I quite often get questions about the new education standards. Many people are afraid that the changes to the law could mean they have to pay for education. But actually, that’s not the case: there’s no question of anybody having to pay for secondary education. Free secondary general education is guaranteed to citizens of Russia by the country’s constitution, and nobody has taken that guarantee away from them.

Under the existing State Education Standard children receive school education. This Standard is to be replaced by a new Federal State Education Standard that not only preserves the current number of teaching hours, but also provides for additional extramural activities - also free of charge to Russian citizens.

As before, the list of obligatory free subjects for schoolchildren includes Russian language, literature, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, history, social studies, art (visual, music) technology (work), physical training, geography, nature studies, foreign language, native (non-Russian) language and literature, informatics, information and communication technology, and everyday safety.

The only things that can be charged for in schools are extra services such as arts clubs, sports sections, additional academic course etc. The point of the new law in terms of the general education system is to give schools greater financial independence and the opportunity to manage their resources and funds more flexibly. For parents and the public, this means more transparency in the way funds are used, and parents will also be able to check how and where the money they pay is being spent. The law makes it obligatory for every school to report publicly on its financial activities (funds received both from the government and from other sources).

Last year the General Council of the United Russia party decided to appoint me to the Council on Quality of General Education in the Russian Federation. The Council is chaired by Viktor Antonovich Sadovnichiy, Rector of Moscow State University. The other members include Grigoriy Artemovich Balykhin, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education, Irina Anatolyevna Yarovaya, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Constitutional Law and State Construction, Oleg Viktorovich Morozov, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, and other equally reputable public figures. The Council meets on a regular basis and produces proposals and recommendations for the relevant ministries and departments.

To be honest, I was really interested by the invitation to join the Council, because young people’s problems and quality of education are things that concern me both as a people’s deputy and as the head of a charity that works on youth projects, including the USG hotline… and actually also as someone who has not yet reached the age of 30. . I know about young people’s problems firsthand: I hear about many of them from the pupils themselves and their teachers (some write to me at my website and I speak to others on my visits to the regions). There have even been cases where head teachers have come to my voters’ surgery in Nizhnekamsk asking for help.

So in short, I’m very pleased to be a member of the Education Council, because I think my experience could be useful in addressing a lot of issues. I like the fact that the Council members and invited experts don’t just meet to talk about the issues, but actually come up with concrete proposals and are sincere in their efforts to improve many aspects of modern education and to achieve results.

And just as important is that fact that they discuss genuinely relevant topics and issues. For example, in the middle of September the Council held an off-site meeting on healthcare, physical education and healthy meals for pupils in general education schools.

For the first time in its history the Council decided to meet not in MSU, but in one of the best schools in Moscow – “Health School” No.1317. That school really has created excellent conditions for teaching and developing the children. It combines a general education school with in-depth study of individual subjects, as well as an extramural education centre. In other words, after lessons, which usually end in the morning, the children have the opportunity to stay behind and continue their studies in various sections and clubs, of which there are more than 45.

The academic and health arrangements are truly excellent in that school, but it’s really a model school - one of very few. Overall, the child health situation in Russian schools today is not too optimistic. There’s a shortage of PT teachers, the sports halls aren’t in great shape and there aren’t enough sports sections and clubs. These issues were mentioned in a speech by Irina Konstantinovna Rodnina, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education. It was her working group that carried out all the preparations for this meeting of the Council.

We also spoke about another very important subject – school meals. This is another area where things aren’t too good. They showed a film about how school meals are organized in an ordinary school in the town of Khimki: the conditions are horrendous, the canteen is in the basement and the food for the pupils is prepared in a totally unhygienic environment…

There was a lot of valuable information on the state of pupils’ health and physical education in the presentations by A.G.Sukharev, head of the Child and Adolescent Hygiene Department of the Russian Medical Academy for Postgraduate Education, and D.G.Kholodnyak, the Vice President of the Sports Engineering Association; A.A.Levitskaya, Director of the Child Education and Socialization Department, spoke on behalf of the Ministry of Education.

On the whole, it was a very productive meeting, and lots of different points of view were heard. Viktor Antonovich said he was delighted that all the participants had prepared themselves for the debate so thoroughly. In the end, we agreed to support the proposed draft Resolution, which contains a range of systematized proposals on improving the quality of healthcare, physical training and meals in Russian schools. Later on, once all the suggested recommendations and amendments have been incorporated, it will be distributed to the Council members for final approval.


Amongst other things, the Resolution contains a number of proposals to the Government, the Education Ministry, the Health Ministry and the Federal Consumer Rights Service, as well as recommendations to the expert council on general education of the State Duma’s Education Committee and also to the United Russia party, which has a School Sport project. It sets out a package of measures. For example, we discussed the possibility of carrying out a broad study on the state of children’s health throughout Russia, of introducing new ways of organizing school meals (which have been trialed in a number of regions), and of introducing new qualifications for teaching staff – “Pre-School and School Healthcare” and “Nursing Care in Educational Establishments”, plus several others.

By way of contrast, I suggested holding the Education Council’s next meeting in an ordinary general education school without all the infrastructure that the Health School benefits from. This will make it clear not only what we have to aim for, but also where we are now. The Council members supported my suggestion.

On 6th July 2011, the Education Council held one of its regular meetings to discuss the modernization programme for the general education system, initiated by the Chairman of the Government V.V.Putin. As usual, the Council met in the main library of Moscow State University, and the Council members were joined by Igor Mikhaylovich Remorenko, the Deputy Minister of Education, Nikolay Ivanovich Bulaev, a member of the State Duma Science Committee, Galina Ivanovna Merkulova, Chairman of the All-Russian Education Trade Union, and other experts, including lots of guests from the regions, who also played an active part in the debate. The modernization programme coordinators, Nikolay Bulaev and Igor Remorenko, spoke about its aims and objectives and how it is being implemented, covering issues such as funding, allocation of funds between the regions and monitoring of results. One of the most hotly debated issues of this modernization programme to date has been the salary rises for teachers. The basic aim is to increase teachers’ salaries to the average salary level across each region, which is definitely an important step and the right thing to do. The teaching profession occupies an important place in everyone’s life and plays an enormous role in our society. Our children’s level of education, upbringing, culture, and ultimately their outlook, aspirations and desires as a whole, as well as the future of our country, all depend on teachers.

So increasing teachers’ salaries is actually about creating more respect for that profession. And also attracting young qualified specialists, because these days very few graduates want to devote themselves to the teaching profession, mainly due to the poor pay. The problem is that any new initiative, innovation or reform is always complicated and involves all sorts of difficulties. All the media are currently full of headlines such as “Schoolteachers’ Salaries to Rise 30% on Average from 1st September 2011”. Ultimately these changes should cover every school in Russia, of course, but it’s hard to achieve this in Phase 1. And I should point out that the funds are being made available from the federal budget to raise teaching salaries only in schools that are taking part in the education modernization project and have introduced the new salary scheme. Also, the pay rise doesn’t apply to further education teachers or administrative staff who also play an active role in running the schools. And there are a number of other issues and restrictions around the teachers’ pay rise.

You know, in my work as a people’s deputy I often come across cases where people are poorly informed. For example, out of ignorance, people demand benefits they’re not entitled to, or, on the contrary, are not aware of the subsidies they are entitled to. Of course, this is partly because the authorities fail to inform people adequately of their rights and obligations. But people themselves should take an interest, get information from social workers and sometimes demand explanations of their rights or try to find answers on the Internet. So part of our meeting was about communicating accurate information on the school modernization programme to the regions and the schools. The party, especially its regional branches, have the vital task of explaining in detail and in layman’s terms to the regional authorities, the municipal governments, head teachers and teachers the rules on allocating and distributing funds under the new system.

I liked the speeches by the representatives from the regions; they spoke about the issues on the ground, including some deficiencies in the programme. Galina Grigoryevna Fomina, a member of the Tula Region Duma, pointed out that the list of schoolteachers who will be getting pay rises does not include teachers of Everyday Safety, which means that schools risk losing the male teachers who mainly take that subject. She was also in favour of providing incentives to school staff who are not directly involved in the teaching process, but who bear the lion’s share of the responsibility for organizing the academic process.

Overall, it was a very informative meeting. As a result, we voted in favour of the council supporting the modernization programme and asked the party’s federal and regional branches to keep a particularly close eye on the efficient and timely allocation of federal budget funds.