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Zykov M.B. Education in Moscow. - Abstract: European School of the XXI Century: Materials of the Third Summit of the International Educators’ Club of the European Capitals and of the International Scientific and Practical Conference “The European School of the 21st Century”. – Moscow, April 2001. – 232 p.
Mr. Yury Luzhkov, Major of Moscow, said as follows: Representatives of 27 nations are attending the summit. This is particularly important now when the education system is being changed due to the objective factors like information (p. 5) revolution, technological progress and computerisation which have already become the basis of the education progress.
During the past decade we have made many changes in Moscow: our education system is now variative and innova¬tive. There are now gymnasiums, colleges, private educational institutions and specialised schools which incorporate children's outpatient hospitals. In our multiethnic city there are 60 nation¬al language schools. We are aware that the world is continuously changing and thus we have to pay attention both to the schools and to their adaptation to the change in the Society. This is the only way to keep the education system up to date and to keep расе with the rest of humankind. We are interested in maintaining international relations and we are glad to see the Moscow Committee of Education to co-operate with similar organisations in other countries (p. 6).
Lubov Kezina,
Co-chairperson of the International Educators' Club and Head of the Moscow Committee of Education.
The international Community is entering a new millennium with a number of new grand humanitarian projects and programs, such as Education for All, Culture of Peace, and so forth. Education is a necessary element of a person's preparation for life and work. Society's existence, and moreover its progress, are inconceivable without the institution of education.
The Russian government, which participates in international humanitarian programs, pursues meeting its intergovernmen¬tal obligations in the area of education. Moscow's educational organizations actively contribute to that.
The International Educators' Club of the European Capitals was founded in 1999 in Kiev. At the last year meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, the club members approached our delegation with a Suggestion to hold the third meeting in Moscow. The Moscow government went along and, as you are well aware, we are here today. The International Educators' Club members from Athens, Greece; Bucharest, Rumania; Vilnius, Lithuania; Kiev, Ukraine; Kishinev, Moldova; Minsk, Belarus; Munich, Germany; Riga, Latvia; Sofia, Bulgaria; Tallinn, Estonia; and Tbilisi, Georgia are here today.
Representatives of educational authorities and institutions from non-member cities Ankara, Turkey; Astana, Kazakhstan; Belgrade, Yugoslavia; Budapest, Hungary; Yerevan, Armenia; Zagreb, Croatia; Lisbon, Portugal; Ljubljana, Slovenia;
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Madrid, Spain; Prague, the Czech Republic; Tirana, Albania; Helsinki, Finland; and Batumi, Adjaria, Georgia have also come. l am delighted to say that a delegation from (p. 27) Seoul, South Korea is also present at the meeting.
Such international organizations as UNESCO and UNICEF, the UN Program for Development, and various European inter-governmental and non-governmental institutions are represented at the Conference.
Schools of our countries have national specificities and their own strengths and possibly weaknesses. However, all schools are fulfilling similar goals, and educators often encounter similar issues. We share the field of professional activity. When we speak of development and improvement of our schools, we speak of European schools. This means that the desired result of teachers' work should be of a European Standard.
Ludmila Shvetsova,
First Deputy Premier of the Moscow Government
We, the Muscovites, love our city dearly and are proud that it develops dynamically and becomes more and more beautiful, convenient, and suitable for young and old alike each day.
The Third Meeting of the International Educators' Club coincides with a momentous date - the 70th anniversary of the Moscow Committee of Education. Naturally, this is not a coincidence. When the Moscow government was thinking of the best way to mark the anniversary, we decided that it would be most appropriate to celebrate this day with the Muscovites, Russians, and our guests in a business man¬ner. We wanted to give everyone an opportunity to seriously think about Moscow's education today, its history, and what needs to be done to improve the city education system. We wanted to share with everyone the best things about the Moscow education system achieved in the previous stages in its development. In order to attain this goal we have organized exhibits on the territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Centre, presentations on the achievements of the Moscow region's committees on education, various public actions and events for not only teachers, but also students, their parents, and the city public. This is meant to show both the authorities and the public that the Moscow education system is definitely important not only for Professional teachers and schools' administrative personnel, but also for the Moscow Community, which is very interested in its development. Multiple events connected to the (p. 31) anniversary is a good way for us, the Moscow administration, as well as the city residents, to say kind words to teachers, who day after day work with young children and teenagers, boys and girls, in school rooms, university auditoriums, day-care centres, and other educational establishments. They do it patiently, generously, and selflessly.
Today, I wanted to tell you, the heads of educational authorities in European capitals, that Moscow is proud of its administra¬tive team that works in the city's education system. It includes the Moscow Committee of Education, chaired by
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Lubov Kezina, and regional educational management bodies, headed by seasoned leaders that have accumulated a lot of experience in the area.
I am responsible for social issues in the Moscow government and am very pleased to be working with such a team of professionals. They ask a lot of the Moscow author¬ities and they are very persistent. But the source of all of their requests is not the notorious need of money and additional material, but well-thought-out and well-argued proposals on development of the Moscow education system.
We have seen remarkable things in all phases of the development of the Moscow system of education. I think, that the most interesting period has been the last decade. We received an opportunity to create variety and choice in education. Today, it is impossible to say that each and every Moscow family can choose a type of edu¬cation it needs. To attain this goal we would have to work a lot longer. But we do offer a very wide range of educational opportunities to the Muscovites. We provide for various requests from people of different health situations, social status, and so forth. This variety allows Moscow families to fulfil one of their main needs - a need to be educated.
Our city is not an easy one to manage. Different people with different incomes, ethnic and cultural needs, personal inter¬ests, and family traditions live here. Therefore offering each family what would be comfortable and beneficial for it is a no easy task. This is worsened by the fact that discrepancy between wealthy and poor in the city is rather significant. Today, ten percent of Muscovites have an average income 60 times higher than that of the ten poorest percent. You know, that for a sustainable city development such a ratio should not be higher than ten. We have to take this situation into account.
Over 100 different ethnic groups are represented in Moscow. The majority of them is composed of large ethnic groups, who have their own interests in culture and edu¬cation. It is important that we do provide these groups with opportunities to teach their children in their native languages and learn about their national cultures. In doing this we cater not to a particular child, but to interests of the whole family and group of people the child belongs too.
Moscow is a large university centre. You realize that many Muscovites want their children to have higher education. Therefore, we pay a lot of attention to the quality of teaching in the last grades in secondary school. We offer advanced classes in this or that subject to better prepare chil¬dren and make them more competitive when they apply to the best higher educa¬tional establishments in Moscow. This is a (p. 33) separate, but also very important and serious task that educators' face, and we try to tackle with it.
Managing the city system of education is a hard administrative task. I want to mention the fact that the Moscow Committee of Education has succeeded in providing for the comprehensive approach to issues of education through developing and implementing the programs Education of the Capital-1 and Eduction of the Capital - II among our most important achievements.
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Today it is not any more slogans and urgings, but clearly worded and specific requirement by the government and constant control of their implementation on the part of the city Committee of Education that stimulate active participation of various entities within the city management in solving educational issues. For example, today, construction companies know that their task is to build good quality school buildings in the certain terms. In the last decade alone, we have received 116 schools and 20 additional structures for elementary school classes from construction workers. The Committee of Health, The Department of the Consumer Market and Services, and the Committee of Social Protection are actively working on issues of health protection, nutrition management, and protection children's rights and jointly implement the program the Healthy Child.
I can give further examples of such com¬prehensive approaches to solving educa¬tional issues. I think you would have opportunities to see for yourself what the Moscow education is all about. I want to say right away that we are not just bragging about our achievements. We usually talk about problems, issues, and drawbacks. We like to share our experience, but it does not mean that we consider it flawless. Moreover, we constantly study and incorporate the best experience that exists in other regions and countries. I hope that the visit of a group of prominent European edu¬cators' to this Conference will allow us to enrich the Moscow educational system with new experience (p. 35).
Alexander Kiselev,
First Deputy Education Minister of the Russian Federation
I do not need to speak on changes that the Russian system of education underwent at the turn of the Century. Generations of Russian educators, scientists, and cultural figures make the Russian system of education more attractive to both Russians and those who like and respect Russia abroad.
I would like to stress especially the following. Those who give all of their energy to educating, training, and raising young generations, regardless of the country, share the same field of activity and have issues to work on together. The main task that we all tackle with is making sure that our children can stand on their own feet, their lives are lit by the light of high morals, and they have real values of human living. We want to provide our children and grand-children in the tough, contradictory, and highly unstable world we live in (p. 41) with an understanding that one per-son brings joy to another, living is joy, and human existence has high meaning.
It is as important, especially in this country, to ensure that each new generation does not undermine the historic tradition, but on the contrary, uses historical traditions to define the promising goals of future development for that generation and society as a whole.
The 20th Century experience has confirmed the unquestionable truth that if there is nothing sacred in the heart, the heart will get ruined. We should find sacred
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thing to pass on to our children. We should thoroughly comprehend the important mission that education fulfils. It is education that in the end of the day impersonates the spiritual link between generations, the force that holds society together and does not allow people to forget about their role and responsibility before the past, present, and future. Carrying the spiritual link from gen¬eration to generation is the essence of the distinguished mission teachers are to realize.
As far as problems that the Russian education faces today, we should refer to documents that have been adopted in the Russian Federation recently. They include the Federal Program to Develop Education in Russia, which last year was signed into law; the State National Educational Doctrine, which was passed by the Russian government in the autumn of last year; the plan of government actions on upgrading socio-economic life in Russia, also adopted last year; and the Address of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to the Federation Council, which makes clear that education is a priority area in the government policy of the Russian Federation.
Among the array of tasks that the government and society assigns to us are such central issues as renewing the content of education. Moscow together with Russia's 89 federation members is starting an experiment on improving the structure and content of education. A corresponding decision has been made in the Board of the Ministry and in the government.
We have finally set out to solve Problems that have been raised by the teachers' Community over the last 10 to 15 years. This first of all concerns a more profound introduction of developmental education. We do not want to abandon the system based on subjects, because it has proved effective over many decades. But we want to look at subjects not as goals of education, but as means to develop an individual.
Another issue of the developmental education is undoubtedly the issue of finding a better and more refined way to incorporate abilities and interests of the children into educational programs. We have to introduce the so-called profile schools (p. 43) where children would receive pre-professional training.
As far as mainstream schools are concerned, our task is to give them back their goal as an institution providing general education and overcome its major drawback, according to the majority of Russian teachers. Schools remind them of conveyors that are moving with a speed unacceptable to many students. The students do not have any time left to undertake creative tasks and master the knowledge, as at each class they have to receive new and new material.
We should get rip of the practice when secondary school programs сору university programs, as if our goal is to train a Professional expert in history, mathematics, linguistics, and chemistry, all at the same time (p. 45).
Vladimir Kinelev,
Special Representative of UNIESCO, Director of the UNESCO Institute of Information Technologies in Education
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The International Conference “European Schools in the 21st Century” is held on the brink of the third millennium which we increasingly understand as more than just a milestone of the world calendar. This landmark requires that we comprehend the past, urges us to assume new understanding of the meaning of life, imagine the foundations of the future, and most importantly to unite actions aimed at the creation of a better future for all living on the remarkable and pretty planet Earth.
From the previous Century we have inherited an unprecedented dynamism in all areas of spiritual and practical human activities. Even within the framework of everyday life, changes are starting to dominate continuity and uniformity. We have in fact entered transitional times, we are at the turning point of history, and the future is unknown.
This is the reason we are yet more capable of free choice of a better future for ourselves and for the world. This is the essence of a transitional period and specific advantages it provides. The major role in the development and (p. 47) consolidation of its positive trends is played by education experts and teachers, i.e. all those who are at the root of all changes.
Today, an individual has become the main factor of both development and risk. A radical and at the same time destructive discrepancy has emerged between humankind's everyday life and the global character of super forces and capabilities that the world community has achieved.
The age of new information and communications technology has resulted in additional dramatic changes in production and business activity of humans. Civilization is steadily moving toward building society where the decisive role is played not by natural resources and energy, but information and scientific knowledge, factors that will define the general strategy potential of society and prospects of its future development.
On the threshold of the third millennium, humankind is striving to avoid mistakes and delusions of the previous centu¬ry and with the assistance of education, science, and culture create the necessary conditional of sustainable development in the 21st century.
Therefore, education in the 21st century should become education for all and all life long and attain an ethical foundation and creative and innovative character. Education in the 21st century should be based on scientific knowledge, match cultural and ethical diversity of humankind, and suit the broad array of needs of social, professional, and religious groups and cultural and educational needs of the individual.
I am convinced that education in the 21st century will reach a global scale and will become open. It will in fact become education without boundaries(p. 49).
Rosemary McCreery,
a representative of UNICEF in Moscow
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Russia is the country with traditionally high achievements in education. We are happy to be in Moscow and witness that the city schools and universities continue to deliver to students high quality education.
UNICEF, as well as other organizations within the United Nations, such as UNESCO, is determined that high quality education must be available free of charge to all children all over the world. This and other principles, related to the right of the child for education, have been reiterated at the World Educational Forum in Dakar last year.
It we take a look at developments in education in the last ten years, we will see clear progress in many countries. However, achievements are not registered everywhere. It is especially the case in CIS countries, Central and Eastern Europe. In the next ten years, all of us would have to effectively cooperate to ensure that what has been achieved in recent years is not undermined by a decrease in resources and change in priorities.
We should acknowledge real dangers that threaten past generations' gains. We are to view education as a basis for building fair democratic society in all of Europe. Education is one of three goals that UNICEF is going to pursue in the next decade. The other two are providing for the right of children for health and participation in public life.
Education - and UNICEF never gets (p. 51) tired of repeating this - is a fundamental right, and not a privilege or benefit of some sort. Education should be available to all children, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, social origin, and so forth. Education should not only be open for everyone, it must embrace, include, and incorporate all groups that might be subject to discrimination and therefore find themselves on the margins of society.
As many of you have said today, education should acknowledge and take into account needs of each and every child, i.e. it should be individualized. Education should be based on active family, community, and children involvement in the everyday school life. The more we recognize the importance of children's involve¬ment in the functioning of the system, the better. Children are not objects of education, they are direct participants of the process of education.
Education must be comprehensive. It should prepare kids morally, spiritually, and intellectually so that they could appropriately respond to the challenges of the new Century. We should teach children to learn in the duration of their entire lives.
I would like to stress that in Europe we should first of all understand the special importance of human potential and appreciate the level of training of the teachers of all kinds. New investments into development of the existing human capital and preparation of new generations of educators that will teach children all over the world is needed to secure this potential.
To conclude l would like to say a few words in relation to the upcoming UN summit in New York in September. Not only politicians, but average citizens and children as well will come to the summit to share their thoughts. To use this opportunity, we in UNIESCO decided to organize a world campaign Say Yes for
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Children, whose participants will get actively involved in fight for children's rights and take upon themselves ten specific obligations. Among the obligations are: to protect children's health, create conditions for children's access to educa¬tion, and active participation in public activities. Anyone can join this campaign both by contacting us directly and over the Internet.
The future of humankind if fact depends on the quality of education that children around the globe receive (p. 53).
Lubov P. Kezina,
Chairperson of the Moscow Education Committee
Today's Moscow is a unique social entity. Its life is both complex and dynamic. Naturally, the city's education system has to respond to the rapid changes, preserving at the same time its cultural and historic traditions. The Moscow Education Committee is working toward a purposeful and gradual formation of a modern educational environment, which would ensure a continuity of the teaching-and-learning process, and stimulate creative, social and psychological development of each child.
The network subordinate to the committee includes more than 4,000 educational institutions, of which 1,500 primary and secondary schools, 200 professional schools, 140 additional education institutions, and universities which train teachers and psychologists. There is a developed network of teacher retraining institutions. Our institutions serve 1,600,000 students. The legal basis for the functioning and development of the education system includes the Russian Federation's Constitution, and the Russian Federation's Law "On Education." We are active in large-scale and complex domains, many of which are quite independent - I mean cooperation with ethnic-and-cultural institutions, international and interregional contacts. Therefore, we make an effort to ensure that our work be based on the latest documents on education adopted at the international level. These include the General Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on Children's Rights, the Declaration of Children's Rights, the materials of the World Forum "Education for All" which was held in Dakar in 2000, and the Resolution of UN General Assembly n world culture.
World experience shows that good results are achieved by emphasizing child-centered education, and by developing various education systems and forms of learning. The creation of such an environment is the priority of the Education Committee's and district edu¬cation departments' work. The first step in our education system in preschool. We have around 2,000 preschools which serve 200,000 children between 1 and 6 years of age. One of our current objectives is ensuring that starting from September 1, all five-year-olds go to preschool where they prepare for school. We would like all our children who start their first grade to have equal opportunities.
Moscow preschools are very different. They include ones for children with decreased vision, hearing or with speech pathology. These number more than 500. Several preschools serve (p. 59) children with advanced intellectual development,
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children who show inclination to creative arts or sports. Different child development centers have been set up, including one under the Moscow Education Committee - the Zaporozhets Center.
The idea of an open education has been much discussed lately. What is to be done to make our education truly open for the students, for their families and for the teaching Community? One thing we did was giving the students (especially high school students) the right to compile their curricula. Here the experience of our Finnish colleagues proved very useful. A delegation of school principals visited Helsinki to study the work of the local gymnasium. They considered it a very promising model, especially keeping in mind our plans to introduce specialization in our high schools, so that high schools become professionally oriented.
We have set up lyceums and gymnasiums for children with increased motivation. It was ten years ago, when the situa¬tion was quite different. It was very hard then, and even now, there are no legal documents on such institutions. The city government had to work out provisions on a lyceum and on a gymnasium. We were pioneers here, and such institutions proved very effective, especially for children who do want to learn. The students themselves said a very important thing - they consider it a shame not to do well at such institutions.
I must say that Moscow has quite a number of schools which specialize in a more profound teaching of one or several subjects.
We also set up special schools for chil¬dren with health problems, who are often sick. These schools offer them medical assistance along with education. They are called health schools, and their functioning is based on the joint efforts of educators and medical workers. Children and their parents do not need to visit doctors - all the necessary medical assistance is provided directly at the school they go to. There are schools for children who have a musical gift, and for those who are fond of opera or ballet. Let’s consider the performance of students of Galina Vishnevskaya's school. It is an ordinary comprehensive school. Galina Vishnevskaya agreed to be its guardian. The children who go to that school are fond of singing and dancing; professional music teachers help them master those arts. They perform fragments of operas and ballets which have been on the program of their tours to many foreign countries. They were even received by the Pope and performed opera parts for Him. Last year they toured Spain. These children are wonderful. What's more, they are not specially selected gifted students, and the school is located rather far from the city's center - close to Moscow's circular motor-road. In that district, the school is the only seat of culture.
Moscow also has a boarding-school for orphaned children, in which they are taught circus arts. The late Yury Nikulin used to take care of the orphanage.
The above examples show that we make efforts to set up programs which (p. 61) integrate academic knowledge and cultural education, so that the parents do not have to worry about where their dear baby goes and what she does after class. The students stay at the school all the time, completing the compulsory program and getting an additional artistic educa¬tion.
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We have made a conclusion that creating and developing a sector of private schools would not at all affect the nation¬al education system; what's more, it would become even more significant.
As of today, 250 private schools and 900 additional education institutions have been set up in Moscow with the assistance of the education committee. The latter are private, too, and this number is actually half of that in the entire Russia. Private sector, of course, has good school and bad schools. They do not compete with government schools, but rather complement them, opening more possibilities of individualized and variative education. We deem it our goal to further contribute to the development of private educational institutions.
We decided to create a field of innovations, and set up experimental sites. That experience was also exhibited yesterday. There are up to 10 experimental sites per district, with a total of 390 schools. The experiments are staged at the city level. When the term of an experiment expires, and we see some outcome (regardless of whether it's positive or negative), a decision is made to transfer the model to the district level or not.
It took us a lot of time and effort to bring the pedagogical science to Moscow's schools. It had somehow happened that traditionally the former Academy of Pedagogical Science preferred to work anywhere but in Moscow. But we were in a desperate need of practice-oriented scientific research. Therefore, we started to set up local research and highered institutions. Today, the city's system of education has a peda¬gogical university and an Education Systems Development Institute, etc. We would not be able to keep moving along without a scientific basis.
In Moscow, the psychological component of education functions in actual fact, not on paper. Each Institution despite of its type has a psychological service. The psychological-medical-and-social centers have been set up in each district, and the Main Psychological Center at the city level. There is an Institute of Psychology and Pedagogy which trains specialists for schools. We found out that there were a lot of professional psychologists, but few of them were familiar with educational specifics. The same holds true for journalists. Very often they simply ignore what education actually is, but attempt to write about it. Therefore, the Moscow Pedagogical University offers training to future journalists who plan to specialize in issues of education and pedagogy.
Moscow is a very complex city with many environmental problems. Certain neighborhoods and districts are ecologically unfavorable. We have been introducing ecological education for the past ten years. Ecology is a compulsory subject in our schools; it can be either taught äs a separate subject matter or integrated with other courses. A council has been set up in Moscow to deal with issues of ecologi¬cal education. G.A. Yagodin, the rector of the International University, chairs it.
The additional education system is actively involved, too, in terms of holding (p. 63) contests and Olympic games on different "green" issues. It is interesting to know that children themselves now propose projects in ecology
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which have practical outcome. Last winter children picketed the government building of one of Moscow's districts demanding that the snow-melting salt be no longer used because it harms the plants. The district government couldn't ignore the children's demand; the story was highlighted in the media.
At the moment, the mayor's program "My Courtyard, my Apartment Block" is being implemented in Moscow. It is aimed at making the city cleaner, cozier and more beautiful. Schoolchildren are also involved - they design their court-yards' landscapes and take part in competitions for the best schoolyard. We instructed all the district heads to pair local schools and preschools, so that high-schoolers would help arrange preschool yards and playgrounds. The competition for the best draft or model of a schoolyard design is already over in the districts. Each district is to come up with its top three drafts in the next few days. The committee plans to publish a brochure which will include all the most interesting events related to the competition.
As l have said, we are extremely concerned about children's health. Therefore, a special monitoring service has been set up in Moscow to ensure that children abide by a healthy lifestyle. A special department has been created in the Teacher Retraining Institute. At schools, higher requirements are set to PE lessons.
We also think that the heads of the Moscow Education Committee and of the district education departments should take care of their health, too, otherwise they would be unable to manage educational institutions, given their present intensive work. We have completed a health monitoring of district education heads. The results suggest they should go in for some sport regularly. In six month they are to appear for another medical examination.
This year has seen the first sport competitions among managers. The Central District was first in mini-soccer; the East District was second, and the South District third. At the moment the man¬agers are busy preparing for the competition of male and female volleyball teams. This activity is to show that physical culture and sports are indispensable for all - for managers, for school principals, for teachers and students. When members of the Moscow Education Committee visit schools, they always ask about the school's sport victories, and are eager to see its cups, prizes or diplomas. Physical culture means health. Children spend too much time sitting; they need more motor activity. I think that two PE classes per week are not enough; children need at least four, five or even more. We do not think that afternoon PE classes are additional load for children; on the contrary, it will improve their health.
Ludmila Shvetsova has mentioned that Moscow is a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional city. It is inhabited by people of over 120 nationalities, who profess practically each of the world religions. That is why the Moscow Education Committee set up around 60 institutions with ethnic-and-cultural components. There are schools where children can study their native languages, culture and traditions, along with the compulsory curriculum (p. 65).
They are taught Armenian, Azerbaijani, Hebrew, Greek, Lithuanian, etc. - I would have had to enumerate as many languages as there are ethnic schools. What
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is interesting is the fact that at home these children teach their parents to speak their native languages, which they have partly forgotten. Now children bring back home something they seemingly must have learned in the family.
There are different confessional schools in Moscow, which are private. The Moscow government released them from paying their rent upon the initiative of the education committee. These schools have the same privileges as government ones, all the more so since tuition is free of charge there.
International and interregional contacts are an important area of the committee's work. Russia has 89 regions; we have contacts with 86. Agreements are concluded with whole regions and with specific cities. As we see it, Moscow is not just the one who offers something to the regions; we, too, have learned much from our partners. In general, our relations with the regions are based on the following rule: to show all that we have, and to share it if needed. I mean share, not sell. Too many wish to sell things today. There have been cases when people tried to sell us our own technologies. They had earlier visited pursites, studied our work, and then offered us to purchase brochures which contained our own experience. We make a point of building the relations on a parity basis. Over the past two years alone, we sent 1.5 million copies of text-books to Russia's regions, to the CIS and the Baltic countries.
Moscow is the single constituent area of the Russian Federation where children's textbooks are completely paid for from the local budget. Moscow's System of Publishing free textbooks received the Prize of the Russian Federation's President (p. 67).
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Zykov M.B. Education in Moscow. - Abstract: European School of the XXI Century: Materials of the Third Summit of the International Educators’ Club of the European Capitals and of the International Scientific and Practical Conference “The European School of the 21st Century”. – Moscow, April 2001. – 232 p.
Mr. Yury Luzhkov, Major of Moscow, said as follows: Representatives of 27 nations are attending the summit. This is particularly important now when the education system is being changed due to the objective factors like information (p. 5) revolution, technological progress and computerisation which have already become the basis of the education progress.
During the past decade we have made many changes in Moscow: our education system is now variative and innova¬tive. There are now gymnasiums, colleges, private educational institutions and specialised schools which incorporate children's outpatient hospitals. In our multiethnic city there are 60 nation¬al language schools. We are aware that the world is continuously changing and thus we have to pay attention both to the schools and to their adaptation to the change in the Society. This is the only way to keep the education system up to date and to keep расе with the rest of humankind. We are interested in maintaining international relations and we are glad to see the Moscow Committee of Education to co-operate with similar organisations in other countries (p. 6).
Lubov Kezina,
Co-chairperson of the International Educators' Club and Head of the Moscow Committee of Education.
The international Community is entering a new millennium with a number of new grand humanitarian projects and programs, such as Education for All, Culture of Peace, and so forth. Education is a necessary element of a person's preparation for life and work. Society's existence, and moreover its progress, are inconceivable without the institution of education.
The Russian government, which participates in international humanitarian programs, pursues meeting its intergovernmen¬tal obligations in the area of education. Moscow's educational organizations actively contribute to that.
The International Educators' Club of the European Capitals was founded in 1999 in Kiev. At the last year meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, the club members approached our delegation with a Suggestion to hold the third meeting in Moscow. The Moscow government went along and, as you are well aware, we are here today. The International Educators' Club members from Athens, Greece; Bucharest, Rumania; Vilnius, Lithuania; Kiev, Ukraine; Kishinev, Moldova; Minsk, Belarus; Munich, Germany; Riga, Latvia; Sofia, Bulgaria; Tallinn, Estonia; and Tbilisi, Georgia are here today.
Representatives of educational authorities and institutions from non-member cities Ankara, Turkey; Astana, Kazakhstan; Belgrade, Yugoslavia; Budapest, Hungary; Yerevan, Armenia; Zagreb, Croatia; Lisbon, Portugal; Ljubljana, Slovenia;
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Madrid, Spain; Prague, the Czech Republic; Tirana, Albania; Helsinki, Finland; and Batumi, Adjaria, Georgia have also come. l am delighted to say that a delegation from (p. 27) Seoul, South Korea is also present at the meeting.
Such international organizations as UNESCO and UNICEF, the UN Program for Development, and various European inter-governmental and non-governmental institutions are represented at the Conference.
Schools of our countries have national specificities and their own strengths and possibly weaknesses. However, all schools are fulfilling similar goals, and educators often encounter similar issues. We share the field of professional activity. When we speak of development and improvement of our schools, we speak of European schools. This means that the desired result of teachers' work should be of a European Standard.
Ludmila Shvetsova,
First Deputy Premier of the Moscow Government
We, the Muscovites, love our city dearly and are proud that it develops dynamically and becomes more and more beautiful, convenient, and suitable for young and old alike each day.
The Third Meeting of the International Educators' Club coincides with a momentous date - the 70th anniversary of the Moscow Committee of Education. Naturally, this is not a coincidence. When the Moscow government was thinking of the best way to mark the anniversary, we decided that it would be most appropriate to celebrate this day with the Muscovites, Russians, and our guests in a business man¬ner. We wanted to give everyone an opportunity to seriously think about Moscow's education today, its history, and what needs to be done to improve the city education system. We wanted to share with everyone the best things about the Moscow education system achieved in the previous stages in its development. In order to attain this goal we have organized exhibits on the territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Centre, presentations on the achievements of the Moscow region's committees on education, various public actions and events for not only teachers, but also students, their parents, and the city public. This is meant to show both the authorities and the public that the Moscow education system is definitely important not only for Professional teachers and schools' administrative personnel, but also for the Moscow Community, which is very interested in its development. Multiple events connected to the (p. 31) anniversary is a good way for us, the Moscow administration, as well as the city residents, to say kind words to teachers, who day after day work with young children and teenagers, boys and girls, in school rooms, university auditoriums, day-care centres, and other educational establishments. They do it patiently, generously, and selflessly.
Today, I wanted to tell you, the heads of educational authorities in European capitals, that Moscow is proud of its administra¬tive team that works in the city's education system. It includes the Moscow Committee of Education, chaired by
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Lubov Kezina, and regional educational management bodies, headed by seasoned leaders that have accumulated a lot of experience in the area.
I am responsible for social issues in the Moscow government and am very pleased to be working with such a team of professionals. They ask a lot of the Moscow author¬ities and they are very persistent. But the source of all of their requests is not the notorious need of money and additional material, but well-thought-out and well-argued proposals on development of the Moscow education system.
We have seen remarkable things in all phases of the development of the Moscow system of education. I think, that the most interesting period has been the last decade. We received an opportunity to create variety and choice in education. Today, it is impossible to say that each and every Moscow family can choose a type of edu¬cation it needs. To attain this goal we would have to work a lot longer. But we do offer a very wide range of educational opportunities to the Muscovites. We provide for various requests from people of different health situations, social status, and so forth. This variety allows Moscow families to fulfil one of their main needs - a need to be educated.
Our city is not an easy one to manage. Different people with different incomes, ethnic and cultural needs, personal inter¬ests, and family traditions live here. Therefore offering each family what would be comfortable and beneficial for it is a no easy task. This is worsened by the fact that discrepancy between wealthy and poor in the city is rather significant. Today, ten percent of Muscovites have an average income 60 times higher than that of the ten poorest percent. You know, that for a sustainable city development such a ratio should not be higher than ten. We have to take this situation into account.
Over 100 different ethnic groups are represented in Moscow. The majority of them is composed of large ethnic groups, who have their own interests in culture and edu¬cation. It is important that we do provide these groups with opportunities to teach their children in their native languages and learn about their national cultures. In doing this we cater not to a particular child, but to interests of the whole family and group of people the child belongs too.
Moscow is a large university centre. You realize that many Muscovites want their children to have higher education. Therefore, we pay a lot of attention to the quality of teaching in the last grades in secondary school. We offer advanced classes in this or that subject to better prepare chil¬dren and make them more competitive when they apply to the best higher educa¬tional establishments in Moscow. This is a (p. 33) separate, but also very important and serious task that educators' face, and we try to tackle with it.
Managing the city system of education is a hard administrative task. I want to mention the fact that the Moscow Committee of Education has succeeded in providing for the comprehensive approach to issues of education through developing and implementing the programs Education of the Capital-1 and Eduction of the Capital - II among our most important achievements.
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Today it is not any more slogans and urgings, but clearly worded and specific requirement by the government and constant control of their implementation on the part of the city Committee of Education that stimulate active participation of various entities within the city management in solving educational issues. For example, today, construction companies know that their task is to build good quality school buildings in the certain terms. In the last decade alone, we have received 116 schools and 20 additional structures for elementary school classes from construction workers. The Committee of Health, The Department of the Consumer Market and Services, and the Committee of Social Protection are actively working on issues of health protection, nutrition management, and protection children's rights and jointly implement the program the Healthy Child.
I can give further examples of such com¬prehensive approaches to solving educa¬tional issues. I think you would have opportunities to see for yourself what the Moscow education is all about. I want to say right away that we are not just bragging about our achievements. We usually talk about problems, issues, and drawbacks. We like to share our experience, but it does not mean that we consider it flawless. Moreover, we constantly study and incorporate the best experience that exists in other regions and countries. I hope that the visit of a group of prominent European edu¬cators' to this Conference will allow us to enrich the Moscow educational system with new experience (p. 35).
Alexander Kiselev,
First Deputy Education Minister of the Russian Federation
I do not need to speak on changes that the Russian system of education underwent at the turn of the Century. Generations of Russian educators, scientists, and cultural figures make the Russian system of education more attractive to both Russians and those who like and respect Russia abroad.
I would like to stress especially the following. Those who give all of their energy to educating, training, and raising young generations, regardless of the country, share the same field of activity and have issues to work on together. The main task that we all tackle with is making sure that our children can stand on their own feet, their lives are lit by the light of high morals, and they have real values of human living. We want to provide our children and grand-children in the tough, contradictory, and highly unstable world we live in (p. 41) with an understanding that one per-son brings joy to another, living is joy, and human existence has high meaning.
It is as important, especially in this country, to ensure that each new generation does not undermine the historic tradition, but on the contrary, uses historical traditions to define the promising goals of future development for that generation and society as a whole.
The 20th Century experience has confirmed the unquestionable truth that if there is nothing sacred in the heart, the heart will get ruined. We should find sacred
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thing to pass on to our children. We should thoroughly comprehend the important mission that education fulfils. It is education that in the end of the day impersonates the spiritual link between generations, the force that holds society together and does not allow people to forget about their role and responsibility before the past, present, and future. Carrying the spiritual link from gen¬eration to generation is the essence of the distinguished mission teachers are to realize.
As far as problems that the Russian education faces today, we should refer to documents that have been adopted in the Russian Federation recently. They include the Federal Program to Develop Education in Russia, which last year was signed into law; the State National Educational Doctrine, which was passed by the Russian government in the autumn of last year; the plan of government actions on upgrading socio-economic life in Russia, also adopted last year; and the Address of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to the Federation Council, which makes clear that education is a priority area in the government policy of the Russian Federation.
Among the array of tasks that the government and society assigns to us are such central issues as renewing the content of education. Moscow together with Russia's 89 federation members is starting an experiment on improving the structure and content of education. A corresponding decision has been made in the Board of the Ministry and in the government.
We have finally set out to solve Problems that have been raised by the teachers' Community over the last 10 to 15 years. This first of all concerns a more profound introduction of developmental education. We do not want to abandon the system based on subjects, because it has proved effective over many decades. But we want to look at subjects not as goals of education, but as means to develop an individual.
Another issue of the developmental education is undoubtedly the issue of finding a better and more refined way to incorporate abilities and interests of the children into educational programs. We have to introduce the so-called profile schools (p. 43) where children would receive pre-professional training.
As far as mainstream schools are concerned, our task is to give them back their goal as an institution providing general education and overcome its major drawback, according to the majority of Russian teachers. Schools remind them of conveyors that are moving with a speed unacceptable to many students. The students do not have any time left to undertake creative tasks and master the knowledge, as at each class they have to receive new and new material.
We should get rip of the practice when secondary school programs сору university programs, as if our goal is to train a Professional expert in history, mathematics, linguistics, and chemistry, all at the same time (p. 45).
Vladimir Kinelev,
Special Representative of UNIESCO, Director of the UNESCO Institute of Information Technologies in Education
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The International Conference “European Schools in the 21st Century” is held on the brink of the third millennium which we increasingly understand as more than just a milestone of the world calendar. This landmark requires that we comprehend the past, urges us to assume new understanding of the meaning of life, imagine the foundations of the future, and most importantly to unite actions aimed at the creation of a better future for all living on the remarkable and pretty planet Earth.
From the previous Century we have inherited an unprecedented dynamism in all areas of spiritual and practical human activities. Even within the framework of everyday life, changes are starting to dominate continuity and uniformity. We have in fact entered transitional times, we are at the turning point of history, and the future is unknown.
This is the reason we are yet more capable of free choice of a better future for ourselves and for the world. This is the essence of a transitional period and specific advantages it provides. The major role in the development and (p. 47) consolidation of its positive trends is played by education experts and teachers, i.e. all those who are at the root of all changes.
Today, an individual has become the main factor of both development and risk. A radical and at the same time destructive discrepancy has emerged between humankind's everyday life and the global character of super forces and capabilities that the world community has achieved.
The age of new information and communications technology has resulted in additional dramatic changes in production and business activity of humans. Civilization is steadily moving toward building society where the decisive role is played not by natural resources and energy, but information and scientific knowledge, factors that will define the general strategy potential of society and prospects of its future development.
On the threshold of the third millennium, humankind is striving to avoid mistakes and delusions of the previous centu¬ry and with the assistance of education, science, and culture create the necessary conditional of sustainable development in the 21st century.
Therefore, education in the 21st century should become education for all and all life long and attain an ethical foundation and creative and innovative character. Education in the 21st century should be based on scientific knowledge, match cultural and ethical diversity of humankind, and suit the broad array of needs of social, professional, and religious groups and cultural and educational needs of the individual.
I am convinced that education in the 21st century will reach a global scale and will become open. It will in fact become education without boundaries(p. 49).
Rosemary McCreery,
a representative of UNICEF in Moscow
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Russia is the country with traditionally high achievements in education. We are happy to be in Moscow and witness that the city schools and universities continue to deliver to students high quality education.
UNICEF, as well as other organizations within the United Nations, such as UNESCO, is determined that high quality education must be available free of charge to all children all over the world. This and other principles, related to the right of the child for education, have been reiterated at the World Educational Forum in Dakar last year.
It we take a look at developments in education in the last ten years, we will see clear progress in many countries. However, achievements are not registered everywhere. It is especially the case in CIS countries, Central and Eastern Europe. In the next ten years, all of us would have to effectively cooperate to ensure that what has been achieved in recent years is not undermined by a decrease in resources and change in priorities.
We should acknowledge real dangers that threaten past generations' gains. We are to view education as a basis for building fair democratic society in all of Europe. Education is one of three goals that UNICEF is going to pursue in the next decade. The other two are providing for the right of children for health and participation in public life.
Education - and UNICEF never gets (p. 51) tired of repeating this - is a fundamental right, and not a privilege or benefit of some sort. Education should be available to all children, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, social origin, and so forth. Education should not only be open for everyone, it must embrace, include, and incorporate all groups that might be subject to discrimination and therefore find themselves on the margins of society.
As many of you have said today, education should acknowledge and take into account needs of each and every child, i.e. it should be individualized. Education should be based on active family, community, and children involvement in the everyday school life. The more we recognize the importance of children's involve¬ment in the functioning of the system, the better. Children are not objects of education, they are direct participants of the process of education.
Education must be comprehensive. It should prepare kids morally, spiritually, and intellectually so that they could appropriately respond to the challenges of the new Century. We should teach children to learn in the duration of their entire lives.
I would like to stress that in Europe we should first of all understand the special importance of human potential and appreciate the level of training of the teachers of all kinds. New investments into development of the existing human capital and preparation of new generations of educators that will teach children all over the world is needed to secure this potential.
To conclude l would like to say a few words in relation to the upcoming UN summit in New York in September. Not only politicians, but average citizens and children as well will come to the summit to share their thoughts. To use this opportunity, we in UNIESCO decided to organize a world campaign Say Yes for
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Children, whose participants will get actively involved in fight for children's rights and take upon themselves ten specific obligations. Among the obligations are: to protect children's health, create conditions for children's access to educa¬tion, and active participation in public activities. Anyone can join this campaign both by contacting us directly and over the Internet.
The future of humankind if fact depends on the quality of education that children around the globe receive (p. 53).
Lubov P. Kezina,
Chairperson of the Moscow Education Committee
Today's Moscow is a unique social entity. Its life is both complex and dynamic. Naturally, the city's education system has to respond to the rapid changes, preserving at the same time its cultural and historic traditions. The Moscow Education Committee is working toward a purposeful and gradual formation of a modern educational environment, which would ensure a continuity of the teaching-and-learning process, and stimulate creative, social and psychological development of each child.
The network subordinate to the committee includes more than 4,000 educational institutions, of which 1,500 primary and secondary schools, 200 professional schools, 140 additional education institutions, and universities which train teachers and psychologists. There is a developed network of teacher retraining institutions. Our institutions serve 1,600,000 students. The legal basis for the functioning and development of the education system includes the Russian Federation's Constitution, and the Russian Federation's Law "On Education." We are active in large-scale and complex domains, many of which are quite independent - I mean cooperation with ethnic-and-cultural institutions, international and interregional contacts. Therefore, we make an effort to ensure that our work be based on the latest documents on education adopted at the international level. These include the General Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on Children's Rights, the Declaration of Children's Rights, the materials of the World Forum "Education for All" which was held in Dakar in 2000, and the Resolution of UN General Assembly n world culture.
World experience shows that good results are achieved by emphasizing child-centered education, and by developing various education systems and forms of learning. The creation of such an environment is the priority of the Education Committee's and district edu¬cation departments' work. The first step in our education system in preschool. We have around 2,000 preschools which serve 200,000 children between 1 and 6 years of age. One of our current objectives is ensuring that starting from September 1, all five-year-olds go to preschool where they prepare for school. We would like all our children who start their first grade to have equal opportunities.
Moscow preschools are very different. They include ones for children with decreased vision, hearing or with speech pathology. These number more than 500. Several preschools serve (p. 59) children with advanced intellectual development,
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children who show inclination to creative arts or sports. Different child development centers have been set up, including one under the Moscow Education Committee - the Zaporozhets Center.
The idea of an open education has been much discussed lately. What is to be done to make our education truly open for the students, for their families and for the teaching Community? One thing we did was giving the students (especially high school students) the right to compile their curricula. Here the experience of our Finnish colleagues proved very useful. A delegation of school principals visited Helsinki to study the work of the local gymnasium. They considered it a very promising model, especially keeping in mind our plans to introduce specialization in our high schools, so that high schools become professionally oriented.
We have set up lyceums and gymnasiums for children with increased motivation. It was ten years ago, when the situa¬tion was quite different. It was very hard then, and even now, there are no legal documents on such institutions. The city government had to work out provisions on a lyceum and on a gymnasium. We were pioneers here, and such institutions proved very effective, especially for children who do want to learn. The students themselves said a very important thing - they consider it a shame not to do well at such institutions.
I must say that Moscow has quite a number of schools which specialize in a more profound teaching of one or several subjects.
We also set up special schools for chil¬dren with health problems, who are often sick. These schools offer them medical assistance along with education. They are called health schools, and their functioning is based on the joint efforts of educators and medical workers. Children and their parents do not need to visit doctors - all the necessary medical assistance is provided directly at the school they go to. There are schools for children who have a musical gift, and for those who are fond of opera or ballet. Let’s consider the performance of students of Galina Vishnevskaya's school. It is an ordinary comprehensive school. Galina Vishnevskaya agreed to be its guardian. The children who go to that school are fond of singing and dancing; professional music teachers help them master those arts. They perform fragments of operas and ballets which have been on the program of their tours to many foreign countries. They were even received by the Pope and performed opera parts for Him. Last year they toured Spain. These children are wonderful. What's more, they are not specially selected gifted students, and the school is located rather far from the city's center - close to Moscow's circular motor-road. In that district, the school is the only seat of culture.
Moscow also has a boarding-school for orphaned children, in which they are taught circus arts. The late Yury Nikulin used to take care of the orphanage.
The above examples show that we make efforts to set up programs which (p. 61) integrate academic knowledge and cultural education, so that the parents do not have to worry about where their dear baby goes and what she does after class. The students stay at the school all the time, completing the compulsory program and getting an additional artistic educa¬tion.
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We have made a conclusion that creating and developing a sector of private schools would not at all affect the nation¬al education system; what's more, it would become even more significant.
As of today, 250 private schools and 900 additional education institutions have been set up in Moscow with the assistance of the education committee. The latter are private, too, and this number is actually half of that in the entire Russia. Private sector, of course, has good school and bad schools. They do not compete with government schools, but rather complement them, opening more possibilities of individualized and variative education. We deem it our goal to further contribute to the development of private educational institutions.
We decided to create a field of innovations, and set up experimental sites. That experience was also exhibited yesterday. There are up to 10 experimental sites per district, with a total of 390 schools. The experiments are staged at the city level. When the term of an experiment expires, and we see some outcome (regardless of whether it's positive or negative), a decision is made to transfer the model to the district level or not.
It took us a lot of time and effort to bring the pedagogical science to Moscow's schools. It had somehow happened that traditionally the former Academy of Pedagogical Science preferred to work anywhere but in Moscow. But we were in a desperate need of practice-oriented scientific research. Therefore, we started to set up local research and highered institutions. Today, the city's system of education has a peda¬gogical university and an Education Systems Development Institute, etc. We would not be able to keep moving along without a scientific basis.
In Moscow, the psychological component of education functions in actual fact, not on paper. Each Institution despite of its type has a psychological service. The psychological-medical-and-social centers have been set up in each district, and the Main Psychological Center at the city level. There is an Institute of Psychology and Pedagogy which trains specialists for schools. We found out that there were a lot of professional psychologists, but few of them were familiar with educational specifics. The same holds true for journalists. Very often they simply ignore what education actually is, but attempt to write about it. Therefore, the Moscow Pedagogical University offers training to future journalists who plan to specialize in issues of education and pedagogy.
Moscow is a very complex city with many environmental problems. Certain neighborhoods and districts are ecologically unfavorable. We have been introducing ecological education for the past ten years. Ecology is a compulsory subject in our schools; it can be either taught äs a separate subject matter or integrated with other courses. A council has been set up in Moscow to deal with issues of ecologi¬cal education. G.A. Yagodin, the rector of the International University, chairs it.
The additional education system is actively involved, too, in terms of holding (p. 63) contests and Olympic games on different "green" issues. It is interesting to know that children themselves now propose projects in ecology
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which have practical outcome. Last winter children picketed the government building of one of Moscow's districts demanding that the snow-melting salt be no longer used because it harms the plants. The district government couldn't ignore the children's demand; the story was highlighted in the media.
At the moment, the mayor's program "My Courtyard, my Apartment Block" is being implemented in Moscow. It is aimed at making the city cleaner, cozier and more beautiful. Schoolchildren are also involved - they design their court-yards' landscapes and take part in competitions for the best schoolyard. We instructed all the district heads to pair local schools and preschools, so that high-schoolers would help arrange preschool yards and playgrounds. The competition for the best draft or model of a schoolyard design is already over in the districts. Each district is to come up with its top three drafts in the next few days. The committee plans to publish a brochure which will include all the most interesting events related to the competition.
As l have said, we are extremely concerned about children's health. Therefore, a special monitoring service has been set up in Moscow to ensure that children abide by a healthy lifestyle. A special department has been created in the Teacher Retraining Institute. At schools, higher requirements are set to PE lessons.
We also think that the heads of the Moscow Education Committee and of the district education departments should take care of their health, too, otherwise they would be unable to manage educational institutions, given their present intensive work. We have completed a health monitoring of district education heads. The results suggest they should go in for some sport regularly. In six month they are to appear for another medical examination.
This year has seen the first sport competitions among managers. The Central District was first in mini-soccer; the East District was second, and the South District third. At the moment the man¬agers are busy preparing for the competition of male and female volleyball teams. This activity is to show that physical culture and sports are indispensable for all - for managers, for school principals, for teachers and students. When members of the Moscow Education Committee visit schools, they always ask about the school's sport victories, and are eager to see its cups, prizes or diplomas. Physical culture means health. Children spend too much time sitting; they need more motor activity. I think that two PE classes per week are not enough; children need at least four, five or even more. We do not think that afternoon PE classes are additional load for children; on the contrary, it will improve their health.
Ludmila Shvetsova has mentioned that Moscow is a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional city. It is inhabited by people of over 120 nationalities, who profess practically each of the world religions. That is why the Moscow Education Committee set up around 60 institutions with ethnic-and-cultural components. There are schools where children can study their native languages, culture and traditions, along with the compulsory curriculum (p. 65).
They are taught Armenian, Azerbaijani, Hebrew, Greek, Lithuanian, etc. - I would have had to enumerate as many languages as there are ethnic schools. What
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is interesting is the fact that at home these children teach their parents to speak their native languages, which they have partly forgotten. Now children bring back home something they seemingly must have learned in the family.
There are different confessional schools in Moscow, which are private. The Moscow government released them from paying their rent upon the initiative of the education committee. These schools have the same privileges as government ones, all the more so since tuition is free of charge there.
International and interregional contacts are an important area of the committee's work. Russia has 89 regions; we have contacts with 86. Agreements are concluded with whole regions and with specific cities. As we see it, Moscow is not just the one who offers something to the regions; we, too, have learned much from our partners. In general, our relations with the regions are based on the following rule: to show all that we have, and to share it if needed. I mean share, not sell. Too many wish to sell things today. There have been cases when people tried to sell us our own technologies. They had earlier visited pursites, studied our work, and then offered us to purchase brochures which contained our own experience. We make a point of building the relations on a parity basis. Over the past two years alone, we sent 1.5 million copies of text-books to Russia's regions, to the CIS and the Baltic countries.
Moscow is the single constituent area of the Russian Federation where children's textbooks are completely paid for from the local budget. Moscow's System of Publishing free textbooks received the Prize of the Russian Federation's President (p. 67).
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