"The next important issue concerns amendments to the law on education aimed at improving the mechanism of state assistance to people with children. In 2007, we started compensating a part of parents' spending on kindergartens. The regions receive relevant subsidies from the federal budget."
"Compensation totalled 20% of the fee [for a place in a kindergarten] for the first child, 50% for a second child, and 70% for a third and subsequent children. Total funding under this programme should be 9.5 billion roubles in 2009, 10.2 billion roubles in 2010, and 10.9 billion roubles in 2011. So far compensations are provided only to those who attend state- and municipally-owned preschool centres. However, they make up an absolute majority, 5.4 million children."
"In the future, we should create equal conditions and a competitive environment for state/municipal and private preschool centres, where budgetary allocations on kindergarten education and maintenance will be distributed through tenders based on municipal contracts."
“In education, we plan to concentrate on a network of national research universities, and on introducing a fixed per capita principle of financing at all levels. We will also pay special attention to developing new federal education standards, and a system of independent appraisal of the quality of education. We should support municipalities which use modern models for pre-school education. We should focus on upgrading the skills of school teachers and on other projects which will become part of the presidential initiative Our New School.”
“Starting December 1, 2008, federal medical and education establishments, as well as other federally supported institutions, for instance, in culture, will convert to new payment systems. They are designed to improve the quality of services, and to provide incentives for the best doctors and teachers. As we have mentioned, the overall labour remuneration fund in the federal budget will increase by 30 percent.”
"The special federal university network is a separate issue motivated by our plans to promote innovative development of certain regions. In this sense, Novosibirsk has a privileged status because you already possess a major scientific centre, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Nonetheless."
"Improving professional training quality is one of the top priorities of our Education project. Essentially, we need to thoroughly revise its content, bringing it up to a level required for modern high-tech industries."
"We should demand results from scientific research and should slightly change the structure of funding. Look at how the developed economies finance science. Business is paying two thirds of the funding, and only one third comes from the state. The latter is mostly funding fundamental science. Why? This is so because research is more precise. It is better adjusted to the interests of the economy and the social sphere. This is also a two-fold task."
"Ours is a big country. <…> We have places where ungraded educational establishments, ungraded schools should be preserved despite the high costs, although we all understand<…> that an ungraded school costs the state several times more than an enlarged educational centre. Not only does it cost more, its educational services are worse. Regrettably, this is so, but let me repeat again that despite all this, some of them should be supported."
"However, I have studied the experience of some regions and can tell you that if we guarantee safe and comfortable transfer of children into larger educational centres, we will upgrade the quality of education. This is certainly so, and probably only in this case can we ensure equal access to high-end education, and enable children from the provinces to study in the country's best colleges and universities."