President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has confirmed the list of instructions following the meeting of the Presidential Council for Science, Technology and Education on October 25, 2005, the main subject of which was systemic development issues for national education.
The list of instructions reflects practically all the key problems raised at the Council’s meeting – from improving the legislation to taking concrete measures to modernise the education system at all levels.
The President has instructed the Government of the Russian Federation to:
Make amendments to the federal legislation setting the principle of free general school (full 11-year school course) education; make amendments to draft normative statutes aimed at creating additional quality control mechanisms for educational services at federal and regional level, including by the institutions of civil society;
Work together with the executive authorities in the regions to develop measures to make pre-school education more accessible and raise the wages of people working in pre-school educational institutions; support the state education loan system; improve healthcare services for pupils and students; organise activities promoting health and fitness during winter and summer holidays; modernise the system of physical education for children and young people and develop sports in educational institutions over the period from 2006–2008; reorganise the education system catering service based on modern food processing and transport technology.
Particular emphasis is placed on raising the prestige of the teaching profession, raising wages and reducing teaching burdens on teachers.
Together with the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (Employers), the Government of the Russian Federation has been instructed to prepare estimates of demand for specialists taking into account the real labour market requirements and economic development outlook, and to draw up proposals for setting objectives for training specialists, including through involving private and corporate educational institutions. They will likewise draw up general and sector-based requirements for professional standards.
The Russian Education and Science Ministry and the Russian Foreign Ministry have been instructed to draw up proposals for increasing the amount of educational services and technologies provided to the CIS countries, including an increased number of federal budget-financed places in federal state educational institutions providing higher professional education, and also for these educational institutions to develop a network of branches in the CIS countries.
The Russian Education and Science Ministry has also been instructed to develop measures to support and improve primary and secondary vocational education in the aim of making it more competitive as Russia integrates into the global education space, taking into account the provisions of the Copenhagen Declaration (on unified professional standards).
The timeframe for the execution of the present instructions is March-October 2006.