Homel: No Centralized Testing Blanks for in Belarusian Language

16.05.2007.

According to Hart

Belarusian speaking students face this problem when filling the blanks in their native language.

Since 2 May till 1 June volunteers can register for participation in centralized testing by filling a special blank. In the case people receive good results at the tests they can be admitted to high schools without entrance exams.

On 15 May a last-year student of the Belarusian State Transport University applied to the faculty of professional orientation and pre-university training of his university where a registration point for centralized testing is situated. He filled a Russian-language blank in Belarusian, but the secretary refused to accept the application. She angrily said that the applications are registered by a computer and even the computer ‘would not read this language’.

The student didn’t want to write in Russian and applied to the dean of the faculty. The dean advised him to apply to Homel regional testing center, but even there the problem wasn’t solved, as there were no Belarusian-language blanks either. Then the university officials agreed to accept the application in Belarusian.