Deputy Perm Mayor Ludmila Gadzhieva met Chief Executive of Lille (France) Michel Vayssié

Photo by Vitaly Koksharov

The topic for discussion included  public transport, education, sport and culture both in Perm and Lille.

The first issue to discuss was transportation, with Mr Vayssié primary interest to learn how this is provided for such a vast city as Perm. 

The deputy Mayor Ludmila Gadzhieva explained that transport routes connect all the parts of the city, however, the center has much more of them compered with the distant residential area. The aim of local administration is to maintain the balance and provide comfortable transportation for the residents.  Within the few years there will be changes in the  transportation model. 

The next point was education; Ludmila Gadzhieva noted that  Perm is actively building new schools and kindergartens and asked what the situation is in France. 

During his stay in Perm, Michel Vayssié visited  Perm school No 11 named after Sergey Diaghilev, so naturally he was asked to share his impressions  from the educational establishement which opened up a new era of  modern schools construction in the city. 

 - The school’s director is an outstanding person.  I was also pleased to see apart of a French musical produced by the school students. At present there is a rise in the interest to learning Russian  both with children and their parents, “ stressed the guest. 

Michel Vayssié also mentioned that  France is undergoing  a transformation of values in the sense that previously the emphasis in education was on sciences, and today there is an understanding that learning humanities is also very important, as this will help educate the citizens  with a responsibility for the future. 

Ludmila Gadzhieva, in her turn, informed her French colleague about the current trends in education in Perm. These  primarily include the idea of practice-oriented education with a structured interaction between  a school and businesses and organisations.  Apart from this, Perm has 10 “Uniques schools” with each own  specialism.  Still another trend is  project-oriented approach  which involves schoolchildren into concrete activities beneficial to the city. 

Sport was also an important issue to discuss, and Ludmila Gadzhieva informed the guest about the current projects in sports in Perm, including Perm International Marathon, the city sky rally “Fir-trees. The Permian period” , Nordic Walking Festival “Perm Walks”