The Congress includes a series of educational activities aimed at improving the skills of teachers working with gifted children studying the Russian language and Russian culture abroad. The organizer is the Foundation of the contest of young readers "Living classics".
Alexander Ganin, head of the Department for relations with compatriots abroad, took part in the event from the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg, he spoke at the meeting "International relations through cultural and educational projects".
In his speech, A. A. Ganin spoke about the work carried out by the government of St. Petersburg in relation to Russian compatriots living abroad. In particular, he spoke about the two-week refresher courses for teachers of Russian language and literature organized by the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg. About 80 teachers from 20 countries take part in these courses annually. The program includes at least 12 theoretical and 20 practical sessions, 2 meeting discussions, visits to 4 museums, city tours, etc. At the end of the classes all students get certificates of training.
Alexander Ganin also said that the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg conducts visiting courses for compatriots. At the request of organizations, classes are held for teachers of the Russian language in their countries of residence. Refreshing courses traditionally include at least three lectures and three workshops. In December 2018, about 100 compatriots from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan took part in such courses.
On a gratuitous basis, educational, methodical and fiction literature is provided to organizations of compatriots who conduct classes in the Russian language and literature abroad.
Also, other cultural and educational projects of the Committee for external relations of St. Petersburg aimed at maintaining ties with compatriots were presented to the participants of the Congress. In particular, it was talked about already become iconic thematic projects "Pushkin's Petersburg", "Dostoevsky's Petersburg", "the Petersburg's Silver age ", "Nekrasov's Petersburg ", "Musical Petersburg", "the Theatre Petersburg", etc. Participation in the projects attracted the interest of many heads of organizations of compatriots.
Representatives of St. Petersburg secondary schools, who are in constant dialogue with foreign educational institutions, as well as the curators of the competition from Armenia, Belarus, Hungary, Belgium, Greece and others, also spoke at the meeting.
On the sidelines of the Congress working meetings with the compatriots from France, Korea, Spain, Italy, Lithuania, etc. were held.
Reference: The international competition of young readers "Living classics" is a large-scale literary educational project covering 85 regions of Russia and 80 countries. In 2018, the competition was attended by more than 2,5 million students aged 10-17 years. The contest participants compete in reciting excerpts from their favorite prose works, the contest is held in Russian all over the world, thus making Russian the language of the international children's intellectual community.