A Russian Center of the Russkiy Mir Foundation is about to be opened at the University of Tehran and the opening of another Russian Center at the University of Isfahan is being discussed. That was announced during the meeting between Vyacheslav Nikonov, Chairman of the Management Board of the Russkiy Mir Foundation and Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education, and the members of the Iranian delegation including Iran's Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanai, the Minister of Education of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ali Asghar Fani and other representatives of the Ministry of Education of Iran.
At the beginning of the meeting Vyacheslav Nikonov thanked Ali Asghar Fani for finding an opportunity to meet and discuss some urgent matters. “Today, Russian and Iran are experiencing extremely important period when essential progress has been made in the field of international affairs including our cooperation on the settlement of the Syrian conflict and other spheres of politics”, Vyacheslav Nikonov underlined. Economic relationships between our countries are developing intensively as well and the expansion in the number of booked flights to Iran proves the fact. “As my friends have told me, there are no tickets available for many days to come”, he said.
It is essential that cooperation in the sphere of education should be developed. According to Vyacheslav Nikonov, some rectors of Iranian universities arrived in Moscow recently to discuss the prospects for such cooperation at the meeting held at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. The cooperation might include exchange of students and joint research activities.
Vyacheslav Nikonov underlined the importance of including the learning of the Russian language and Farsi into educational programs of both countries. “At the early stages of the program Russia could help with training Russian language teachers sending their specialists to Iran”, he suggested.
The first steps have already been made and the Russkiy Mir Foundation is to open a Russian Center at the University of Tehran before a new academic year starts and the establishment of another Russian Center at the University of Isfahan is being discussed at the moment.
In his turn, the Minister of Education of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ali Asghar Fani claimed that his country is ready to use Russia’s rich experience in the sphere of education to improve Iranian educational system. He said that he had visited our country 28 years ago and had appreciated the system of Russian preschool education. “It affects the formation of personalities”, the Minister is sure. As for Iran, the government pays great attention to the development of the system of preschool education as well and preschool and school education is financed for over 11% from the state budget.
The Minister underlined that “Any investments in education contribute to the development of the country” and added that it was extremely important to extend ties between Russian and Iranian school students, which might include sports and scientific competitions and all sorts of cultural events.
Vyacheslav Nikonov in his turn promised that Russian State Duma deputies would support co-projects aimed at the development of such cooperation between our countries saying that “Iran has practically got rid of sanctions while Russia just ignores them and it is much easier to resist the outside pressure together”.
