After the tragedy that happened on June 18 at Syamozero lake, while resulted in the death of 14 children, the Ministry of Education and Science has decided to become the department that will monitor the children's holiday camps. "Currently there is no federal agency that is responsible for what happens in this sphere," said the head of the Ministry Dmitry Livanov explained. In addition, we will develop the system of certification of everyone who works in summer camps with children, both adults, professional educators, and counselors. The camps that will pass accreditation will be included in corresponding register, will be able to receive state support and look after children, ensuring their safety.
Dmitry Livanov
As the head of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy Valery Ryazansky stated, right now the organization of children's camps involves a large number of departments: "There is the Ministry of Education, there is the Ministry of Social Protection, there are all those departments that deal with the organization of public procurement, there are also separate departments and separate enterprises that possess material base, and there is also the Social Insurance Fund. Basically, the proverb 'too many cooks spoil the broth' describes this situation perfectly. The authority of local government departments is also quite large. They are transferred from the federal level to the level of federation subject. All of this leads to the fact that quite often, when selling tickets to a particular labor or holiday camp, or to a specialized camp, those who buy these tickets, are unable to check real guaranteed conditions in a particular labor or holiday camp."
As a result, according to the senator, there is a chain of irresponsibility, when it is impossible to request additional information on a particular camp: "It contradicts the antimonopoly legislation. Tours and trips with the lowest price win, safety suffers as a result... We will examine all existing laws, will try to check this entire chain, how it should work, and how it is designed in terms of legislation. After that, we will either suggest changes to the existing legislation, or propose a new law that will comprehensively take into consideration the interests of all participants of this process."
According to Ryazansky, despite the severity of that tragic incident, it is important not to overreact, not to turn these labor and holiday camps into sterile sanatoriums: "After all these camps should have a different nature. They must educate children, so they would have the skills of organization in life, the ability to take care of yourself, to live in a group, have labor skills. We should not just give children the opportunity to rest and gain strength, but to also raise them as citizens, who can go hiking, ignite camp fire, cook their own meals, help friends."
