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
"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."
"Today – and I am pleased to state this – there is a growing interest in the natural sciences. The reason is that we are entering a new and different phase in our country’s development. More and more attention is being given to real production. And real production without fundamental science is impossible. <…> And I hope that these activities, these fields – engineering, fundamental and applied sciences – will grow in popularity".
"We wouldn’t like to issue grants according to territory or region; we would prefer to make the choice based on how effectively a student association works and how prepared it is to do independent scientific research. It should be based on a fair competition, and best projects should be picked regardless of the region they come from".
"I welcome all kinds of movements and organisations, with different goals and philosophies. It is important that young people take an active stance, that they feel involved in positive processes promoting the development of our country and society, and feel that they are a part of the country’s development. I think it is very important".
"The research and development sector is still relying only on federal resources. It has weak commercial potential and, which is exceptionally important, it is poorly integrated with education. All of this greatly aggravates its personnel problems. It is obvious that while realising the approved programmes for the modernisation of science and education, we have to think about creating new instruments".
"I consider the establishment of national universities an important part of the development of Russian science. Two national universities have already been established, the Southern and the Siberian universities. They demand our special attention and development support".
"From 2009 the federal targeted programme on Scientific and Pedagogical-Scientific Staff of Innovative Russia will come into force. I expect that it will allow us to increase the professional level of our specialists and create a clear-cut system of attracting young and promising scientists. For achieving this goal we have allocated 80 billion roubles from the federal budget".
"As the saying goes, the new is the well forgotten old, so we are planning to bring back the support system for young people's creative endeavors in the fields of science and technology. Such centres existed in Soviet times, but they gradually disappeared. We are talking about creating new centres, societies, study groups. These are important mechanisms for talent scouting and for bringing young talent into science".
"In 2010 consolidated budget expenditure on education will reach almost 2 trillion roubles, and on public health, also 2 trillion roubles. That is several times more than only a few years ago. The spending on education will grow by four times and on healthcare by four and a half times compared with 2004".
