Region

Local authorities to level workload of testing stations in Gomel region

In Gomel region local authorities will level the workload of testing stations, which are supposed to test knowledge of secondary school graduates and thus define their fitness for further education. The decision was taken at a sitting of the Gomel region executive committee. The sitting was dedicated to university entrance campaign issues. Heads of Gomel city and region universities, city and region education authorities as well as the regional testing centre took part in the sitting. Asked to comment on the situation, Nikolai Feskov, director of the national knowledge assessment institute of the Belarusian education ministry, said that Gomel region is the first one in Belarus entitled to regulating the workload of knowledge testing stations on its own. The national knowledge assessment institute used to perform these functions and coordinate the work with regional bodies, which registered applicants for the testing. The novelty is supposed to fix the situation when the number of applicants willing to sit tests in one university exceeds the latter’s capacity while another university is practically empty, said Nikolai Feskov. The source believes, the practice of Gomel region authorities can be useful for other regions of the country.