Moscow schools introduce new measure to keep kids off the street

Moscow's Education Department has come up with a new measure to combat child neglect. Beginning September 1, it introduces full-day classes in 219 of the capital's schools, which means classes that end later than usual - at 17:30 or even at 21:00. Later, according to a source in the Education Department, late classes will be introduced in every school in Moscow.

The purpose of the innovation is to keep children entertained by adding sports sections, art and music classes, and other interesting things to their regular classes to keep the kids off the street. But they will not be given more home assignments than they are used to.

The Department promises that the choice of "entertaining" lessons will be so wide that each child will be able to choose something for themselves. However, the kids won't be able to skip the late classes unless their parents sanction it.

The new measure will cost a total of 600 million rubles, but the Department thinks it is worth it.