Teacher training in most of the educational establishments is based on a properly balanced relation between theory and practice. New curricula are being worked out for pedagogical colleges where training of foreign language teachers has started only recently. Teaching practice occupies a prominent place in the system of professional training. At the moment, however, future teachers at the Linguistic university do not benefit from real teaching practice. For four months, teacher trainees work as full-time teachers at schools of the Republic where teachers of foreign language are badly needed.
Much concern is given in Belarus to the in-service training of foreign language teachers.
It has a long tradition in the Republic. Teachers used to attend refresher courses regularly, every five years, at the Republican Institute or six Regional Institutes for Up-grading Qualifications. In 1992, an Institute for Up-grading Qualifications and Retraining of Educational Personnel was created on the basis of the Republican Institute. It is currently a leading educational establishment for teaching personnel in the Republic. Summary For more than half a century, a foreign language teaching system established within the framework of the former USSR education system had been in place in Belarus.