Russian Education Ministry official calls for bringing back school discos to boost country’s birthrate
Russian schools need to hold more “romantic” events, including school discos, to encourage teenagers to start families, Education Ministry official Natalia Agre said at a State Duma roundtable discussion titled “From Population Preservation to Population Growth” on Thursday. Her comments were reported by Agentstvo Media.
We organize a lot of serious and important events — understandably, given the ongoing special military operation — but where is the romance for children? […] Where are out school discos? Only eight percent of young people aged 18 to 21 see themselves in family life. That’s very little. And why is that? Because we haven’t created the conditions for romantic relationships.
Agre, who serves as the director of the Education Ministry’s Department of State Policy in the Field of Upbringing, Additional Education, and Children’s Recreation, also promised to work with her colleagues to “place greater emphasis on shaping proper relationships between the sexes before they enter adulthood.”
The roundtable event was part of an official discussion among lawmakers on ways to achieve the targets set by Vladimir Putin last May, when he issued a decree stating that the Russian birthrate should reach 1.6 by 2030 and 1.8 by 2036. It currently stands at 1.4.