Development of the education system in the regions of the North Caucasus Federal District
Pre-school education: since 2006 the number of preschools in the district has increased by 78. Yet, 159,900 children (one third of all children of preschool age) are still on the waiting list for places at preschools.
A number of regions have adopted republican and territorial targeted programmes to establish and consolidate the material and technical basis for preschools and make quality preschool education accessible to all children. Implementation of these programmes will ensure that up to 58% of children over five years enrol at preschools by 2013 and up to 69.5% by 2020.
The district's secondary education system includes 3,523 educational institutions, including 2,261 in the countryside. In total, they cater to 1,124,400 children.
In 2010, the federal targeted programme "The South of Russia" (2008-2013) allocated 537,501,900 roubles from the federal budget for the construction of education facilities. In 2011 budget appropriations for the same purposes amounted to 497,300,000 roubles, and the allocation of 267,144,300 roubles is planned for 2012.
The district has a regional computer network connecting all secondary schools to the Internet. In the last two years the equipment at schools increased from 4% to 24% of the required standard.
The system of primary and secondary vocational education is represented by 177 state (municipal) educational institutions with 67,100 students.
The district has 127 institutions of higher professional education with more than 350,000 students in total. The following institutions have the biggest number of students: Chechen State University (20,118); Dagestan State Pedagogical University (20,007) and Dagestan Pedagogical University (19,456). The district exceeds the national average in the number of students per 10,000. The relevant figures for Russia and the district are 529 and 592, respectively.
The district authorities are planning to establish the North Caucasus Federal University, a major science and technology complex which will provide accessible quality education. The university will become a centre of the region's innovation and education cluster.