On August 16, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. More than 580 young teachers will join the teaching staff of schools in the Vitebsk region in the new academic year, Ivan Shchurok, head of the education department of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, told a BELTA correspondent. Young teachers have already been enrolled and assigned to workplaces in both urban and rural schools. In total, in the 2012/2013 academic year, about 14.5 thousand teachers will conduct classes in the Vitebsk region. 92% of them have higher education, 78% have the highest and 1st qualification category, 911 young teachers with secondary specialized education are obtaining higher education through distance learning. "To a lesser extent (0.25 - 0.75 FTE), teachers of retirement age teaching foreign languages and mathematics will also be involved in the educational process," noted Ivan Shchurok, explaining that their potential is being utilized in rural schools where there is a shortage of staff. Touching on other issues related to the new academic year, the head of the education department added that the inspection of schools has been practically completed. Out of 537 educational institutions, preparatory work is still being finalized in only eight: secondary schools No. 2 and No. 3 in Glubokoye, Plissa secondary school in Glubokoye district, Volossovichskaya and Zaslonovskaya secondary schools in Lepel district, Milashovskaya basic school in Miory district, Rossko-Seletskaya basic and Orekhovskaya secondary schools in Orsha district. The deadline for the readiness of these educational institutions is set for August 25. As part of the preparation, education departments carried out work on transferring their boiler houses to the balance of housing and communal services. Of the 365, 81 have been transferred. The remaining 284 heat sources are ready for the heating season. 60% of the planned fuel – firewood and peat – has been procured for them. To ensure the educational process, schools in the region received 113 types of textbooks. Another 29 will arrive by September 1. The remaining 45, needed for training in the III-IV quarters, will arrive in October-November. Student transportation will be carried out by 195 school buses, of which 21 were received in the current year (3 have already been sent to schools, 18 will arrive by the end of August). -0-

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