Concluding statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the State Council’s session on the development of education in Russia

Education is one of the state’s priorities. The additional education program, which is, in essence, a target program and a priority national project, is not only an instrument of solving outstanding, sometimes overripe, problems, but primarily a means of focusing the attention and efforts of the state and society on educational problems, a method of stimulating the search for more effective ways of development in this sphere, and an opportunity to encourage the adoption of necessary and well-substantiated decisions.

Today, we spoke about pre-school, general, vocational and higher education. The relevant State Council task force has done a great job. [Its head] Sergei Katanandov addressed this subject several years ago. In my opinion, the proposals formulated by regional heads could be used as a basis for an action plan to improve the system of education in Russia.

The system of pre-school childcare centers is a separate issue that is closely connected to demography. It calls for special attention and consideration.

One of the problems is a big number of understaffed schools and schools with an insufficient number of students. This problem has several facets, which the task force should focus on.

First, maintenance expenses are high, whereas education standards are low in such schools. On the other hand, I agree that we should tackle these complicated questions with due regard for the specific features of regions, territories and cities.

Nearly all the speakers here highlighted the need to apply new methods and forms of organizing education. Nearly all of them proposed the broader implementation of a system for the legally approved, per capita financing of schools.

But the latter is impossible without determining how much should be spent per student. This should be assessed according to objective criteria. We must know what would happen to this base upon its introduction, so as to preclude its dwindling and deterioration and rule out any temptation for the authorities to cut allocations.

Therefore, we should determine the volumes and sources of funding cities, regions and individual establishments that convert to the system of school financing suggested by the task force.
These changes should improve, not undermine the system of education. This means that we should act accurately, gradually expanding the base and geography of the experiment, above all by applying it in the regions that want to and are ready to participate.

We are talking about an experiment so far, but it should proceed on a formal basis, meaning that any legal obstacles to its implementation should be ruled out.

And the last thing. The principle of free education should be ensured by all means.
We have spoken at length about higher schools and their innovation activities. This is a crucial part of tertiary education. The state should support primarily those higher schools that can effectively dispose of state allocations granted for this purpose.

We will allocate 5 billion rubles (more than $180 million) this year and 115 billion rubles (more than $4 billion) next year. And there is no need to point at the Stabilization Fund. We should above all make good use of other allocations, whereas the state, the government and the Ministry of Education and Science should elaborate objective criteria for assessing higher schools’ readiness, not according to their respected names and titles, but proceeding from their genuine readiness for innovation.

Their future standing and status, their attractiveness to future students and the amount of state support given to them will depend on the way they dispose of allocations.

Today’s conference is a stage in a major systemic work to improve the system of education in Russia. As usual, instructions to the government will be formulated on the basis of this conference’s results. I expect federal and regional authorities to work jointly and effectively in this field.

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