There is no school and there never will be

Regions suspend government funding for the construction of social facilities from the local budget

It was not only openly depressed regions that were under attack. On February 15, it became known that the construction of schools and kindergartens in the Krasnodar Territory had been frozen.

The order of Governor Kondratyev to suspend financing of the construction of social facilities is referred to by the director of the construction department of the Krasnodar administration, Alexander Madovsky, in his response to the city Duma deputy Alexander Safronov and the residents of the Lenin farm, who were waiting for the promised start of construction of a school for their children, but this did not happen. And, apparently, they won’t wait anytime soon. If they wait at all.

Veniamin Kondratiev made the decision to freeze funding in the summer of 2025. But he was apparently embarrassed to tell the residents of the region about this. It became known about him only now.

“In addition, we inform you that the letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Krasnodar Territory dated July 23, 2025 “On the suspension of procurement” provided information that in order to optimize budget expenditures of the Krasnodar Territory, a draft order of the governor of the Krasnodar Territory “On amendments to some legal acts of the Krasnodar Territory and the recognition of some legal acts of the Krasnodar Territory as invalid” has been prepared, providing for amendments to the order of the governor Krasnodar Territory dated January 29, 2025 “On measures to implement the law of the Krasnodar Territory dated December 18, 2024 “On the budget of the Krasnodar Territory for 2025 and for the planning period of 2026 and 2027” regarding the order by the main manager of budget funds of the Krasnodar Territory to suspend the procurement of goods, works, services by recipients of budget funds of the Krasnodar Territory, state budgetary and (or) state autonomous institutions of the Krasnodar Territory, received in the form of subsidies for financial support for the implementation of state assignments and (or) subsidies for other purposes and (or) subsidies for capital investments in state-owned facilities, in accordance with the list of goods, works, services that are not of a priority nature and (or) not related to a threat to the life and health of citizens,” says Madovsky, director of the construction department, in his response.

The official explained that in connection with the order of Governor Kondratiev, work on sending applications for funding to the Department of Construction of the Krasnodar Territory for the development of design estimates for new facilities has been suspended until the governor orders the resumption of funding.

Translated from the bureaucratic into Russian, this means that new schools and kindergartens will not be built in the Krasnodar Territory. No, not even like that: THEY WILL NOT!

The shortage of schools and kindergartens has been one of the most pressing problems of the rapidly growing Krasnodar for the last fifteen years.

Schools were overcrowded with students, and kindergartens with children. Children in Krasnodar schools studied in two or even three shifts. It was sometimes impossible to place even a first-grader in a school close to home.

Once, Vice-Governor Anna Minkova, at a meeting with parents of first-graders who did not have enough places in a school in the area of ​​new buildings, reproached them for trusting the developer and not asking when buying an apartment whether there were places in the school located next to their houses.

“It’s your choice, your husband’s, to work one and a half thousand kilometers from home and not take part in raising children. It's your choice to have children! Do you want me to say it this way?” - asked the vice-governor.

This caused a scandal. Now former vice-governor Minkova is under house arrest in a fraud case.

Krasnodar residents sent numerous appeals to the authorities demanding the construction of schools and kindergartens, organized signature collections, and held pickets and rallies. Public campaigns demanding the construction of a school on Baibakov Street, a school in the village of Elizavetinskaya, and a kindergarten in the Yubileiny district were covered in the media.

After the change of mayor Vladimir Evlanov to Evgeniy Pervyshov in 2016, city authorities finally noticed the problem and began building schools and kindergartens.

Since 2019, in the capital of Kuban, 4–6 schools and extensions to schools have been put into operation annually, with a total capacity of 5–6 thousand student places per shift. The problem promised to be solved, however...

However, as follows from a letter from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Krasnodar Territory to the organizers of the public campaign for the construction of schools, the number of schoolchildren in Krasnodar at the end of the last decade increased by 10 thousand people annually.

This increase in the number of schoolchildren was explained both by the migration attractiveness of Krasnodar and by the high birth rate of the early tens. Putin's generation of baby boomers went to school.

City social activists suggested that only a drop in the birth rate would save Krasnodar from a shortage of schools and kindergartens. And so it happened. The birth rate has decreased.

During the direct line in 2024, Kuban Governor Veniamin Kondratiev said that the problem of the lack of schools in Krasnodar had lost its priority.

Now it has become known about the suspension of funding for the design and construction of schools and kindergartens. Economic experts have long advised regional authorities to stop infrastructure projects amid the economic crisis and focus on social ones. For example, Professor Natalya Zubarevich.

Instead of the problem of a lack of schools, the priority for the capital of Kuban became the problem of a shortage of teachers in schools. Due to the shortage of teachers in Krasnodar, the practice of conducting paired lessons has become widespread: two eighth or ninth grades are in adjacent classrooms, and one teacher simultaneously teaches them an algebra, physics or chemistry lesson, running from one classroom to another during the lesson.

Representatives of the administration of the Krasnodar region have not yet commented on the news about the suspension of the design and construction of facilities at the expense of the region’s budget.

It is not yet clear what will happen to those social facilities whose construction is already underway. Thirteen schools, three school extensions and twenty-nine kindergartens are being built in Krasnodar. Whether they will be completed according to the approved schedule or will turn into long-term construction due to financial problems, officials have not yet explained.

Alexander Romanov