In Belarus, 25% of high-school graduates do not speak a single foreign language

Researchers from the Minsk-based Entrepreneurship and Management Institute (IPM) asked Belarusian school graduates to evaluate ther command of a foreign language. The poll returns revealed that 25% of school graduates said they did not speak a foreign language. 21% of grammar school graduates gave the same answer.

The majority of respondents said they had a basic or elementary foreign language knowledge level. The poll covered 1000 people in the second half of 2017:



The poll also identified gender peculiarities in the knowledge of foreign languages. 24.3% of men and 16.2% of women said they did not speak foreign languages. Only 4.3% of men and 7.4% of women said they had a high command of a foreign language.

Grammar school and lyceum students demonstrated the higher command of foreign lnguages, according to the poll results. Regular high-school graduates usually have the lowest command of foreign languages.

59% of A-grade students and 48.5% of B-grade students said they were ready to leave Belarus to work abroad on lucrative terms. This is a high migration indicator. Only 21% of respondents said they would never plan to work abroad: