The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has asigned to work out the possibility of including geography in the compulsory university examinations on a number of specialties.
According to the Kremlin’s official website, Vladimir Putin encharged the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, together with the Russian Geographical Society and the Russian Union of Rectors with a task to prepare proposals for inclusion the compulsory entrance test in geography in the list of entrance tests for admission to educational programs of higher education (undergraduate programs and specialty programs). The entrance test in geography will be conducted at the admission to study in areas, where knowledge of this academic subject is required.
The President also instructed the Government of the Russian Federation to establish a professional holiday on August 18 - the Geographer's Day, the day when the Russian Geographical Society was founded. In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers will have to submit a draft presidential decree establishing the honorary title - "Honored Geographer of the Russian Federation".
The Cabinet of Ministers was instructed to consider the worthwhileness of introducing changes into the All-Russian Classification of Economic Activities, including the insertion of economic activity type - “Carrying out Geographical Studies”, as well as ensuring that proposals will be prepared for defining the labor functions of specialists in geography depending on the type of their professional activity, skills and knowledge necessary to perform these functions. Also,the Cabinet will provide activities carrying out to develop professional national standard - "Geographer". The professional standard itself must be approved before December 1, 2020.
The Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, together with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the Russian Geographical Society, will have to prepare proposals for creating centers for studying geography for schoolchildren at universities. Also, it will be realized as part of the national project "Education". It will also be necessary to prepare offers for the implementation of measures aimed at improving the quality of teaching geography in schools, taking into account the priorities and tasks of the scientific, technological and spatial development of the Russian Federation and taking into account the results of monitoring and other forms of objective assessment of students' knowledge in geography. TASS