Freeway - A school in Belarus

A school in Belarus

During week 16 our international class from Parkskolan went to Belarus on a one-week intensive visit. We lived in a little town/village called Sokal just outside of Minsk. The pupils start going to school when they are six or seven years old and they go there until grade eleven. The school is an artistic school, were the youths can learn Belarus traditional danceforms or how to play the piano or the violin. Most pupils could speak English, better or worse. It was a nice school but it was poor and it was different than we are used to here in Sweden.

It is a rather big school and it has 800-900 pupils. But the first impression of the school was that it was quite small. There are a lot of classrooms but not so many places were the pupils can during their spare time. In every classroom they have a specific subject. They read almost the same subjects as we do. Subjects like mathematics, English, history are compulsory like here in Sweden. The difference is that we have to read a third language and they don’t. Because it is an art school it has some subjects we don’t have, for example art history and you can choose traditional dance or learn how to play an instrument. This school is famous for all their good pupils in art, music and dance. We had the opportunity to see pupils from all different schools performing in a big show. Many pupils that participated were from the Sokal school.

They have one small library were the pupils can to their homeworks, but it contains almost only books on the Russian language. They start learning English when they are eleven or twelve years old. Here in Sweden we start in the age of ten. One reason that many are not so good in English is because they never can practise their English outside school. Another reason can be that all movies and tv-programmes are dubbed into Russian language.

Our own opinions
The biggest difference between their school-system and ours, is that they have to go in school on Saturdays. And their summer holidays are two weeks longer than ours. Here in Sweden when we have left the nine-year compulsory school we switch to an Upper Secondary School, where we can choose between seventeen different programs. These programs are all three years. In Belarus you stay in the same school all time but you just go for eleven years and not twelve like we do here in Sweden. One thing that we never again are going to complain about is our school toilets, because in Sokal their toilets didn’t even look like toilets! The smell was so intensive so it almost smelled like a ??? Here we complain about our school lunch (it is free by the way), but there they have to pay for the food. Our school library in Parkskolan is not big, but if you compare it with the one they had in Sokal which looked like a little store-room. It was strange for us when we heard that they are forbidden to use the calculators during the math lessons. Here we would not make it without them. They have some computers but they don’t have Internet. We think that all pupils should have the opportunity to use the Internet in school. Because on the Internet you can find a lot of information, and you can get connections with people over the whole world. Belarus is a poor country, but education is something that is valued high. The school is very poor in our eyes, they got really bad toilets and no air-condition. Despite all this, the education is really good. They have god teachers and many of the pupils are very talented.

After this trip we have learned to appreciate our own school at home a lot more, and we are glad that we have such a good education. According to the Swedish education law, all live or how your social and economic situation is. Even if you are handicapped in children and youths shall have access to an equal education. Regardless what sex you are, were you some way, and need special assistance.

We think that this trip has been a really good experience, and now we realise how lucky we are living in a rich country like Sweden.