5 August, Shklov District /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. The material and technical base for training personnel in the agro-industrial complex needs to be modernised. This was stated today by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko during an informal meeting with journalists from regional media of Mogilev and Vitebsk regions in the agro-town of Alexandria, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. According to the President, a paradox has occurred: agricultural science is developing in all directions, scientific and practical centres are being created, practice has significantly advanced, while education has seriously lagged behind. Alexander Lukashenko stressed that education should not trail behind agricultural and agro-industrial production, but should be ahead of it or on par with it. The Belarusian Agricultural Academy in Gorki is the forge of personnel for the country's agriculture. Alexander Lukashenko outlined the need to modernise its material and technical base, as well as to optimise the educational process at this higher education institution. "Perhaps the training period should be reduced by a year. Or the fifth year, I insist on this, all students must be in the fields," the President believes. He explained that every year more and more young people from cities are enrolling in the Agricultural Academy. "They have had little contact with the land, they come and cannot distinguish a bull from a cow. Why do we need such specialists? Therefore, the entire fifth year of study must be devoted to practical training, let them learn under the guidance of teachers and specialists in the fields, farms, grain receiving points, and workshops, to see what agriculture is like," the President concluded.-0-

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