OREANDA-NEWS. October 06, 2010. The President congratulated the nation’s educators on Teachers’ Day and participated in the ceremony presenting awards to the winners of the 2010 Teacher of the Year contest, which was held at the State Kremlin Palace.

Two teachers won the contest this year: director of Moscow School №1060 and mathematics teacher Mikhail Sluch and biology and chemistry teacher from Tula Region Andrei Garifzyanov.

In his speech at the awards ceremony, Dmitry Medvedev emphasised that education remains one of the nation’s priorities, stating that 1.85 trillion rubles (over 61 billion dollars) have been set aside this year for this sector.

The President stressed that it is imperative to give attention to boosting the prestige of the teaching profession, enhancing the payment system for teachers, providing schools with modern equipment, and doing everything possible so that Russian schools remain among leading schools in the world.

Dmitry Medvedev also met with award winners. Topics discussed at the meeting included issues of developing school education, social assistance for teachers, and the creation of infrastructure for scientific research. The President instructed the Education and Science Ministry to conduct public discussion of a new draft law on education.

Russia’s National Teacher of the Year contest is being held since 1990. More than 200 thousand educators took part in the regional selection rounds for the contest.