A press conference was held today about a new project headed by State Counsellor, Head of Yanarysh Foundation Mintimer Shaimiev.

Counsellor Shaimiev, Minister of Education and Science of Tatarstan Rafis Burganov, and Rector of Kazan Federal University Ilshat Gafurov answered the media’s questions.

Mr. Shaimiev noted how new times call for new educational approaches. To that end, he decided to promote trilingual (Russian, Tatar, and English) education.  It is also important to properly train and guide future teachers, said he, and Kazan University should play a leading role in this aspect.

Six schools will be opened in Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Nizhnekamsk, Almetyevsk, and Yelabuga. The first one will be based at school N 165 in Kazan.

Minister Burganov informed that teacher education should be the focus of the program.

Kazan Federal University is an obvious choice for the project. Over 9,000 students are currently receiving teacher education in one form or another, and 2,000 pedagogues graduate annually.

“The project is very beneficial for the university,” said Rector Gafurov. “This gives our alumni chances to find quality employment. We are already training good specialists who can teach in different languages. But these graduates must reach schools. Overall, there are 250 Russian universities engaged in teacher education. We are one of the largest, and we are in top three in the nation, together with the Higher School of Economics and Moscow State University. We are the first and only in the country to signify pedagogical education as our priority area.”

At a separate government meeting today, President Rustam Minnikhanov emphasized, “It’s important for Tatarstan that children know native languages and English at the minimum; hopefully, even two foreign languages. For that, it’s necessary to create a system, to prepare methodology, and to improve language teaching, especially for native languages. That’s why I totally support Yanarysh Foundation’s initiative. Mintimer Sharipovich was right to raise this issue.”

Source text: Kamill Gareev

Photos: Nikita Tokhtasinov

Translation: Yury Nurmeev