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Medvedev to chair conf on accessibility of preschool education

There are now 7.8 million children of 3 to 7 years of age in Russia
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, May 29 (Itar-Tass) - Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will chair a conference on Wednesday about accessibility of preschool education. Vice-Premier Olga Golodets, State Duma Deputy Speaker Lyudmila Shvetsova, Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov, Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Supervisin of Consumers Protection nand Welfare) chief Gennady Onishchenko, governors of regions, and experts will also participate in

the meeting which will be held in a video conference mode with live standups from Moscow, Novgorod, and Novosibirsk Regions, a government press service official said.

In accordance with the Presidential Decree, dated May 7, 2012, "On Measures to Implement State Policy in the Fields of Education and Science", it is essential to ensure 100-percent accessibility of preschool education for children aged from three to seven by 2016.

There are now 7.8 million children of 3 to 7 years of age in Russia. As of May 2013, 5.3 million of them receive preschool education. A queue of 572,000 children waiting for places in preschool institutions has formed.

The forecast for birth rate and the number of children aged 3 to 7 indicates that there will be 8.7 millin preschoolers in Russia in 2016. In order to ensure full accessibility to preschool education by 2016 it is necessary to create additionally about 1.2 million places. It is planned to create about 755,000 additional places in preschool institutions in the 2013-2016 period, including 209,000 places resultant of construction and reconstruction of preschool education institutins and 646,000 places resultant of the use of non-state sector resources.

The total amount of resources to modernize the regional systemof preschool education, provided for in the RF regional budgets, is 760,000 million roubles. So, in order to eliminate the queue it is essential to provide additionally more than 430,000 places by January 1, 2016.

On May 24, 2013, the State Duma lower house of the Russian parliament passed amendments to the 2013 Federal budget and for the plan period of 2014 and 2015, providing for the allocation of 50,000 million roubles which are to be used as subsidies to the RF regions for measures to modernise regional preschool education systems.