How the academic year started in Belarus: 15,000 fewer first-graders, schools banned phones but allowed smart watches under pressure from parents. There is more ideology and military lessons, which demonstrates the strong influence of the state on the system. Read more in the iSANS report for September.
Previous monitoring studies in July and August showed a record low level of ideologization in Belarusian education, and we connected this result with the summer holidays. At the same time, the monitoring study of August showed that the authorities plan to increase the ideologization and militarization of Belarusian education at virtually all levels. On September 1, a new academic year began in Belarus, and the current monitoring study allows us to make the first assessment of the level of ideologization and militarization of Belarusian education in the context of conducting educational activities.
We expected that September in Belarusian education would be characterized by a sharp growth in the level of ideologization and militarization, and this phenomenon can be traced not only by the results of the monitoring study, but also by the nature of the news agenda of the official resources of the Ministry of Education. It should be noted that in July, 25% of the news items in these resources were ideological in nature, while in August this figure fell below 20%.
However, the downward trend in the ideologization of the news agenda ended in September: 6 out of 25 news items (24%) on the official website of the Ministry of Education had an ideological slant, and 35 out of 121 (29%) in the official Telegram channel. Thus, the total share of ideologically oriented news in the official resources of the Ministry of Education was 28%, which was lower than in May-June, but much higher than in July-August. Speaking about the general state of Belarusian education, September was also characterized by a sharp growth in the level of ideologization.
Overall, based on the results of the monitoring study, we can highlight the following phenomena characterizing Belarusian education in September:
1. The growing impact of the demographic crisis in Belarus on the education system.
2. A ban on the use of mobile phones by students has come into effect in Belarusian schools.
3. The Ministry of Education has retained the principles of conducting exams in schools and centralized testing.
4. A sharp increase in the ideologization of Belarusian education at all levels.
5. Resumption of the practice of actively introducing a militarized component into the educational process.
6. The dominant positions of Russia and China in the field of international educational cooperation, cooperation with undemocratic regimes, and the increasing isolation of Belarusians from the opportunity to obtain a European education.
You can read or download the whole monitoring of education in Belarus for September 2025 at this link.
Материал доступен на русском языке: Курс на идеологизацию и военно-патриотические клубы: как стартовал учебный год в Беларуси — обзор за сентябрь 2025
