Official website of the President of Russia

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President Vladimir Putin: Good day, esteemed colleagues,

First of all, in the name of everyone here today, I would like to congratulate all those who have headed off to school, their parents, and all school, university and technical and vocational education teachers with the beginning of the new school year. I just visited a technical and vocational education establishment in the Moscow Oblast. It is a very good establishment. It is right that we have been concentrating more attention on technical training of late, because the economy needs highly qualified people. I must say that the Russian people have traditionally always had a thirst for education and for ongoing learning at all levels of the population. This is something that sets Russia apart from many other countries.

As you know, the extra money paid to teachers and professors for their academic degrees has been tripled as from September 1. I think that we should settle this question not just for teachers and professors in higher educational establishments, but also for teachers working in the technical and vocational education system. I know the government is looking at this matter. I think it would be best to settle it soon.

Student allowances for those studying at higher educational establishments have been doubled as from September 1. There will be further increases, though it is clear that these kinds of decisions have to be very closely in step with the country’s economic successes. Schoolteachers’ wages are also set to rise over the course of this month. But there are still a good many problems in the education system and a lot of unresolved issues, one of the biggest of which is the problem of safety.

I would also like to mention a number of subjects to be discussed this week by the State Council’s Presidium. One of these subjects is the issue of water resources use. Unfortunately, we do still have problems in this area. Various ministries and agencies are involved in this issue, including the Natural Resources Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry in part, the Transport Ministry and the regions. There are some facilities for which responsibility has still not been established. I will be discussing this subject with the governors this week, and we will find the common ground in how they see things and note their proposals in this respect. There needs to be work together with the government to develop a series of measures aimed at improving regulation in this extremely important sector.