Only 1.6% of Minsk schoolchildren study in Belarusian — horrifying Russification statistics
At the beginning of the 2025/2026 academic year in the capital, only 3,569 out of 223,756 students were taught in Belarusian. This is 1.6% of the total number of schoolchildren — the lowest indicator among all regions of the country. On average, Belarusian-language education covered 8% of schoolchildren in Belarus; only in the Minsk region was it 16.4%, which is more than ten times higher than the capital's level.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Education, a total of 1,058,693 students were enrolled in institutions of general secondary education in Belarus at the beginning of the 2025/2026 academic year. Of these, only 84,546 received education in Belarusian, which is 8% of the total. The remaining 974,147 people (92%) studied in Russian.
In other words, only one in twelve schoolchildren in Belarus received education in Belarusian.
Moreover, this indicator hardly changes across grades: in grades 1-3, it is uniform at 7.8%, and overall it fluctuates from 7% in 10th grades to 8.8% in 9th grades. This indicates that Belarusian-language education remains a similarly rare phenomenon at all stages of school education.
Where there are more students studying in Belarusian
More than half of all students receiving education in Belarusian are concentrated in two regions — Minsk and Brest.
In the Minsk region, 27,177 schoolchildren study in Belarusian — almost one in six (16.4%); in the Brest region, it's 21,436, or approximately one in eight (12.7%).
They are followed by the Grodno region, where approximately one in twelve schoolchildren studied in Belarusian (8.1%); Gomel region — one in fifteen (6.7%); Mogilev region — one in sixteen (6.2%); and Vitebsk region — only one in twenty-three (4.4%).
The Capital — in last place
Against this background, Minsk looks catastrophic. In the capital, Belarusian-language education has become a rarity.
Out of 223,756 schoolchildren, only 3,569 studied in Belarusian. This is 1.6% of all students in the capital.
In other words, approximately one in sixty Minsk schoolchildren studied in Belarusian.
When examining statistics by grade, it can be observed that the share of Belarusian-language education in primary school is slightly higher than in middle and high school. This might indicate a certain increase in demand for Belarusian-language education in recent years. However, the difference is very minor: even in the first and fourth grades, only 1.8% of children study in Belarusian, so it is too early to speak of a significant shift.
The capital's indicator is almost five times lower than the average for Belarus and more than ten times lower than that of the Minsk region.
Minsk, which should be the main cultural and educational center of Belarus, today has the most Russified school education in the country.
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Мінск і з'яўляецца галоўным культурным і адукацыйным цэнтрам Беларусі.