On Feb. 6, on the eve of Russia’s Science Day, President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the Council on Science and Education. He underlined the need for a top-down organization of the nation’s education process, to produce the cadre needed for assuring Russia’s technological sovereignty. While U.S. President Trump seems to be relegating the education issue to state governments and to parents, Putin is creating a top-down procedure to assure education for all, and in the fields that are vital for the future of the nation.
Putin told the Council members: “It is important to establish an ongoing exchange of the most effective practices. First of all, steps need to be taken to create an integrated, comprehensive system for training personnel for the technology sector—from school to university. Many of the Russian regions with a high concentration of industry have positive and much needed experience in this respect. We need to study their practices and spread them.
“There is another important point I would like to make. In addition to addressing current objectives and those of the immediate future, we need to create a reserve of competences for years to come, so that today’s schoolchildren, university students, postgraduates, as well as educational institutions—schools, colleges, and universities—would be ready to meet future challenges, handle rapid technological changes, and remain in the lead in the global competition even 15-20 years from now. This goal should be incorporated into the logic that guides our actions, and we should include it in the new Education Development Strategy until 2040,” he urged.
The President also noted that technical education should be fundamental first and foremost, and the necessary knowledge base in mathematics and natural sciences formed in grades 5–9. Therefore, the quality of teaching these subjects should be high in all schools in the country, not just in the leading ones. This requires increasing the number of teachers in priority subjects, and raising the quality of their training. It had been noted that, second to interest in IT by students entering higher learning, was the attraction of the pedagogical institutes.
Putin also stressed the possibility of work-study programs, given the desire, and sometimes the need, for young people to begin earning a salary at an early stage. These programs would allow the possibility of employment without breaking off a student’s continued education.
Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov remarked that in recent years, the ministry has implemented several initiatives aimed at improving the quality of engineering education. “This includes the Advanced Engineering Schools project. Today, 50 schools have about 250 major partners, including Rostec, Rosatom, Roscosmos, large resource extraction companies, etc.” He said that, compared to 2020, admission to engineering programs has increased by 21%, and in 2024, the share of first-year engineering students in the overall admission structure reached 41%.
