I. Metshin: “Over last 10 years, Kazan has built a record number of kindergartens and schools for a million population city”

(KZN.RU, August 15, Ksenia Shvetsova). In terms of the number of educational institutions built and overhauled, Tatarstan and its capital are one of the leaders among other regions and cities of the country. Since 2009, more than 100 preschool educational institutions have been built in Kazan, and another 11 will open this year. Three new schools will open the doors for students. Such rates of infrastructure renewal allow the republic and its capital to achieve consistently high results in terms of the main indicators of the education sector and remain a leader in the Olympiad movement of schoolchildren.

Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan,  expressed this opinion at the traditional republican August meeting of education and science workers. It was held today at the exhibition center “Kazan Expo” under the chairmanship of Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of the RT.

Mintimer Shaimiev, the State Councilor of the RT, Irina Potekhina, the deputy minister of Education of the RF, as well as heads of republican ministries and departments, heads of municipalities, representatives of large enterprises, pedagogical and scientific community attended the meeting.

The RT pays close attention to the education system. First of all, this concerns the development of infrastructure, said Rustam Minnikhanov, opening the meeting. Over the past 5 years 33 schools have been built in Tatarstan for 16 thousand students, 150 kindergartens for almost 22 thousand places, 711 educational organizations have been repaired.

A network of specialized boarding schools for gifted children is successfully developing in the republic and its capital. Today there are 15 of them. Centers for youth innovative creative and quantoriums are aimed at discovering the scientific and technical potential.

“Over the past 5 years, the consolidated budget of the education sector has grown by one third and exceeded 100 billion rubles”, said the President of the RT.

The development of educational infrastructure in the republic and its capital will continue. According to R. Minnikhanov, it is planned to deliver another 5 schools and 3 outhouses for more than 6500 students, as well as 28 kindergartens for 6070 places by the end of the year.

Such high rates of renewal of educational infrastructure allowed Kazan to become a champion city in terms of construction and overhaul of kindergartens and schools, noted Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, in his speech. 138 schools (142 buildings) and 50 kindergartens (52 buildings) have been overhauled since the start of the overhaul and construction of kindergartens and schools in Kazan.

“A record number of new kindergartens has been built in our city with million population. Since 2009, it was more than 100, and another 11 will open this year”, said I. Metshin. “Not a single city in the country, except Moscow and St. Petersburg, can boast of such rates of construction and repair”.

As part of the presidential program,  kindergartens began to be updated, a large number of which were placed in buildings that did not meet modern safety requirements and had numerous instructions from regulatory authorities, added the Mayor. Because additional works specifically for preschool institutions were included in the overhaul program, today all flaws were eliminated, he said.

Thanks to the allocation of additional funding, repair programs for 29 gyms and 39 school canteens were launched this year, as well as an unprecedented program for the repair of suburban camps.

“The results of all these support measures and systematic work are noticeable. This is a tangible growth in the USE results, and leadership in the Olympiad movement”, noted I. Metshin. He reminded that the average score for Russian language and mathematics in Kazan is higher than in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In addition, Kazan has been among the three leaders in the Olympiad movement for six years. This year, 85 Kazan schoolchildren became winners of the All-Russian Olympiads, while back in 2009 there were 28 of them. “It is important that the proportion of winners from Kazan is already almost 2 times higher than St. Petersburg”, marked the Mayor.

“The Republic can be proud of the teaching staff and the high results of our students in the Olympic movement”, agreed the President of the RT.