MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/. The majority of Russians (86%) are interested in news about public education, according to a survey the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) published on its website.

"The vast majority of Russians are, to some extent, interested in news about Russia's public education system (86%), including 29% who closely follow news on the subject, and 57% paying attention to it on occasion. In other words, society's interest for news about public education depends on the situation," the publication says.

In particular, Russians pay attention to news about educational reforms, changes in the curriculum (35%), safety, incidents in schools (31%), training programs and educational standards (30%).

Among other issues, respondents mentioned schools making good citizens out of children (27%), preparation for entering universities (26%), and the condition of school buildings (26%). Every fifth person showed interest in news about career guidance or assistance in choosing a career (22%), interaction between the school and parents (22%), as well as information about additional educational programs (21%).

Half of respondents (52%) said teachers were their main source of information about the state of the education system, 43% prefer to get it from official information resources, such as, for example, the website and social media accounts of the Education Ministry. According to the survey, 27% of respondents leave it to relatives and friends to inform them and 16% rely on information from unofficial resources.

Parents and grandparents of schoolchildren noted in 37% of cases that their children or grandchildren had encountered false information over the past two to three years. The main source of dissemination of such information was the Internet - 22% of respondents reported that they had encountered it on websites, 19% - on social networks. About one in ten people (11%) noted that they had seen such information on television.

"The results of the study allow us to conclude that Russians are more likely to be adept in media literacy and critical thinking, at least in the case of news about Russian education. During the survey, 73% of our fellow citizens answered that if any information seems unreliable to them, they will reverify it," the research center said in a statement.

The all-Russian telephone survey was conducted on August 25-29, 2023. More than 1,600 Russians over the age of 18 took part in it. The maximum margin of error, with a probability of 95%, doesn’t exceed 2.5%.