Education ministry explains why minister could not meet with MP

The Belarusian Ministry of Education has explained why Minister Mihail Zhuraukou could not meet with MP Hanna Kanapackaja last Friday. Kanapackaja made an appointment several days in advance. She wanted to discuss schoolchildren’s labour in agriculture and the death of a 13-eyars-old schoolgirl from Maladziecna during potato harvesting. On the day of the meeting, Kanapackaja received a phone call from the minister's office and was told that the Minister could not make it because he was going to meet with Senator Mariana Shchotkina. Hanna Kanapackaja was indignant.

The ministry's clerks have described the MP’s reaction as ‘a rude PR game.’ The Ministry has prepared a long response and described how many times Zhuraukou’s secretary phoned ‘the young MP’ to tell her that the Minister ‘was participating in another event appointed for the same time.’ Officials were indignant at Kanapackaja for saying that ‘MPs seem to be segregated into pro-government and pro-opposition ones.’ The people she wanted to bring to the meeting also affected the Minister’s decision, they said. Kanapackaja wanted to invite UCP leader Anatol Lyabedzka there. The Ministry of Education said that it was ‘a PR game’ and advised Kanapackaja to ‘learn business etiquette.’