Education should give a child the freedom to think and a teacher the freedom to teach. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said this in an address to Belarusians on Knowledge Day.
“Today marks the beginning of a new school year. New classrooms and lecture halls, new acquaintances, meetings with friends and plans for the whole year ahead. But today, many parents and teachers look at Belarusian education with concern. There is more and more ideology and fewer and fewer opportunities to realize their own and their children’s talents in schools.
When we send our children to school, we hope they will be taught to learn about new things, find themselves, and be given the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them. But increasingly, they are offered ready-made correct answers and told which questions are better not to ask at all. But that should not be the case.
Education must give a child the freedom to think and a teacher the freedom to teach. And today I want to say to all schoolchildren and students: do not lose your interest in learning. No matter what, look for what is interesting to you personally. Develop your talents. Meet people. Find your people. The knowledge and skills you acquire today will stay with you under any circumstances.
I also know that many teachers would like to do what they once entered the profession to do: give children knowledge, recognize their abilities, and teach them to think and not be afraid to ask questions. But instead, the regime demands ideological activities from you and forces you to do other people’s work, such as, for example, repairing classrooms or washing floors. And it is all the more valuable that even under such conditions, you continue to remain true teachers. Your dignity and honor are the best lesson for the younger generation.
And I also want to thank all the parents who help their children develop their best qualities. Today, when it is not always possible to get honest answers to difficult questions at school, it is especially important that those questions can be asked at home. Talk to your children about what is happening around them and support their right to have their own opinion.
I know that the time will come when the Belarusian school will once again be a place of knowledge, development and freedom, not fear and ideology. Because the kind of education our children receive today determines what Belarus will be tomorrow. Happy Sept. 1″, she said.
