The Live Classics International Pedagogical Forum took place in the Presidential Library

The Presidential Library became one of the venues for the 4th Live Classics International Pedagogical Forum. A series of events that brought together teachers, librarians and representatives of education departments from 85 regions of Russia and 60 countries of the world in the city on the Neva, was inaugurated in the historic Synod building (Senate Square, 3).

Live Classics is the largest contest of young readers in Russia and one of the largest international contests of young readers, which every year attracts more than 2.5 million schoolchildren from all over the world. The Live Classics Pedagogical Forum is a meeting point for organizers of both the above-mentioned contest and other events, which are aimed at promotion of reading among children.

Zhanna Vorobyova, Chairperson of the Committee for Education of St. Petersburg gave a welcome address, in which she highlighted that as an international event the contest united millions of people and became an important event for the city.

The keynote speaker was Marina Smirnova, President of the Live Classics Contest of Young Readers Foundation. “All these years I dreamed that the forum would take place in the Presidential Library”, she admitted and noted that today Live Classics includes a variety of different projects: the children's international contest of readers, the children's reading community, children's creativity camps, international teleconferences, a series of educational programs intended for both children and adults, the Aloud project (audio books for the visually impaired), Book Above All Else project, which is aimed at foundation of reading clubs for teenagers in regions of Russia, etc.

One of the new features is a pilot app of personalized book selection for teenagers. As part of it young readers can create their own characters, and then find their counterparts in other works.

Anton Chetvertkov, Director of the Department of the State Policy in the field of Assessment of the Quality of General Education at the Ministry of Education of Russia, admitted that he was impressed by the scale of the contest and the forum. “The idea of ​​promoting the Russian language through fiction is very important nowadays ... I know that representatives from the UK, the USA and a number of other countries, which have different relations with Russia in international politics, attend the forum. But I can say with confidence that the forum’s humanitarian agenda, its cultural component contributes to our unity. I am happy that there is such a good project, which becomes more and more interesting every year, involves new forms and provides new opportunities for its participants. Today we can predict with confidence that Live Classics will become the brand of Russia”.

The state policy in the field of literature teaching and reading promotion, the relevant experience of other countries and different features in organization of readers’ contests were discussed in the Presidential Library on that day.

Other events took place in the Herzen Pedagogical University of Russia, the Academy of Talents and the Center for Media Arts in St. Petersburg, which along with the Presidential Library became venues for the forum.

More information is available on the website of Live Classics contest.