Russian president urges improvement in distant learning systems

President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday the lack of a distance learning system for children who are unable to attend school because of poor health is intolerable, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday.

"The regions received big funds but in most of them the job has not been completed," Medvedev told a information community conference in Tver, a regional center 200 kilometers from Moscow.

The president added that a system of "smart" distant education was also crucial for children living in remote areas.

Medvedev ordered the Minister of Education Andrei Fursenko to control the situations when the schools were disconnected from the Internet.

"I can't stand it that the funds allocated are cast to the wind. If the governors do not pay for Internet traffic, it means the direct misspending of the money", Medvedev said.

He ordered Fursrenko to report to him personally on all of the instances when schools were cut off from the Internet.

"Then, we will sort the things out in the different way," the president warned.

For his part, Fursenko informed the conference that 30 percent of Russian schools have introduced electronic journals for students.

Source: Xinhua