A top education official has proposed removing mathematics from the mandatory sections of the unified state exam, saying that few universities care about maths scores, and that many students fail that section.
Viktor Kruglyakov, head of the Moscow City Duma's education and youth policy committee, said on Tuesday that the exam should still have a mathematics test, but that it should be optional, Interfax reported.
"Mathematics is not a requirement for admission at all colleges, while Russian is required everywhere," he said during a roundtable discussion.
Last year, 67 final year students at Moscow schools failed both the mathematics and Russian sections on the test, he said. Another 20 high-school seniors failed only the Russian section, while 507 failed mathematics, he said.
The exam, which is required for university admission, has been marred by reports of large-scale cheating and the doctoring of results by education officials.
