More than 109,000 children from the Vitebsk region went to school today, about 12,000 of them are first-graders.

There are more first-graders this academic year than last. The general secondary education system of the region employs 12.6 thousand pedagogical workers, almost 80% of whom are specialists of the highest and first qualification categories. Educational institutions have also been replenished with 530 young specialists.

There are 450 institutions in the general secondary education system, 25 of which are gymnasiums, 2 are cadet schools, and 1 is a lyceum. This year, almost 96 billion rubles are planned to be spent from the state budget to strengthen their material and technical base, including 48.6 billion for capital repairs. Work on partial repairs of roofs, water supply and sewage systems, restrooms, and lighting systems with the replacement of lamps with energy-saving ones has been carried out in all educational institutions. Currently, 9 facilities of the education system are under construction in the Vitebsk region, mainly preschool institutions.

According to the Ministry of Education, almost 965 thousand children will start classes in Belarus on September 1, including 106.5 thousand first-graders. Compared to the 2014/2015 academic year, the total number of students will increase by 19 thousand people.

Alexander Kutynko. Photos by Anton Stepanishchev, "Vitebskiye Vesti".