Let's talk about education

In today's society knowledge has acquired top priority. The most important thing in every knowledge is blowing the mind and molding one's personality. The way of thinking of every person strongly depends on their knowledge. Knowledge helps to acquire a critical understanding of social, economic and political orders and reasonable set of attitudes, values and beliefs. Not to speak about the fact that it develops a sense of self-respect, the capacity to live as independent, self-motivated adults and the ability to function as contributing members of the society. In fact, it's like a candle which gives light in the darkness, as it guides us to do better in life.

Education is a form of learning in which knowledge, skills and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training and research. When a person is young, they need teachers to help them become a literate and educated person.

Our country has a well-regarded education system. Pre-school education is not compulsory in Belarus but around 70% of children attend nursery or kindergarten before they start school. According to our Constitution every person has a right to a schoolplace for a child from the age of 6 or 7. These places are provided free of charge. Primary and basic secondary school education is compulsory. All students must follow the basic education curriculum up to the age of 15, and the vast majority of them stay at school until they finish secondary school at 17. Children study at school for 9 years then they may either continue their education at school or go to colleges and vocational schools. There is a wide choice of schools, colleges, vocational schools, universities and academies to suit all tastes, income and inclinations. There is also postgraduate education which gives students opportunity to do research and get an MA, MSc and PhD

In my view, the main principles of the educational system in our countiy are the priority of human values, national culture as the basis for education, humanism, scientific basis and support of gifted children. Any person can get the high-quality education according to their abilities and inclinations.

It's common knowledge that the success of school education depends mainly on the teachers, their professional skills, the kind of relationship they can establish with pupils. The task of school is not only to pass some information. Children's characters and perception of the world are formed here.

Face-to-face learning is most common in secondary schools, colleges and universities. When learning with a group, discussing and debating become possible, which usually create a perfect environment to develop critical thinking skills. Such learning also cultivates students' good sense of cooperation. Like I said, face-to-face learning has a lot of advantages, but distance learning and doing online courses are becoming more and more popular with high school students nowadays.

A modern person has to know where and how to get information and knowledge in order to have a good job and be a success. People have to get education during all their lives.