Izvestia: "School to remain free"
Prime minister promises to tighten control over Unified State Exam
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin assured participants at a meeting of the Russian Pedagogical Assembly that school would remain free and that fundamental subjects would not be replaced with physical education and vocational classes.
Will general education stop being free? Will teachers get higher salaries? Will the Unified State Exam be abolished? These were the questions on the minds of teachers at the latest meeting of the Russian Pedagogical Assembly.
Andrei Fursenko, the minister of education and science, did his best to assuage their fears.
"There is no cause to fear the changes in education," he said. "Changes are not always uniformly positive, but times of change are not that bad."
But judging by their reactions, the teachers weren't convinced.
"Our future is being determined in teacher training colleges, but the situation there is disastrous," said Alexander Popov, the director of a Chelyabinsk lyceum. "In those colleges, stipends are lower than pensions. They are no place to determine our future. Pricey apartments have been built and nobody can afford to buy them. Teachers have nowhere to live."
Alexander Popov asked the prime minister, who attended the meeting as an honorary guest, to help young teachers and to improve the situation in schools.
Vladimir Putin announced that the aim of the meeting was to outline a joint action programme to improve the education system, involving both the government and teachers.
"Now we must look ahead and make quality education accessible to all children regardless of their families' social status or means," the prime minister said.
Fee-based education has long been a matter of public concern, and Federal Law No.83 has prompted a great deal of speculation and outright falsehoods.
"No one is talking about charging for education, not even for certain subjects," the prime minister said. "This is one of the fundamental principles of the Constitution, and there will be no deviating from it."
According to Putin, the budget-financed fundamental educational programme includes such mandatory subjects as Russian language, literature, foreign language, math, physics, geography, chemistry, history, biology, physical education and others.
"We have our own traditions and advantages. We will preserve the best features of our national education system, including those from the Soviet era," the prime minister said.
Despite the nostalgia for the old education system, the government does not plan to abandon the Unified State Exam. However, the prime minster acknowledged that were was room for improvement in the new system. Expanding public oversight over the administering of exams is the most prominent example.
The prime minister also promised to raise the average salary of teachers. Beginning September 1, 2011, the teachers' wage fund will grow by 30%. Over the next two years, the average salary of teachers should match the average salaries in the regions. Not all teachers will receive automatic raises. Raises will be merit-based.
There was a lot of talk about money at the meeting. Putin promised that in 2011-2013, about 120 billion roubles will be directed to the regions to improve the education system. The government hopes regional authorities will contribute half. According to the prime minister, Russian schools need this funding. Over 900 schools are in need of renovation, 700 of which are in a critical state. Small schools in villages are on the verge of dying out. As a solution, the prime minister suggested creating branches of larger schools in small villages.
Anastasia Savinykh
