Official website of the President of Russia

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The message reads, in part:

“Thank you for your message of March 17, 2009. I fully share your view that education and science are crucial to ensuring lasting peace, stability and progress in the world. UNESCO’s role in the development of international cultural dialogue and cooperation is of course a very special one.

Despite the difficulties associated with the negative impact of the global financial crisis, Russia has taken several measures to ensure state support for youth. These include the modernisation of higher education, student aid and help with job placement for university graduates.

Our country has made an active contribution to the activities of the CIS Interstate Humanitarian Cooperation Fund and has supported the Commonwealth’s joint educational and other cultural projects.

One of our priorities is the UNESCO project Education for All. Within the project, we plan to allocate to the World Bank substantial funding for implementation of a joint programme to improve the quality of basic education in the Commonwealth of Independent States, Asia and Africa for the period 2008–2012.

Russia will continue to contribute to the implementation of comprehensive measures for Early Childhood Care and Education [ECCE], especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. Thus next year Moscow will host the International Conference on ECCE. The conference will enable states to coordinate policy in this area through to 2015, and to share lessons learned with developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

We are also interested in continuing the Dialogue on Education for Innovative Societies in the 21st Century that was begun at the G8 summit in St Petersburg in 2006. Now it has been taken up by the G20. The first steps in this direction have already been taken; the Action Plan that came out of the G20 summit in London includes provisions for the support of employment and the promotion of investment in education and training.”