Rustam Minnikhanov: “The future of Tatarstan and Kazan depends on education”

(KZN.RU, August 15, Ksenia Shvetsova). Today the Republican August meeting of education and science workers was held in the capital of Tatarstan at the site of the exhibition center “Kazan Expo”. The meeting was held by 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.

In recent years, Kazan has taken a huge step forward in the development of education, noted Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, in his speech. Even in 2006, 60% of teachers did not know how to use a computer fully, today Kazan teachers use laptops purchased for them with software, and 93% of subject rooms are equipped with multimedia gadgets.

“IT technologies have firmly entered the life of our schools. Electronic journals and diaries have been introduced, 100% of teachers have laptops, and meetings and teaching sessions are conducted through a video communication system”, said the Mayor.

Another important component of the education development is the training of modern teaching staff and teacher motivation systems. “A support system for teachers and talented students has been built in Kazan”, said I. Metshin. “A third of teachers in our city are under the age of 35; this proportion is higher than in neighboring regions, cities with over one-million population, as well as in Moscow and St. Petersburg”.

Irina Potekhina, the deputy minister of Education of the RF, agreed on the fact that the professionalism of teachers is the most important indicator of the level of education in any Russian region. “The ideal form of the school: when the student is very interested and a good teacher is beside him”, I. Pekhina shared her opinion. “In your republic, teachers put their hearts into their work, and we can see it from the results of those who pass exams and Olympiads.”

The national project “Education”, which is currently being implemented in Russia, solves two main tasks. It teaches us how to change quickly, responding to ongoing changes, and correctly evaluate the results. “Unprecedented funds have been allocated for the national project; our task is to use this money rationally. We must develop creativity in children, the ability to make decisions, set ourselves goals and objectively evaluate our strengths”, said I. Potekhina. “We work for children and their parents”.

Tatarstan is participating in 7 out of 11 events of the national project for which subsidies are distributed, said the deputy minister of Education of the RF. 875 million rubles were allocated to the republic, about 600 million rubles for infrastructure, and more than 274 million for other events. More than 3 billion rubles were allocated for the construction of kindergartens in the framework of the national project “Demography”.

Tatarstan needs to pay special attention to the issues of career guidance for children, noted the speaker. “Career guidance is a huge area of work that we are doing today. We must help our children become competitive in the labor market. Today this task is much more complicated than before, some professions are replaced in 5-7 years”.

Additional education plays an important role in matters of vocational guidance for schoolchildren. According to I. Potekhina, this direction will be developed actively in the coming years in the framework of the national project. “Until September 1, a target model for the development of the regional system of additional education will be approved. We plan that by 2024, more than 6 million children will be enrolled in additional education, including those living in rural areas and small towns”, the deputy minister of Education of the RF shared her plans.

The future of each region and city depends primarily on the quality of education and the level of education of children in schools and higher educational institutions, noted Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of the Rt. He thanked the teachers for their work and noted that their professionalism allows the republic to achieve high results in the field of education. “If we talk about our future, it will depend on how we prepare the younger generation. Therefore, our whole future is in education”, said R. Minnikhanov. “First of all, teachers solve this problem. For our part, we will build and repair schools, create infrastructure, but the main responsibility is on teachers. The directors should be an example in the matter of work”.