On 14 April a session of the Council of Nationalities of the Republic of Buryatia was held with the presence of the President of the Republic of Buryatia.

Three questions were included in the agenda.

Members of the Council listened to the report of the Chairman of the Election commission in Buryatia, D.A. Ivajlovsky about the elections of heads of municipal authorities according to the republican Law "About establishing borders of the formations and endowing them with the status of municipal formations in the Republic of Buryatia".

Dmitry Aleksandrovich informed the present about the concept of activity of the Election commission of Buryatia on realization the Federal law “About common principles of the organization of local self-management in the Russian Federation”, that was adopted for the transition period till January, 1, 2006. It is intended for reforming local self-management during this period. This election commission will render the organizational and methodical help to representative bodies of local self-management to establish the election commissions in newly formed municipal formations in the towns and villages. The commission will also organize and conduct elections in new municipal formations and solve other problems connected to elections of local self-management.

The chief of the City Management of Education of the Administration of Ulan-Ude, Valery Vasilyevich Sergeev spoke about the level of studying the Buryat language at schools in the capital of the republic. He noted that the number of schoolchildren studying the Buryat language is constantly increasing. So, in 2002 there were 24229 of them, in 2003 this number increased up to 30474. Last year the Buryat language was studied already by 31980 schoolchildren.

Teachers of the Buryat language are usually graduates from the National - Humanitarian institute of the BSU, faculty of primary education of the university and the Buryat republican college. In the current year 66 percents of them have higher education. The provision with textbooks is 60 % and 40% of them schools receive free-of-charge from the publishing house "Belig".

All schools constantly work on improvement the quality of teaching the Buryat language. Since 1993, innovational institutions have been working in Ulan-Ude, which give pupils the profound knowledge of the traditions of Buryat people, its cultural heritage and promote careful studying the Buryat language. The head of the department of education named the linguistic lyceum and the Buryat school - gymnasium as examples of his statement.

In 2003 school also opened the national class on the basis of the 1-st form. Also city and school methodical associations have been organized and permanent methodical seminars for teachers are held. They discuss the problems of evaluating the achievements of pupils on early stage of teaching the Buryat language. Scientific - practical conferences for teachers and pupils, festivals, open lessons, Olympiads, competitions, holiday measures are held to promote the increase of the professional competence of teachers, to develop and to enrich the Buryat literary language.

It was noted that pupils began to be interested not only in thorough studying the literary Buryat language, but also its dialects and folklore. More and more pupils are engaged in research work, taking part in annual scientific and practical conference of young researchers. In this conference schoolchildren show good knowledge of the Buryat poetry, drama, prose and folklore. They represent their family trees, demonstrating respect to their ancestors.

The Council paid attention to the necessity of the further providing schools of the city with the scientific and methodical literature. It recommended not to reduce the number of lessons of the Buryat language and to pay attention to the technical equipment of the classrooms of the Buryat language at schools of the city.

In June the sessions of the Council will consider the questions about the realization of the program of the Concept of the State National policy of the Republic of Buryatia and work of the regional public Association of fellow-countryship of ethnic Buryatia.

In August there will be the discussion of the legislative acts about guarantees to not numerous peoples of the North of the Russian Federation and their fulfilling by the bodies of state power in our republic. The spheres of attention of the Council in the August session will also include the activity of the national - cultural centres of Buryatia and their role in strengthening mutual understanding between peoples living in the republic.

In October the Council is planning to consider some aspects of realization of the Concept of state national policy of RB on development the national language and national policy concerning culture of main peoples of Buryatia, i.e. Russian and Buryat people.

It is planned also to listen to the report of inter-regional public organization "All Buryat Association for the Development of Culture (ABADC)" about its work for the period 2004-2005.