Reprogramming

Education will cease to be a national project

The priority national project “Education” may undergo a transformation, turning into a “simple” state program. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, whose responsibilities include overseeing national projects, announced this possibility the other day. “This October there will be a meeting of the Presidential Council on National Projects, where we will consider the issue of transforming, among other things, the national project for the development of education into a state program,” said the deputy head of government.

“In my opinion, we cannot talk about downgrading the status of the education reform program,” Alexander Adamsky, a member of the public council under the Ministry of Education and Science, rector of the Eureka Institute of Educational Policy, noted in a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent. On the contrary, the expert believes, we are talking about transforming a project limited by a more or less certain period of validity into a long-term government strategy. “I am very happy about this, since any project activity cannot be continued indefinitely,” Mr. Adamsky emphasized. “If the mechanisms launched during the implementation of various kinds of experiments, innovative programs and “pilot projects” are considered successful, then they need to be extended to normal practice.”

Deputy Prime Minister Zhukov promised that within the framework of the state program, the main directions of the national project will not only be preserved, but also some new areas of support for education will be considered at both the federal and regional levels. The rate of increase in government spending on the development of Russian schools will also remain the same, the deputy chairman of the government assured. According to Mr. Zhukov, in total more than 43 billion rubles were allocated from the federal and local budgets for the implementation of the national project this year. “In general, the funds that the country has spent in recent years and will continue to spend on education are increasing every year by approximately 20-30%,” the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized. “And this trend will continue in the future.”

However, according to the Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko, subsidies to the regions within the framework of the national project will not be increased this year, although many governors would not be averse to receiving additional federal funds. “National projects are not only what comes from the federal center,” emphasizes Mr. Fursenko. “These are complex projects, and the role of the regions here, both from the point of view of implementation and from the point of view of financing, is great and exceeds the funds that come from the federal budget.”

“When the national project is transformed into a state program, regions that already have mechanisms for efficient spending of funds will have the opportunity to receive not competitive funding, but regular government funding in a larger volume,” says Alexander Adamsky. “If, thanks to the national project, a subsidized region has introduced efficient spending of funds, a new wage system, regulatory per capita financing, etc., it will be able to claim increased funding for its expenses.”

Accordingly, for those who failed, there is no chance of an increase in cash flow from the center. As we summed up the implementation of the national project, it became clear that not all regions were able to utilize even the funds that were allocated. “In July, the situation in 12 regions involved in the implementation of complex projects that did not fully fulfill last year’s obligations was reviewed,” Andrei Fursenko recalled, explaining that three regions ultimately had their funding reduced. In general, Deputy Prime Minister Zhukov promised to “more thoroughly understand the issues of targeted use, efficiency and utilization of budget funds allocated in significant volumes for the implementation of innovative educational programs.”

Mikhail MOSHKIN