From September 1, monthly tuition for children in municipal music, art, and arts schools in Irkutsk is canceled. The city budget will cover utilities, repairs, and instruments, allocating 21 million rubles. These schools are also moving to preprofessional education, and graduates will be able to enter specialized colleges and universities.
In addition, Viktor Kondrashov spoke about another innovation in education. The monthly tuition fee for children in municipal budgetary institutions of additional education has been canceled by the relevant decree of the Irkutsk administration. Starting September 1 of this year, parents of students at the city’s music schools, art schools, and schools of the arts will not have to pay for their children’s education. The fee amounted to about five hundred rubles, depending on the department. This money was used for utility expenses of the educational institutions, routine school repairs, and the purchase of musical instruments. Now all these expenses will be covered by the city budget – 21 million rubles will be allocated from the Irkutsk treasury for these purposes.Municipal children’s schools of the arts, music schools, and art schools, under the new federal law, belong to the system of so-called “pre-professional” education – that is, their graduates have sufficient qualifications to enter specialized secondary and higher educational institutions. There are 14 such schools in Irkutsk in total: Children's Music Schools Nos. 1, 2, 3, 7, Children's Schools of the Arts Nos. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and Children's Art Schools Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4. New methodological programs have already undergone licensing in all of these institutions.