The two-day event was headed by Director-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay.
Rector Ilshat Gafurov was among the attendants.
During a general meeting today, Director-General briefly spoke about the organization’s history and efforts in developing education, culture, and communication. She opined that the main problem facing the humankind today is education.
“We think about uniting the academic world with the technological world in the 21st century,” she said and emphasized that she was happy to visit Kazan and Tatarstan, a region actively participating in UNESCO’s agenda. Ms. Azoulay added that Tatarstan possesses a unique experience of successful intercultural dialog, something that constitutes a great treasure for the world.
Indeed, Tatarstan has welcomed many UNESCO representatives. This is thanks to the work undertaken by the State Counsellor of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev and the Yanarysh Foundation helmed by him. Mr. Shaimiev thanks UNESCO, specifically expert mission by ICOMOS and ICCROM which helped to renovate and Bolgar and Sviyazhsk and induct them into the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Education was among the topics of discussion. In particular, Counsellor Shaimiev’s initiative of launching trilingual (Russian-Tatar-English) schools was mentioned. Six such schools are slated to open in the next four years in Tatarstan.
Teaching of minority languages, a pertinent problem for Russia, also piqued the participants’ interest. Coincidentally, 2019 is the International Year of Indigenous Languages, as decided by the United Nations.
Source text: Kamill Gareev
Photos: Nikita Tokhtasinov
Translation: Yury Nurmeev