Belarusian Generation Y logbook

According to the Belarusian Constitution everyone has the right to free education. According to this statement everyone has the right to take entrance exams to enter university, and those with best results can enjoy a free education without tuition fees. However, it is not correct to say that education is free because the state demands payback in form of labor after graduation. This practice is called “compulsory employment”, when after the graduation those who studied without having to pay have to work for two years at the place where the university (state) assigns them. This is an old soviet practice which was reintroduced in Belarus at the end of 90s.

It can be argued that giving a working place just after graduation is a negative thing since for young people without working experience it is always difficult to find a working place by themselves. However, hardly anyone will agree that making young people to work in small villages without any infrastructure and career possibilities for a minimum wage is something that young people desire. In this post you can read two stories of people who faced compulsory employment after graduation.

A graduate student of the department of journalism of Belarusian State University Ksenija Avimava is made to pay money to the state because she refuses to work at the assigned regional newspaper after graduation. Recently Ksenija became famous after she won the competition for the “Best of the blogs” held by Deutsche Welle. Now she has to pay 22 millions of rubles (more than 10 000 dollars) to the university.

Ksenija Avimava has been working as a staff journalist for an independent newspaper “Belarusians and Market” since long ago. She was hoping to get this newspaper also as a place of her work assignment after graduation. In due time the newspaper submitted a request to the university to send Ksenija Avimava to work for them. But when the student came to the meeting of the assigning committee she found out that “Belarusians and Market” is not even in the list of the newspapers which need young specialists.

This is unbelievable, because it is not stated in the law that students can not get work assignments to independent newspapers. And during the assigning committee meeting i was told that the state order should be executed and they will never give me assignment to work at that newspaper

The department of journalism refused to comment the case of Ksenija. According to the representative of the department who decided not to introduce herself, when the assignment is given this is not just the will of a student which is taken into account but also the average points which they got during their studies. The less points were reached the less prestigious is assignment. That is why Ksenija should go to Valozhyn to work over there according to the representative of the department of journalism.

Ksenija is now trying to find money to pay to the university in order not to be able to decide herself where she wants to work.

Another story is more pessimistic. A young specialist and recent graduate of the Palessie Agricultural College, committed suicide after he spent some time in the village to where he was assigned. He was sent by the state to work in a village Ivanava Slabada (Lelchycy region) as a zootechnician after he graduated. A possible reason for the suicide act committed by a 20-year old young man is the difficult circumstances of life and absence of possibilities to change the place of compulsory employment.

Viktar Huryn was known to complain about the life he faced in the village and said that “death is better than life like that”, and “{that his} years of compulsory work in here will be spent in vain”.

Maybe the tragedy could have been prevented if this young man had not been left alone with his problems. But there was neither psychological help, nor even a church in the village, not to mention the lack of places of entertainment for young people.

However, he was not the only one who was sent to work in the village. He came together with two other young men and a girl who soon went to live separately from the men. It is not known what kind of relations he had with his neighbors.

What is worse, the salary of a young specialist (a bit more than 100 dollars) does not even allow them to travel to the closest town to spend the weekends there.

Eduard Balanchuk announced the position of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee:

If a person is not allowed to stay where they want after graduation then we suggest to take the article about free education in Belarus out of the Constitution.

In the same village there was a case that a girl came to work at the assigned position – also as a zoo technician. The next day her father came and took her home, since he decided that it was better to pay the 5000 dollars to the sate than to leave his daughter in such conditions.

Young people are not ready to work like this and for such money.