the basis of six Confucius Institutes of Chinese Studies and eight Confucius Sinology classes. In recent years, about 300 specialists with knowledge of Chinese are graduated annually.

Speaking about interaction, the head of the department emphasized: “It is a double-edged sword. Already in 4 Chinese universities a specialty “Belarusian language” was launched and 12 centers for the study of Belarus have been created.”

During the round table meeting, the Belarusian side also expressed confidence that in the near future such various areas of interaction will receive a new impetus, such areas as: the creation of innovative associations between educational institutions and high-tech enterprises of the two countries to conduct joint scientific research and development work with the commercialization of their results ; training of scientific personnel in popular areas of bilateral cooperation; development of norms and standards for the digitalization of education, including using the experience of implementing the Internet+ initiative; organizing mutual visits of students from educational institutions of Belarus and China, including within the framework of the implementation of the Memorandum of Intent for cooperation in the field of health care for minors between the ministries of education.