Alfa-Bank chairman: No tradition to invest in education in Russia

MOSCOW, Jan 15 (PRIME) -- Investing in quality education is not traditional in Russia, more funds are granted to the church or sports teams making it difficult for local universities to compete with the Western higher education system, private bank Alfa-Bank co-owner and the chairman of the board of directors Pyotr Aven said at the Gaidar Forum on Tuesday.

“We have no moral environment now, unfortunately. Figures demonstrated here are bad… It is not very productive to invest in the church more money than in education. More funds are invested in hockey than in education,” he said and added that the trend leads to emigration of young scholars.

Aven also said that expecting any return on investment in education is a “fantasy.”

“No one would invest money (in education) to get a profit. We will find other ways to earn money. The only stimulus to invest in education is our moral obligations, the respect to our country and our teachers.”

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