| The district has a rather high number of education and information facilities: 16 schools, 3 kindergarten schools, 9 kindergartens, 10 houses of culture, 10 clubs, and 18 libraries. As it can be seen from Figure 1, the number of education institutions has sharply dropped as compared to 1986.  Figure 1. The number of education institutions in the Chechersk District as compared between 1986 and 2001.
There are 3 kindergarten-based schools, 8 secondary schools, 6 basic schools and 1 primary school in the Chechersk District. Basic schools have small numbers of children: 80-112. Totally for the district, there are 331 teachers for 2,607 school and pre-school children. Teachers are understaffed in 6 schools: the required staff should be 344, i.e. 13 persons are needed. There are 90 educators and teachers for 667 children attending kindergartens. Positions of kindergarten teachers are practically 100% full; there is only 1 vacancy. Currently, the district has 41 institutions of culture and entertainment (houses of culture, clubs and libraries). However, as compared to 1986, their number has gone down 1.6 times. The number of community service providers has sharply shrunk. If in 1986 there were 48 of them, today only 23 community services providers operate in the district (including 21 in urban and 2 in rural areas). The number of trade centres in the district is 88; 40 points of sale are located in urban and 48 in rural areas. During the visit of the working group to the Chechersk District, meetings were organised with administrations of rural councils and relevant stakeholders of the district level in the villages of Rovkovichi, Polessye, Zalessye and Babichi. As a result, an agreement was reached with the district management concerning the selection of the Polessye village as a priority. The village of Polessye is located within the area entitled to relocation: 137Cs contamination is 5-10 Ci/km2. The number of people living in the village is 522, of which 117 are children. The villagers gather mushrooms (chanterelles are sold). The village of Polessye has an outpatient clinic, a secondary school with a kindergarten for 135 children (Deputy Director E.A. Komissarova), a rural club (Club Director A.I. Bolsun), and a library (librarian N.F. Potapova). The school has 138 schoolchildren and 28 preschool-age children in the kindergarten. The average number of children in classes is 10-15: preschool-age children - 28; 0 grade - 10 children; 1st grade - 15 children; 2nd grade - 10 children; 3rd grade - 9 children; 4th grade - not available; 5th grade - 14 children; 6th grade - 12 children; 7th grade - 12 children; 8th grade - 14 children; 9th grade- 14 children; 10th grade - 13 children; and 11th grade - 15 children. Basically, the school employs local personnel, but there are no computer science and German teachers. The education level of children is not high; school leavers, as a rule, are not enrolled in higher educational institutions. Mostly, they go to medical and teacher-training colleges. However, after graduation they cannot find employment in rural areas. The secondary school with a kindergarten has woodcarving and macrame groups and a plot of land. The greenhouse (1,500 sq. m) is used to grow vegetables for school use; surpluses are sold and the money goes to repair the school. The grown products should be tested for contamination, however this is a problem because the services provided by the Sanitary and Epidemiology Station are not free. It is planned to set up a test field (wood) under the guidance of biology teacher G.P. Dudkina so as to assist the Polessye Forestry Enterprise. The rural club includes different groups, artisan (embroidery and knitting), singing and folklore. Discos are held (attended up to 150 persons in summer and 50 in winter), however there is no movie-projection equipment and a projectionist. The library cards are issued to 400 readers; the stock includes 13,000 books, but there is no on-going book replenishment. Large-scale information and education activities should be organized for the village population. Programmes on public radioecological awareness should be orientated towards various sets of people: different children ages and adult groups with different education and occupational background. Ecological education can help children bring success to their home and share it with their fellow villagers. Consequently, the new generation will be the agent of radiation ecology culture for the adults. Ecological education will help increase the general ecological awareness among the population, allowing people living in the contaminated areas to develop safe living practices, make adaptations to adverse environmental impact and improve conditions of life and work. Population of the affected areas will build interest in and demand for radiation ecology information and will form a new and better level of ecological thinking and culture. | 
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