On March 19, 2010, the final meeting of the collegium of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science was held. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov attended the meeting.
During the meeting, Mr Ivanov said that the ministry must optimise its structure by reconsidering a number of plans.
"The Ministry will have to not only renew and optimise its structure," Mr Ivanov said. "It is necessary to provide for more flexibility and manoeuvrability in decision making and analyse current operations and reconsider plans based on the results of this analysis."
Mr Ivanov also said that the Ministry now has to conduct monitoring of projects in progress and verify their actual effectiveness.
He pointed out that by abolishing the Federal Education Agency and the Federal Science and Innovation Agency, Russia's leadership "is justifiably counting on the Ministry's increased effectiveness."
At the collegium meeting, delegates also raised the issue of the operations of state academies of science, which, in the opinion of Mr Ivanov, must implement major research projects with the aid of foreign scientists, because Russia needs "major projects accumulating the efforts of many participants and funds allocated for science through various arrangements."
"State academies of science need to reconsider their development plans in order to make room for such major projects," said Mr Ivanov. "This includes projects to build research infrastructure that will make it possible to engage not only Russian scientists in research."
Mr Ivanov holds that this will strengthen Russia's position in international scientific cooperation and will help attract young people to scientific careers.
Mr Ivanov also directed the Ministry of Education and Science to conduct running analysis of the efficiency of Russia's scientific organisations according to a Government Resolution on assessment of the productivity of the operations of scientific institutions.
"I think that the instrument for assessment that is now at our disposal is a potent catalyst for the scientific community," Mr Ivanov said, addressing Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko. "It should be used for the entire state science sector."
Ivanov proposed that the Ministry study ways for federal agencies and state academies of science to introduce this system of assessment.
"The Ministry must develop proposals on the statutory recognition of the procedure according to which the state will finance only R&D the results of which can be properly documented in the form of widely-quoted scientific publications or patents," said Mr Ivanov.
In order to improve the efficiency of budget spending in science, the Ministry must become the body co-ordinating the distribution of state funding for civilian R&D, noted Mr. Ivanov.
Mr Ivanov pointed out that in 2010, the consolidated budget allocates around 4.4% of Russia's GDP to be spent on education and innovation. This is considerably more than total spending on national defence. Nevertheless, the efficiency of the use of these funds still leaves much to be desired, he said.
"Use of the allocated funds must be targeted, rational and efficient," Ivanov said.
"In addition, the chronic system-wide problem of our education sector is the difficult staffing situation," he added. "It is, as before, characterised by the retention of a large number of retirement-age instructors."
Ivanov said that the task of improving the prestige of scientific work is still relevant and remains one of the government's priorities.
Mr Ivanov compared the difference between the number of professionals who graduate from teacher's training colleges and those who actually teach in schools with the distance from the Earth to the Moon. He said that only 5% of teacher's training college graduates end up teaching in schools.
"A respectable salary for teachers, modern technology in the classroom, opportunities for perpetual improvement of one's qualifications - all of these combined should work towards developing scholastic potential and attracting young teachers to working in schools," Mr Ivanov concluded.