Overhaul of vocational schools' dorms: only 10% of buildings repaired in Tatarstan in two years

“Future workers from other regions will come to us”

“At the recent Security Council, the issue of training personnel to provide small and medium-sized businesses with them has been discussed. The president of the republic has instructed us to prepare long-term and short-term programmes by February. We hope that it will include the issues related to the renovation of dormitories," Ilsur Khadiullin said, “and this will be heard at the level of the Russian Federation, because the system of personnel training in the system of secondary vocational education requires the creation of conditions, including for students to live. Future workers from other regions will come to us. Now we have 10 percent of them, of which seven percent are ninth grade graduates.

The minister made it clear that the republic hopes that the programme will eventually go beyond the republican level, and then there will be a chance to receive federal funding. He stressed that it is especially important to create attractive conditions for applicants from yesterday's ninth graders, because they act consciously and specifically choose a working profession:

“When a child enters a secondary special educational institution after the ninth grade, he does it consciously because he wants to get a profession. And after the eleventh, there is usually a desire to go to university.”

And the problem of shortage of specialists in working professions is enormous in the republic. The demand for them is so great that construction companies poach good welders from each other, and the public transport enterprise and auto repair shops — turners. At the same time, both are often paid an order of magnitude more for their work than “managers” with university diplomas in electronics and household appliances stores. A colossal personnel shortage reigns in Zakamye, where industry is developing by leaps and bounds, and it's very hard to find workers at factories — there are not enough of them physically. Anyway, this is also a problem in the capital of the republic.

“Now the need for workers has increased compared to previous years," Svetlana Isayeva, the deputy director for educational and production work of the Kazan Polytechnic College, informs Realnoe Vremya. “The economy is improving, welders and electricians are required, and representatives of Kazancompressormash, helicopter plant, KOMZ come to us annually for final attestations and invite graduates, hold open days — excursions to enterprises.

The college trains specialists in 15 areas, its most popular graduates are welders, machine operators, technologists for mechanical engineering, specialists in the installation and operation of refrigeration equipment, locksmiths… They will not be out of work with one hundred percent probability.

8 dormitory buildings out of 81 have been repaired in the republic in 2 years

“As of 2021, 66 out of 87 state professional educational organisations in the Republic of Tatarstan have student dormitories," the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan informed Realnoe Vremya. “They have 81 dormitories at their disposal (65 of them subordinate to the ministry) with a total area of 257,9 thousand square metres and a capacity of 19,8 thousand people. Out of 21 state professional educational organisations located in Kazan, 11 have 15 student dormitories with a total area of more than 56 thousand square metres and a capacity of 4,4 thousand people. In general, the housing stock of student dormitories available in the republic satisfies the need of nonresident students in places to stay for the entire period of study.”

But what about the living conditions?

The ministry said that since 2020 Tatarstan has had a republican programme for the overhaul of dormitories of colleges and technical schools with an annual limit of 190 million rubles. With these funds, three dormitories were renovated in 2020 — in the Rybno-Sloboda Agrotechnical College, the Chistopol Agricultural College named after G.I. Usmanov and the Lubyanka Forestry College. In 2021, the overhaul within the same amount was carried out in five dormitories — in the Aznakaevsky Polytechnic College, the Apastovsky and Sarmanovsky agrarian colleges, the Spassky College of Industrial Technologies, and the Kama Construction College named after E.N. Batenchuk.

“In 2022, it is planned to overhaul seven dormitories in the amount of 190 million rubles — in the Tetyush Agricultural College, Almetyevsk Trade and Economic College, Naberezhnye Chelny Pedagogical College, Kazan College of Technology and Design, Sarmanovsky and Kukmor agricultural colleges, Alkeevsky branch of the Alekseevsky Agrarian College," the ministry reported about the already established “republican” part of the programme of the overhaul of colleges.

“Availability of dormitories is a great blessing”

“About half of the students of our college are nonresidents, and the presence of a dormitory in this light is very important, especially for first-year students," says the director of the Kazan Medical College, Zukhra Khisamutdinova. “Not only visitors from the regions of the republic study with us, but also from Astrakhan, Kamchatka. Kazan attracts many ... And during the period of adaptation, when a very young person comes from home to a foreign city, it is very important that he is not just settled, for example, in an apartment, but helped to organise life, followed discipline, provided support at the right moment. All this is possible in the dormitory. Then adaptation goes painlessly. So the presence of a dormitory is really a great blessing!

According to Zukhra Khisamutdinova, half of the building of the only college dormitory, built in 1974, is occupied by students of another college — pedagogical, and there are not so many places in the medical college dormitory, so first-year students are guaranteed to receive them. Whether there is enough for the rest of those in need is a big question.

She also said that these “halves” are occupied not just by different colleges, but by different departments. The medical college is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Tatarstan. Therefore, the medical college, not counting on the programme of overhaul of dormitories of the Ministry of Education and Science, has recently carried out repairs using own resources.

Enough places, but no comfort

“We have two dormitories in the college, and they have been in need of renovation, repair and modernisation for a long time. And although the number of places in them corresponds in principle to the need, expansion within the framework of repairs would be useful," says Svetlana Isaeva, the deputy director for educational and production work at the Kazan Polytechnic College. “This will ensure the influx of students, because half of us are visitors from the regions of the republic.”