Today, a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly takes place. It is dedicated to assessing the state and prospects for the development of the social sphere.

In his report, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko dwelled in detail on two areas - healthcare and education.

The parties discussed the issues of improving the quality of medical care, in particular, in rural areas; providing the population with medicines; expansion of the targeted recruitment for medical specialties. In addition, in order to decrease the attrition rate of young targeted specialists, the conditions for redistribution have been tightened.

In education, emphasis is placed on the expediency of reforming the entrance campaign, providing schools and universities with personnel.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, it was decided to once again monitor the entire education system. In this regard, according to the proposals of the Ministry of Education, an appropriate comprehensive plan will be approved. The monitoring groups will include both teachers, specialists involved in the methodological support of the sphere and ensuring the organization of its management, as well as representatives of the parent community and public associations. The results of the study and the developed proposals will be considered at a meeting of the collegium of the Ministry of Education in August.

“At the same time, I note with satisfaction that a number of topical issues in the field of education have already been resolved by the government or are in the process of being resolved. Thus, the issue of nutrition for employees of preschool and general secondary education institutions has been resolved. Now they can receive a one-time hot meal for a fee at the place of work. At the same time, its price is the same as lunch in the senior group in kindergarten or among high school students at school. Today it is about three or four rubles. You have to agree that there are no meals at such a price in catering facilities,” Igor Petrishenko emphasized.

Senators and deputies were also informed about the absolutely right decision to introduce mandatory licensing of preschool and general secondary education at the legislative level. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, this is a guarantee of the state for a child to receive a quality education, safe and comfortable conditions for his stay.

The well-coordinated work of the preschool education system was also noted - Belarus remains the leader among the CIS countries in terms of coverage of the population with preschool education. By the end of the year, it is planned to commission 15 kindergartens for 3,215 places, reconstruct 4 educational institutions, and create places in short-stay groups (from 2 to 7 hours) for children of early and preschool age.

Among the innovations, starting next year, the administrative service for registering children in need of preschool institutions will be transferred to an electronic format. This will allow parents to apply online, identifying specific priority institutions and track the progress of the queue.

Igor Petrishenko also said that on behalf of the Government, the Ministry of Education carried out a thorough analysis of the content of textbooks and developed a set of measures to improve their quality. The procedure for the preparation of textbooks for institutions of preschool, general secondary and special education has been developed, which provides for the improvement of the mechanism for interaction between the National Institute of Education with teams of authors and reviewers to finalize textbooks.

Measures have been taken to introduce new approaches to the final assessment of students, aimed at reducing the burden and ensuring independent assessment.

“The expansion of the positively proven profile training in pedagogical, agrarian, sports-pedagogical and military-patriotic orientation continues. From the beginning of the new academic year, engineering and railway classes will open. Profiling in high school, along with expanding the scope of targeted training, will help increase the training of specialists for the sectors most in demand by the economy,” the Deputy Prime Minister expressed his opinion.

As for the entrance campaign, Igor Petrishenko said that this year final decisions will be made on its implementation, including the choice of the most optimal form of school exams and entrance tests - oral or written, testing or exams on tickets, interviews.

“The sphere of education is one of the most sensitive for society. As the situation that arose with the calculation of points based on the results of a centralized exam showed us that slightest misunderstanding might cause an uproar. But everything was calculated correctly, the calculation method is reliable: it is used in many countries,” the Deputy Prime Minister noted.

Among the innovations - this year in universities and colleges admission will be carried out in ten new specialties; The procedure for enrolling applicants in institutions of secondary specialized education based on the competition of the average score of the document on education; the list of persons who have benefits for admission to institutions of higher and secondary specialized education has been updated in order to select the most motivated and prepared applicants.

The results of the entrance campaign of the current year will be analyzed in detail by the state commission. The opinions of all interested parties will be studied, such as students, their parents, teachers.

Ahead today is a discussion of key points in construction, culture and sports.