The first months of the new academic year have demonstrated a continuing trend toward the active presence of ideologization and militarization in the Belarusian education system. We have observed the active imposition of ideological components into the educational process at all levels of Belarusian education since the first days of the new academic year. As for the militarized component, the relatively small number of such events in September gave some hope that the militarization of education would weaken. However, by October, militarized events had once again become a familiar and regular part of the educational process. The end of 2025 did not bring about any fundamental changes in the situation with the imposition of pro-government ideology in the education system. This is due to the fact that in the last months of the year, two significant ideological events took place in the country: the anniversary of the October Revolution in November and the meeting of the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly (VNS) in December. Traditionally, these events are reflected in the Belarusian education system in the form of various ideological activities. Moreover, the results of our monitoring study show that even without these occasions, the ideological component was regularly imposed at all levels of the education system.
The dynamics of the ideologization of Belarusian education can be partially traced through an analysis of the news agenda of the official resources of the Ministry of Education. In November, the number of ideologically oriented news items on the ministry’s resources decreased significantly: on the official website[1] – 4 out of 19 publications (21%), on the official Telegram channel[2] – 29 out of 155 (19%). However, in December, the level of ideologization of the Ministry of Education’s news agenda increased significantly, which was directly related to the meeting of the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly and a number of events attended by Aliaksandr Lukashenka. During this period, the share of ideologically biased materials amounted to 6 out of 24 news items on the official website (25%) and 76 out of 214 publications on the Telegram channel (36%).
In addition, at the end of December, it became possible to summarize the news agenda of the Ministry of Education’s resources for 2025. During the year, 274 news items were published on the ministry’s official website, 65 of which were ideological in nature (24%). During the same period, 2,110 publications appeared on the official Telegram channel, 664 of which were devoted to ideological content (32%). Detailed indicators are presented in the tables below:
Table 1. News policy of the official website of the Ministry of Education in 2023-2025:
Table 2. News policy of the official Telegram channel of the Ministry of Education in 2023-2025:
Table 3. News policy of the Ministry of Education resources in 2023-2025 (website + Telegram channel):
Thus, based on the results of 2025, two characteristic features of the news policy of the Ministry of Education’s resources can be identified. First, the ministry’s official Telegram channel has almost halved the total number of publications compared to previous years (3,722 news items in 2024 and 3,682 in 2023), which may indicate a more balanced information policy and the ministry’s focus on the most significant events. Second, despite a slight decrease in the level of ideologization of the news agenda (31% in 2025 versus 35% in 2024), the ideological component continues to play a significant role in the Ministry of Education’s information policy.
Summing up the results of November-December 2025 in the Belarusian education system, we can highlight a number of the most significant trends and key events characteristic of this period:
1. Intensification of digitalization processes in the Belarusian education system
2. Conducting a rehearsal of the National Education Quality Study (NEQS)
3. Psychological testing of teachers as a potential tool for influence in the Belarusian education system
4. The widespread promotion of a positive view of the Soviet period through ideological events dedicated to the anniversary of the October Revolution
5. Active promotion of the topic of the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly in Belarusian education
6. Other areas of the ideologization process of Belarusian education in November-December 2025
7. New information about the scale of militarization and plans to strengthen the influence of military-patriotic clubs of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
8. Reduction in the intensity of international educational cooperation
9. Active work with Belarusian teachers and students in projects run by pro-Russian organizations and educational institutions in Russia
10. Attracting applicants from Belarus to Russian higher education institutions
11. Russia’s war against Ukraine. Pro-war and propaganda events. Propaganda of the «special military operation» in work with the Belarusian audience
You can read or download the whole monitoring of education in Belarus for November-December 2025 at this link.
Материал доступен на русском языке: Больше военно-патриотических клубов и связей с Россией. Система образования Республики Беларусь в октябре 2025
