Level of Training of Belarusian Entrants Decreases

It is obvious that entrants’ level of training is falling, said Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Anatoly Rubinov during a press conference held on August 25th.

It is obvious that entrants’ level of training is falling, said Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Anatoly Rubinov during a press conference held on August 25^th.

According to him, this year about 170 thousand people have undergone testing which is 4 thousand fewer than last year. This year’s school-leavers amounted to 88 thousand people. Meanwhile, test results were on average 2 marks lower than last year. The share of entrants who received low marks has increased. 73% of applicants got fewer than 20 marks in physics, while in mathematics this number amounted to 60%.

In Anatoly Rubinov’s opinion, one can single out 3 reasons for such results:

- difficult tests;

- imperfect formula for calculating results;

- low level of entrants’ training.

The results of the inspection carried out by independent experts showed that test tasks do not go beyond the curriculum while formula for calculating results meets all the requirements.

Meanwhile, Anatoly Rubinov noted that in many cases the low level of entrants’ training can be explained by the fact that the majority of examinees left school some years ago which means that their level of training has decreased.

He also noted that those applicants who wanted to study mathematics and physics on a full-time state-financed basis had high marks. This year 84 entrants got 100 marks for their tests. Among them there are 35 citizens of Minsk, 18 are from oblast centres; 29 are from regional centers and 2 are from the countryside.

Anatoly Rubinov stated that the difference in the level of training between urban and rural areas is narrowing year after year, which is a credit to the Ministry of Education. This year the difference in marks was 0.5-0.3. At the same time the applicants for 28 out of 55 specialties at Belarusian State University that came from rural areas had higher marks.