Д.Медведев.Разговор с Дмитрием Медведевым.30.08.09.Part 2

Interview to Anchor of TV Channel Rossia's 'News of the Week' Programme Yevgeny Revenko.Part 2
August 30, 2009

Разговор с Дмитрием Медведевым.
30 августа 2009 года

Президент ответил на вопросы ведущего программы «Вести недели» Евгения Ревенко. Дмитрий Медведев поделился своим видением состояния и перспектив отечественного образования, результатов проведения Единого госэкзамена в 2009 году. Одной из тем разговора стала авария на Саяно-Шушенской ГЭС.

YEVGENY REVENKO: What is your view of the current state of education in our country?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: I think it is in a transition phase. The situation is better than it was in the 1990s, when teachers were earning practically nothing. I remember when I began teaching in university I had an absolutely laughable salary that worked out at about the equivalent of ten dollars a month. The main teaching programmes in many universities had all but collapsed, or else we were having to put them together again on the go, create something new, especially in the humanities.

We have achieved some progress of late, but we have still not yet managed to make a real leap forward. The Education National Project has been a step in the right direction, helping schools, raising teachers wages, introducing special scholarships for the best students, making it possible to buy new equipment for classrooms and give our schools a better technical base. As far as higher education goes, the best universities have received fairly considerable allocations from the budget. Overall, we are now spending around 1.8 trillion roubles a year on education. This is taking into account all the different sources of funding for education.

YEVGENY REVENKO: This figure is for overall spending?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: This is the consolidated spending on education. This is an unprecedented level of spending compared to what we had in the 1990s. But this does not mean that we have solved all our problems. The fact remains though, that we now have money in the education system, and we have the desire to spend this money properly. I therefore think that we are in an interim phase. We are no longer at the low point, but we still have a lot of work to do on building a modern education system.

YEVGENY REVENKO: Probably the hottest subject of discussion now is the national final school exam [EGE]. To enter university students first have to pass this exam. The main motive behind its introduction, as I understand it, was to give students equal chances of access to universities, no matter where in the country they come from. Has it worked?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: I imagined myself just now in the place of those applying for university this year, and I envy them.

YEVGENY REVENKO: You envy them?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Yes, I envy them. Let me explain why. When I entered university, and it was no doubt the same for you too, it was altogether a very stressful situation. As if it wasnt enough that we had to sit exams in school, we then had to sit entrance exams in the universities, and there we faced various uncertainties and a whole mass of other factors, not to mention plain old nerves before the exams. And also, lets not close our eyes to what went on not so long ago, and many years ago, when I entered university. There were people who got in through connections, people who got in by making phone calls and handing over money. They got their places in the universities, and in so doing squeezed out students who had actually made a real effort to prepare.

Now, a lot depends on the individual students themselves. No matter how much the national final school exam is criticised, and it is not ideal, has not been in place for long, and naturally still needs improvement, but the fact remains that it is a system:

a) aimed at fighting corruption;

b) making the whole examination process a lot more transparent, and, as you said, it also gives equal chances to students from the provinces and those from the big cities.

This is already a big step forward.

Of course, there are difficulties too, arising, for example, from the fact that students apply for various universities at once, sometimes making dozens of applications, and so on.

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