One in six schools closed down over 6 years in Belarus

Photo: pexels.com
Photo: pexels.com

Almost every sixth school got closed down in Belarus over the past 6 years. 88 Belarusian schools were closed down in 2017, Belstat announced in the 2018 report “Children and Youth”.

There were 3707 secondary schools in 2011-2012 and 3067 – in 2017-2018. 640 schools or 17% have been closed down since 2011!

Meanwhile, the number of pupils has increased by 56 thousands.

Most of the closed schools were situated in Vitsebsk Region – 167. It is a third of all the schools that were functioning at the beginning of the academic year 2011/2012. The number of pupils has decreased by only 500.

Minsk is the only city where new 4 schools have been opened. The number of Minsk pupils has increased by 38 thousands.

The number of private schools has almost doubled over 7 years – from 9 to 16. There are 871 pupils studying there (up from 527). Two new private schools were opened at the beginning of the academic year 2017/2018.