#12
BBC Monitoring
New education blueprint adopted in Russia
Source: Russian Public TV (ORT), Moscow, in Russian 1100 gmt 25 Oct 01
[Presenter] A new blueprint for modernizing the Russian education was approved at a regular government session today. A unified state exam will be introduced in the country in three years, while 12-year secondary education in six years' time. Our correspondent Natalya Semenikhina reports directly from Government House.
[Semenikhina] Indeed, ministers endorsed the programme for modernizing the Russian education literally one hour ago. They are insisting on the word "modernizing", i.e. improving, instead of "reforming", since they want to highlight the fact that the Russian education over the last 10 years maintained its high level despite existing problems.
The main idea expressed at today's meeting was that the state should again make its presence felt in the school, that is to say the state should ensure that the secondary education is proper and free, and it should raise the teachers' status.
Already from 1 December onwards teachers' salary will double. Moreover their salaries will be paid not from municipal budgets but from Regional ones, and the government pledges its help to those Regions experiencing hardships in raising teachers' salaries due to objective reasons.
There are no changes as far as the length of education is concerned. At least six years are needed to switch schools to the 12-year-education system. The time is barely enough to re-write school books and change the programmes.
The unified state exam serving as the final exam at schools and entry exam at higher educational establishments at the same time will appear in Summer 2004. Its final version is not clear so far. Experiments are currently under way in 15 Regions to this end. But it is clear that students' free or payable education at a higher educational establishment will depend on how they pass the unified state exam.
[Russian Education Minister Vladimir Filippov] A decision has been taken to shed, in particular, the present unfair higher-education system, in which higher educational establishments set the [education] fees which have nothing to do with how pupils studied at school, how many points, one, or, perhaps, five, they were short of at the entrance exam, what their families' material circumstances are. Pay 2,000 dollars and you are a student and will not go to the army. If you only have 1,500 dollars and you are one point short, you will go to the army.
This system of payable education is unfair.
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