Medvedev, governors to discuss readiness for academic year

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will hold a conference Monday on the readiness of the system of education for the commencement of the 2013-2014 school and academic year. A government press service official has said the conference will be held in a video conference mode, with the governors of all constituent entities of the Russian Federation participating. Vice-Premier Olga Golodets, Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov, Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov, Alexander Gorovoi, First Deputy Minister of the Interior, as well as Gennady Onishchenko, director of the Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Consumers' Protetion and Welfare), will also take part in the conference. According to the data of the Russian Interior Ministry, the new academic year will begin in more than 97,000 educational institutions on September 2. In the period from August 1 to 15, police carried out 73,500 checks of such institutions and revealed drabacks at 34,000 facilities. The shortcomings included an insufficient technical resistance of buildings against burglary, insufficient lighting of the territory in the evening and at night, the absence of alarm and guarding signalling, lack of a video observation system and qualified physical protection. "On the Day of Knowledge, police personnel will see to it that details of the road-patrol service are as close as possible to the educational establishments and routes leading to them," an Interior Ministry official pointed out. The authorities' special concern is aroused by the situation in the Far East where more than4 00 schools and kindergartens have been damaged by the floods. The problem was discussed on August 20 at a meeting held under the direction of Dmitry Medvedev. At the meeting, the Head of Government gave an assignment to start the rehabilitation of the flood-stricken schools and kindergartens as soon as possible. Medvedev also pointed out with regret that part of such educational facilities would not be brought back to normative condition by the start of the school year. "One should not tell tales to anyone (that the state of things could be recctified on time)," he said, emphasizing, "Let well enough alone. It is essential to put all that in order and only then it will be possible to do some additional work on the facilities". Vice-Premier Olga Golodets assured Medvedev that the school year for al; schoolchildren in the flood-stricken regions of the Far East would begin on time but that part of them would begin studies at summer camps.