27 March, Minsk /BELTA correspondent/. Most higher education institutions in Belarus will switch to a four-year term of study from September 2012. This was announced in an interview with a BELTA correspondent by the Minister of Education, Sergey Maskevich. Last year, the head of state set the task to analyze the so-called socio-humanitarian block and eliminate duplication of subjects in school and university programs. Currently, active work is underway to optimize the two-tier system of higher education. The content of educational programs for both the 1st and 2nd tiers will be improved in order to reduce the term of study in the 1st tier to 4 years and strengthen the master's degree. At the same time, both programs will be more practice-oriented. A new concept for teaching the socio-humanitarian block has already been adopted. It involves reducing the number of classroom hours, increasing students' independent work, and eliminating the duplication of disciplines taught in general education institutions. All recommendations for the concept have already been prepared, and from September 2012, most of the country's higher education institutions will switch to the new system. ***The full text of the interview will be released on the news feed and posted on the BELTA website.-0-

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