In addition to three Unified State Exam papers, universities will now take into account an "integral score" made up of a schoolchild's general academic performance and discipline

I wholeheartedly support the importance of grading behaviour at school. Let us remember that the task of the school is not only instruction but also upbringing. Grades for conduct were proposed last summer; the proposal was voiced at the Presidential Council for Human Rights.

I would remind you that a system of grading conduct existed in Russia before the Revolution. In May 1918 it was banned by a decree of the People's Commissar for Education, Lunacharsky, but only together with a prohibition on "the use of the points system for assessing the knowledge and behaviour of pupils in any instance of school practice without exception". That is to say, conduct ceased to be graded in schools when grades of every kind were abolished altogether. But gradually Soviet schools returned to the old system: in 1935 to a verbal scale of "excellent, good, mediocre, bad, very bad", and in 1943 to a scale of numbers.

How did grades for conduct affect studies? Only excellent and good conduct was permitted for pupils. With good conduct, a pupil was obliged to correct his offence by the next term, otherwise his conduct grade could be lowered. A three for conduct was a warning of expulsion from school. Expulsion was recorded with a two. A five for conduct was a condition for receiving the school-leaving certificate.