Yaroslavl
Educational Forum

To the participants and guests of Yaroslavl Educational Forum

Dear friends!

Last decade has marked the stable development value formation throughout the European community. Education is playing an ever-increasing role in overcoming crises, developing intercultural communication. The system of education has to meet new challenges of modern times.

Modernization of Russian education in the modern period is shaped through goals of socioeconomic development of our country till the year 2020. The priority guidelines of education policy are securing availability and quality of education. Nowadays the strategy of Russian education till the year 2020 is being elaborated. It seems to be really important to comprehend the Russian education trends in context of European education strategy. Integration and international co-operation become an indispensable prerequisite to the development of national education systems.

I express hope that International Educational Forum in Yaroslavl will become a valid platform for professional discussion of development trends in modern education. It’s notable that the questions of education development will be discussed not only by politicians, scientists and teachers, but also by students themselves. The fact that Austria, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Finland, Czech Republic and also 50 constituent territories of the Russian Federation are represented in the Forum emphasizes the importance of the questions discussed.

Each European State has gained abundant experience in educational system development. Our common objective is to make education the major factor of stable development, preserving national traditions.

Mr. Andrei A. Fursenko,

Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

To the participants and guests of the Yaroslavl Educational Forum

Dear friends!

I would like to welcome you in Yaroslavl, the hospitable and historic land!

The fact that the Forum is held in Yaroslavl is an honor to us. It also signifies how the region has advanced in development and modernization of educational system.

Nowadays the questions of upgrading the material and technical basis of education facilities, creating proper conditions for scientific, research, and innovation activity development are paid closest attention to. Modern information technologies, distant methods of learning for handicapped and living in remote areas students are being introduced. This is important because high-quality education must be available for everybody.

We mostly count on teachers. We support their creative potential development and seek to improve their living standards. We also understand that innovative approach, capable of improving the quality of learning and seeking to bring up an individual prepared for life in high-technology and competitive world, is an indispensable prerequisite to modern education. Promising future of any individual and the region’s and country’s economic success, on a large scale, depend on the quality of education.

Modern Yaroslavia is confidently facing the future, which strongly depends on innovative economy development of the region. Thus education of skilled personnel for promising sectors is one of priorities for the region’s government.

I strongly believe that the Forum will become a platform for efficient professional dialogue and exchange of experience; will contribute to the development of Russian and European education.

I wish the Forum’s participants, organizers, and guests interesting meetings and fruitful work!

Governor of Yaroslavl Region, Sergey A. Vakhrukov.

To the participants of the 15^th Russian scientific students’ conference “Discovery”
and Yaroslavl Educational Forum

Dear friends!

On behalf of the Russian Academy of Sciences, I’d like to congratulate you on the opening of the Yaroslavl Educational Forum and the Russian students’ scientific conference “Discovery”, which has already become traditional.

Young researchers’ interest in the given event has been growing steadily year after year. About 50 regions of the Russian Federation and several foreign states are represented this year in Yaroslavl, which proves the fact that modern students strive for knowledge and scientific experiments, longing to contribute to the development of science. It is really important for the fact that the greatest deal of scientific discoveries, as we know, is made exactly by young people. Thus your first steps in scientific sphere mean a lot to the future. You, the young, the persistent, the talented, seeking truth, can contribute to almost all fields of knowledge.

It’s worth mentioning, that along with the participants of traditional Russian student’s scientific conference, leading Russian and European scientists and teachers have assembled in Yaroslavl in order to discuss the Europe strategy for education development.

I strongly believe that the Educational Forum, held in Yaroslavl, one of the oldest cities in Russia, will lay foundation for further development of modern education and science.

I wish you every success, good luck, and well-being!

The President of the Russian academy of Sciences,
Academician,
Yury S. Osipov

To the participants of the Yaroslavl Educational Forum

Dear friends!

For more than 20 years, KulturKontakt Austria has been working with partners in the Russian Federation at both the regional and state levels. This longstanding tradition is situated within the framework of bilateral education cooperation, which both countries consider to be a valuable contribution to the cultivation of mutual understanding and future-oriented development. In a historical perspective, emphasis has been given not only to the fields of vocational education and training, innovative school development and intercultural learning, but also, more generally speaking, to the development of joint solutions to the challenges continuously confronting our school systems in coping with a multifaceted environment and rapidly changing social and economic developments.

Indeed, the question of sustainable innovation is a core issue in our competitive societies, not only in the field of science and technology, but also from the perspective of lifelong learning – be it individual learning, teaching in school systems or continuous training in the framework of labour market needs. Smart growth is not a catchword; it is a coordinated approach that tries to answer burning questions of the future, in which education has to play a prominent, if not leading role.

We are therefore grateful that KulturKontakt Austria has been invited by the Russian organisers, namely the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation and the Department of Education of the Yaroslavl Region Administration, to contribute to the International Conference “The Modernisation of Education as a Precondition for Sustainable Development”, being held in the city of Yaroslavl on 20/21 April 2012.

This conference aims to discuss education development strategies and their implementation, both in the Russian Federation and in the European Union. High-level experts from Russia, Austria, Finland, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Norway and Poland will exchange their views on the development of education reforms in their respective countries and thereby give evidence of the different perspectives and solutions that education systems offer to future generations.

KulturKontakt Austria not only welcomes the specialist aspect of this conference but also congratulates the Russian organisers on having given special emphasis to the participation of young people, who will present their views on the educational system of the future. The involvement of young people is a substantial contribution to the development of current and future education strategies.

We wish to thank all the participants in this conference for their valuable input and hope that this excellent cooperation will be continued in the future.

Gerhard Kowař
KulturKontakt Austria

To the participants of the 15^th Russian students’ scientific conference «Discovery» and Yaroslavl Educational Forum

Dear friends!

It is already the 15^th time when young researchers from all around Russia, who want to go beyond the limits of school curriculum, to reveal an unsettled scientific problem and to find its solution, have gathered in Yaroslavl in order to share results of their experiments and scientific investigations. «The Clever and Talented» demonstrate new potentials of modern teenagers and shape guidelines for modern education development.

It is no coincidence that in 2012 the conference is held within the framework of the Educational Forum, which has gathered scientists and teachers from foreign countries and all around Russia in order to discuss modern strategy for education development.

New terms and conditions for European countries development make it necessary to look for new ways of stable development, an indispensable prerequisite to which is education.

With all my heart I wish both the children and the adults fruitful work at the forum and the conference, every success in studying, new discoveries and ideas which will make our Russian school the real school of the future.

School of International Journalism,
Moscow State Institute of International Relations,
The Head of Department of
World Literature and Culture,
The director of television broadcast
«The Clever and Talented»

Yuri P. Vyazemsky