Professional Education in Physical Training and Sport
In keeping with the physical education and sport development strategy until 2020, 146 higher and secondary educational institutions (112 of which are overseen by the Education and Science Ministry and 34 by the Sport and Tourism Ministry) prepare specialists in physical education and sport. Last year, they prepared 17,000 coaches and physical training teachers and currently have a total of 87,700 students.
In 2011, the professional education will switch to a two-tier model: first, a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree, and a specialist diploma.
Currently, there are 1,176 postgraduate students majoring in physical education and sport. About 10,000 physical training teachers from schools overseen by the Education and Science Ministry undergo advanced training every year while the Sport and Tourism Ministry offers such training to about 4,500 coaches.
On top of that, there are 49 Olympic reserve schools in Russia, including nine federal schools and 40 schools under the jurisdiction of regional authorities. Aggregately, they have 8,383 students. In 2010, 488 athletes, or 58% of all students of federal state Olympic reserve schools, joined national squads. They won 961 medals at national championships and 96 medals at international championships.
New innovative educational institutions were set up in the run-up to the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi, and to the 2013 World Summer Student Games in Kazan. More than 300 employees of the Sochi-2014 Organising Committee and sports executives from the Southern and North-Caucasian federal districts attended advanced training courses at Russian International Olympic University, which was established in 2009. In February 2013, 500 students will have the opportunity to sign up for sports management and marketing courses; all in all, 2,000 specialists will be trained for the Olympic Games, using short-term programmes.
An international educational centre at the International University Sports Federation (FISU) was established in Kazan on a platform of the Volga State Academy of Physical Education, Sport and Tourism. The centre will train experts in implementing international educational sports programmes and projects.
A problem that is taking centre stage and needs to be urgently addressed by the government, if it wants to improve professional education in physical training and sport, is the shortage of physical education teachers. The phasing in of the third compulsory lesson of physical education in schools that began on September 1 last year will require an additional 30,000 teachers, according to specialists' estimates. The shortage of teachers can be ascribed to the few graduates in core educational institutions work in school in their specialization.
Also, in order to comply with the requirement to introduce a third compulsory physical education lesson, local authorities need to more vigorously improve the advanced training system for working specialists and develop the sports infrastructure in schools.
Another important task is advanced training for coaches and specialists working with national teams. This can be achieved, in particular, through exchanging experience with domestic and foreign sports schools on a regular basis - at seminars, master classes and during hands-on training abroad.
The development of the Olympic reserve school system, that requires a combination of the educational and training processes, is gaining importance. In this context, efforts to adopt a new federal state standard for professional training at such schools need to be stepped up.
Obviously, today education of sport specialists is unthinkable without ongoing scientific research. This will require expanding the network of laboratories in the field of sport, education, medicine and biology. Currently, these respective functions are performed by a mere five research departments at specialised institutes of higher education.
The educational institutions' facilities do not meet modern requirements either. Virtually all higher educational institutions need new sports facilities or the renovation of their old ones while 50% of them lack dormitories. At the same time the availability of modern sports facilities is likely to attract top-notch athletes to their training centres, something that is very important for the practical side of education at these higher educational institutions.
In 2010, under the Federal Targeted Programme - The Development of Physical Education and Sport in the Russian Federation from 2006 until 2015 - the government allocated 4,500 million roubles to develop the infrastructure of educational institutions placed in charge by the Sport and Tourism Ministry. The construction of federal training centres is currently underway in the village of Toksovo in the Leningrad Region and the village of Tchaikovsky in the Perm Region.
