The prime minister ordered the removal of pre-requisites for corruption in education
At a meeting on state services in the sphere of education, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin demanded an early elimination of mechanisms for corruption in licensing educational institutions.
Putin emphasized that services in education are no different from services in any other sphere, but there is an important nuance – if you made a bad purchase, you can return it and get reimbursed, whereas in education, there's no return.
"People carry this baggage for the rest of their lives, and society has to deal with it as long as they are alive. A system of control and supervision in education should protect our citizens from potential risks and poor services," Putin said.
Today, Russia has about 140,000 educational institutions and all of them have to go through appraisal by experts every six years and pay for it themselves. They also have to submit numerous papers to different inspections. Putin said that universities alone have to produce about 250 documents with a total volume of 3,000 pages. He said that schools, colleges and universities have to collect what he called "heaps of papers" over and over again.
"Let's see whom educational institutes have to pay and how," Putin said in a tone suggesting that he won't take "no" for an answer.
The picture proved to be depressing. It became clear that all kinds of offices are collecting money for expert appraisals. They enjoy benefits because of their proximity to the government. Moreover, they combine supervisory functions with paid services, and this combination engenders corruption.
"These offices must be eliminated. I'd like the ministers to fulfill my instructions and report to me as soon as possible," Putin said, handing out the order like a military commander.
Igor Markov