26 february 2010

While on a working visit to the Urals Federal District, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visits general secondary school No. 88 in Tyumen

Prime Minister Putin attended a ninth grade mathematics lesson, where students solved a problem about taking out a mortgage to buy real estate. Looking at the wording of the problem on a digital panel, Mr Putin pointed out, "You know what's missing in this problem? You need to know how much the down payment is going to be."

The prime minister said that the next meeting of the Presidium of the Presidential Council on Priority National Projects and Demographic Policy would be devoted to this subject. "The banks that will be included in this system will need to issue loans at 11%. This is what we are going to discuss at the meeting," he said.

The prime minister added that at the banks that are part of the mortgage lending system the down payment on a mortgage must not exceed 20%. This parameter is planned to be further reduced to 15%.

The prime minister stated that in the near future "mortgage interest rates will drop to 6% in Russia."

After the lesson Mr Putin dropped into a choreographic studio and a gym, and visited an exhibition of innovations in education. At the exhibition featuring the achievements of teachers and students the prime minister shared his opinion on how the education system has changed since the Soviet times. "It is hard to say whether it is a change for the better or worse. The Soviet system was more integral, which was good. The present education system in Russia and in the world in general has been groping for the right path."

Noting that this school follows a standard curriculum, Mr Putin stated with satisfaction that "more students enroll at universities, including leading universities, and teachers' salaries have doubled in the past four years thanks to the introduction of new methods of salary calculation, among them per capita funding."