ABSTRACT
Introduction When I first began to think about the topic of this paper, in July 1993, the new state of Belarus was in the midst of devising a national system of education based on the Belarusian language, history and culture. Since 1988 England and Wales has had a National Curriculum. It is based on the English and Welsh languages; its history is to a large extent British history, and texts by British writers – along with those of some American and other overseas writers in English – make up the literature syllabus. Yet, despite its name, we do not tend to think of our National Curriculum, as the Belarusians do their new system, in terms of nationality. Indeed, it has not been presented to us in that way. Its aims have to do with the promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development and with preparing them for adult life: they do not mention cultivating national sentiment.
