24 February, Grodno /Elena Stasyukevich - BELTA/. A tablet will not replace a textbook, but it will make a student's backpack lighter. This opinion was expressed to a BELTA correspondent by the Minister of Education of Belarus, Sergey Maskevich. Today, at the Grodno City Executive Committee, he held a meeting with teachers and representatives of the education sector, as well as received citizens on personal matters. According to the minister, the experiment with the use of electronic textbooks in schools is planned to start in September. The initiative of the Ministry of Education is supported by other participants in the educational process. During the experiment, schoolchildren will receive an electronic tablet containing the necessary information. According to preliminary estimates, this initiative will save the state more than Br20 billion. At the same time, the minister emphasized, the introduction of electronic tablets will not negate the existence of textbooks. They will also undergo further improvement. However, the innovation will help, among other things, to solve the problem of heavy student backpacks and the need to purchase full sets of books. The meeting with teachers lasted for two hours, and the minister received several dozen questions. Most of them concerned the organization of school meals for children, social guarantees, and issues of extracurricular education, the organization of labor training, and others were raised. -0-

BELTA