In the Irkutsk region, as schools prepare for the new school year, special attention is paid to children's safety, including protection on school grounds, accident prevention, and school transport safety. The meeting also discussed school buses, fire alarms in schools, and textbooks, which by September 1 should reach 95 percent on average.

When preparing educational institutions in the region for the school year, special attention must be paid to ensuring the safety of children. This was stated by the First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Irkutsk Region, Nikolai Slobodchikov, at a teleconference with heads of municipalities and heads of education departments in the region’s territories.
The beginning of the school year is the most responsible moment, and it requires special attention from all structures. Ensuring the safety of children comes to the forefront, both on the grounds of educational institutions and in work to prevent road traffic accidents involving children and to ensure road safety when transporting schoolchildren, the first deputy chairman emphasized.
Transporting schoolchildren to their place of study is one of the conditions for ensuring accessible and high-quality education for students living in small and remote rural settlements of the Irkutsk Region. At present, more than 16,000 children from 831 settlements are transported to and from school by the school buses available in the region. The bus fleet consists of 489 units. In 2013, the GLONASS satellite navigation system was installed on 536 vehicles using funds from the regional budget.
At the meeting, it was noted that in 25 municipal districts, work is being successfully carried out to equip educational organizations with technical means for transmitting alarms to the control panels of fire protection units.
Also, as part of preparations of educational organizations for the 2014-2015 school year, municipal education authorities were recommended to allocate 50 to 70% of the regional subsidy funds for the purchase of textbooks.
The Ministry of Education of the Irkutsk Region, in addition to the textbooks purchased with subsidy funds, has secured additional funds in the amount of 50 million rubles, which have been distributed among municipalities depending on the number of students. Applications have been compiled and submitted to the most in-demand publishers using the allocated funds. By September 1, 2014, textbook provision in educational organizations should reach, on average, 95%. At the same time, schools will still have a shortage of a number of textbooks worth about 90 million rubles as of September 1.
At the videoconference it was also noted that at present, out of 867 general education organizations submitted by 42 municipal districts of the Irkutsk Region as of August 6, 2014, 173, or 20%, have been accepted. The largest number of accepted schools is in the Taishetsky District - 66, in the Ekhirit-Bulagatsky District - 61%, and in the Slyudyansky District - 53%.

Based on materials from the press service of the Government of the Irkutsk Region.