AFRICAN COUNTRIES ARE LOOKING FOR COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION

African countries express interest in the program "Russian Teacher Abroad" and in teaching students according to Russian educational standards. This was announced by Denis Gribov, Deputy Minister of Education of the Russian Federation, at the strategic session of the Economic and Humanitarian Forum of the Second Russia-Africa Summit. The theme of this session was "Promoting Humanitarian Policy on the African Continent: Best Practices"

Denis Gribov, Deputy Minister of Education of the Russian Federation, discussed projects for the development of humanitarian cooperation with African countries in the field of education. These include the state program "Russian Teacher Abroad", the creation of centers for open education in Russian and joint schools, which will offer education according to Russian educational standards. In particular, the Tomsk State Pedagogical University is engaged in the creation of a center of education in Russian in Kenya. At the end of August, teachers from the Tomsk State Pedagogical University will leave for Africa to teach Russian.

«There is a practice of creating joint general education organizations. A number of countries are interested in implementing the Russian standard of education. Our education is very competitive and of high quality. We already have some experience in opening, building and creating joint educational organizations of a full cycle. We are ready to cooperate in this direction as well. Today we are considering several countries from the point of view of partnership in creating such educational organizations», — said Denis Gribov.

The deputy head of the ministry added that some representatives of African countries study at Russian pedagogical universities.

«Our pedagogical universities train foreign students who then work as teachers in their home countries. And these are mostly teachers of the Russian language, but not only that. There is an interest in getting pedagogical education in certain subjects. We have strong physics, math, and chemistry schools. We are ready to develop cooperation in this direction and accept students for training. Our centers of open education can become such preparatory courses to get additional practice in Russian language», — said Denis Gribov.

Yevgeny Primakov, head of the Russian Federal Agency for International Cooperation, noted that within the framework of humanitarian cooperation, 4,700 students come to Russia from African countries every year to study, including in pedagogical universities. According to him, the number of African students has grown 2.5 times in a few years.

At the session, the participants cited successful examples of the implementation of humanitarian, scientific, and educational projects across the African continent, and presented projects of socio-humanitarian and scientific-humanitarian cooperation.