Finalists of the 2024 Teacher of the Year, Educator of the Year, Principal of the Year, First Teacher competitions and Class Theme television show took part in the meeting.
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends, good afternoon.
Early October is a time when we have a tradition of honouring our teachers, educators and mentors, and we are holding this meeting with Teacher’s Day just around the corner. Yesterday, on October 2, Russia observed the Vocational Education Worker’s Day.
Of course, I would like to begin by congratulating everyone for whom these dates matter, including teachers, their students and pupils, as well as their families, parents, grandmothers and grandfathers, and all those who hold warm memories of their teachers. In fact, this covers our entire nation. There is a very close relationship between these professional holidays, which goes far beyond the fact that their dates almost coincide. In fact, we all understand that they represent different educational levels, but these levels form a single educational space.
Our common objective, including as part of the Youth and Children new national project, is to create a truly single and modern space that would live up to present-day requirements and generate the momentum we need in the 21st century. This must also enable us to deliver on our national development goals in general, so that students in schools, vocational training colleges and higher education institutions learn and adopt the values that bind our society together. This is a way for them to succeed as professionals and to move on with their lives with confidence by serving the country and its people.
Of course, you and your colleagues among teachers play an essential role in these efforts. I am delighted to welcome outstanding, talented, and dedicated teachers, educators and mentors, and would like to congratulate you on succeeding in various professional excellence competitions.
Your ideas and expertise, your accomplishments and teaching style are valued by your colleagues, and this is what matters the most. This is the biggest and most important appreciation of what you do – very important for you and for those you teach: for young people, for teenagers. Because learning and growing is always a collaboration of teachers and students.
Your strong and innovative educational methods must certainly be promoted in the teaching community. I know that you are quite active in sharing your experience with colleagues, also through participating in professional competitions. I know this because we have been meeting regularly. I hope that this work, which is supported by the Ministry of Education and regional authorities, will continue on a system-wide basis, along with other initiatives to enhance the professional development system for educators.
I know that in this respect, schoolteachers are interested in closer cooperation with major research and educational institutions, and industrial companies. Indeed, direct interaction with leading scientists, engineers, and representatives of other professions enriches a teacher’s expertise and helps them fine-tune their teaching priorities. I will ask the government to consider how best to organise such interaction.
I would like to address your colleagues from Donbass and Novorossiya, from the Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions. Under very difficult circumstances, you are doing everything you can so that children can learn, showing an exceptional commitment to professional duties and true courage. I would like to thank you for taking this stance.
Again, we have an integrated educational space throughout our country, and the high standards of excellence should be maintained everywhere, in all regions. The same applies to the infrastructure, which includes the construction of new buildings, the renovation and repairs of existing schools and other educational institutions, as well as the content of educational programmes, the quality of teaching, and enabling conditions for teachers’ professional growth.
I think you know this and see this at your workplaces: a great deal has been achieved, and I hope that you have noticed it. But there is certainly much to work on, too. I am sure that you, active and caring people that you are, have more ideas and proposals to share.
Once again, I would like to wish you all the best on your professional holiday, and congratulate you on your success in the professional competitions. Let’s move on to our work and share the ideas that you have in this regard.
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