Creativity and technology: what areas of additional education are most in demand by children in the Grodno region

The Grodno Regional Executive Committee held a meeting of the commission on social issues of the Grodno Regional Council of Deputies “On the organization of additional education of the Grodno region”, the correspondent of sb.by reports.

This year, the region is focusing on accessibility, quality and flexibility at all levels. The task is not just to increase the coverage of children in circles, but to focus on technical creativity and other popular areas. At the beginning of the year, 1,450 programs on 15 profiles are being implemented in the institutions of the region, which allows satisfying different interests and needs.

The most popular is the artistic direction. The number of modern associations is increasing: robotics, artificial intelligence, graphic design, flight simulators, journalism, media creativity. Due attention is also paid to the development of technical creativity.

Elena Pasyuta, Chairman of the Grodno Regional Council of Deputies, noted the need to discuss again how children spend their free time:

- There is much talk today about the fact that the younger generation spends a lot of time on social networks, in various telegram channels, they are bloggers themselves to express themselves in this way. The task of adults is to regulate these processes. Therefore, the extracurricular employment of us deputies is very disturbing. First of all, we want to find new forms of work with young people, teach them additional skills and competencies, and talk about the need to benefit society. The spectrum of additional education for children and young people is really wide: these are various schools of arts, palaces of creativity, circles and elective classes at educational institutions. The guys themselves during communication talk about finding a place for self-expression, classes to their liking. Therefore, it is so important to discuss what are the difficulties in organizing additional education in the area that it is necessary to do so that every child finds his place in life.

Elena Pasyuta stressed that it is very important to pay attention to the opportunities of children in rural areas:

- First of all, we are talking about the organization of transportation of rural schoolchildren to the place of additional education. If we talk about urban students, then it is important not to get lost in the variety of options offered, and without the help of parents can not do. This topic is especially important during the holidays. This is an opportunity to get an additional education, to be busy. Parents are in the workplace and of course they worry about keeping the children busy and being looked after. A huge number of camps, school camps are organized, where teachers pay attention to each child.

Ruslan Abramchik, Head of the Main Department of Education of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee, said that there are 24 additional educational institutions for children and young people in the region: 20 district centers of creativity and four institutions of regional ownership:

- Currently, these institutions have organized the work of almost 3 thousand interest associations, which employ more than 33 thousand children. Also, such work is carried out on the basis of institutions of general secondary education: more than 3.2 thousand interest associations with coverage of about 42 thousand children. More than 4.9 thousand associations work in kindergartens of the region, 45 thousand pupils are engaged in them. In colleges there are 191 associations, covering almost 3 thousand people. The target of enrolment of children and youth aged six to 18 years in additional education last year was 76.9 per cent, compared to 70 per cent.