Addressing the meeting, Alexander Zhukov noted the need to more quickly introduce a school subject on the fundamentals of religious cultures and secular ethics.

"The proposed pace should be expedited," he said. "We have all of the required potential for doing this, including textbooks and experience."

In his opinion, this practice should be spread to at least 50% of national schools in 2011. Moreover, we should think of teaching this subject not only in the fourth term of grade four in primary school and the first term of grade five in junior high school, but also in grades seven and ten, Zhukov added.

The deputy prime minister also noted that teacher training should be prioritised. In his opinion, today's 72-hour training course is insufficient. He added that a proposal to study this subject online was quite appropriate.

Zhukov also advised the Federal
Agency for Tourism to study the issue of establishing a tour operator association to organise the Hajj pilgrimage for Muslims.