VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
“We should avoid closing schools where they are needed. We should also improve tuition and make cuts on the expense of education – but how can we do it all at once? Basic educational centres with a network of affiliates might help solve the problem if we extended state-of-the-art online education”.
“The basic system was built fundamentally, and everything that helps us maintain the level of education in the highest bracket, certainly should not and cannot be lost. <…> However, we need to look ahead, look at current labour market demands and use modern teaching aids. Including remote learning tools – all of this needs to be introduced.”
“Children in rural areas should have access to quality education and modern learning tools on a par with their peers in cities and towns. The national programme for education has played a significant role in making that happen. Now almost all of Russia’s rural schools are connected to the internet. More than 1,000 sets of teacher's aids in subjects such as physics, chemistry, biology, and geography have been sent to schools located in out-of-the-way areas. As for small rural schools, we’ll continue to support those that belong to communities with an objective need.”
“I’d like to make is that teachers who live and work in rural areas now have the right to apply for reimbursements on their utility bills. A resolution to the effect was adopted late last year. And, of course, we should do more to promote culture and sport in the countryside and to support rural libraries.”
“Serious money will be allocated to support gifted children, including the organisation of school competitions, sports competitions, as well as the creation of centres for talented youth in the federal universities and distance learning schools at research universities. The country's leading universities – Moscow State University, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Bauman Moscow State Technical University and others – are actively working with prospective students – their future students. This experience must, of course, be distributed as widely as possible.”
“We can’t forget about social issues, such as teacher pay, particularly per capita financing, which we’ve been talking about a lot in recent years. Whenever and wherever this system is introduced, it results in higher pay for teachers. <…> In Omsk, Pskov and Kaliningrad we are seeing salaries go up by about 25%, and in some cases by 40%.”
“As for education, here I would like to emphasise that we will allocate for the first time (as we did not do in many previous years) significant funding to the Russian Academy of Science for attracting young scientists. We will allocate wage-rates and some money especially for this purpose. We allocated another two billion roubles for the purchase of new laboratory equipment. And we'll discuss other costs in more detail now.”
“The question of making changes to the pension system for leading experts was also raised. And this, in turn, affects another problem, that of recruiting new staff. So if the leading scientists could increase the retirement replacement ratio, then those people could be safely transferred to a different status, they would not be lost to science, and full-time jobs would be freed for young professionals. Incidentally, I promised that we would create an additional four full-time positions in the appropriate institute of the Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archaeology, so that they can hire new young professionals.”
“There were many good and efficient elements of our previous education system. However, we need to proceed from the fact that Russia is an open country, for our specialists as well, who may be in demand in foreign labour markets. This means that our diplomas should be adapted to the international standard, including the European, American and many others. To achieve this, we should be part of the unified European system of education. That is largely why we have joined the Bologna Process to integrate our education system into that of Europe. At the same time you are right that we mustn't lose what has always been our competitive edge. First of all, it is in fundamental sciences and all related areas, including specialist training.”
“In recent years, we have substantially increased funding for science as well as secondary and higher education. We have launched a national project in this area, and we have already spent 180 billion roubles on it. For example, new equipment and the introduction of modern programmes have allowed us to improve conditions at 30,000 schools with a total of nine million students. Overall, federal budget appropriations for education have almost doubled since 2006 - from 212 billion to 400 billion roubles.”
