The long-term director of the “English” school No. 18 of Kazan, Nadiya Sheveleva, talks about the times of Andropov, Zurab Khubulava and teachers tortured by papers “I left on my own, no one kicked me out. They even asked me to stay. But I’m many years old, that’s all…” says Nadiya Sheveleva, who for 36 (!) years before the start of this school year headed one of the most prestigious schools in Kazan, located in an old mansion in the city center. For decades, this educational institution has been a symbol of prestige, as well as the quality of foreign language teaching. BUSINESS Online Sheveleva, who remained at the school as an adviser, explained why she is pessimistic about the prospects for Russian education. “IT’S VERY DIFFICULT FOR TODAY’S DIRECTORS, THEY, IN MY VIEW, HAVE NO STATUS LEFT AT ALL” - Nadiya Masgutovna, 36 years of leadership at one of the most prestigious schools in Kazan - the figure itself is impressive! It turns out that you took up the director’s position under Andropov... - Do you want a story from those times right away? Then on Tuesdays in the district party committees there were meetings in the morning, where we were given instructions and everything else. And after one of these Tuesdays, I went to the hairdresser (here, opposite the park, they built a 9-story building, and there was a salon below). A man came up to me and asked: “Woman, are you working?” She answered yes. Then he asked why I was not at work. She said that I work as a teacher and there is still time before classes start. He went out. These are the times of Andropov. There was order all around, everyone was forced to work. - In modern times, this is somehow too much. - But now, it seems to me, there is rampant disorder in geometric progression, to use your words. There must still be some kind of, as the Germans say, Ordnung (“order” in German - editor’s note). — Is Ordnung an important component for you as a director? - Both as a director and as a teacher. There must be order. If it is not there, the children will simply have nothing left in their heads after the lesson. — During the three and a half decades of your directorship, the Soviet Union managed to collapse, and the new Russia celebrated the first quarter of a century of its existence. How much have the functions of the school principal and his status changed in our country during this time? “It’s very difficult for today’s directors; in my opinion, they have no status left at all.” I mean the directors' corps as a whole. Even before, the status was not high, but it existed - we felt protected. This may sound funny to you, but there were district party committees, and if any difficulties arose, there was a person who supervised education and resolved all the issues that arose. This is, firstly. Secondly, chefs and enterprises were assigned to schools (ours was the Zarya confectionery factory, headed by Zurab Khubulava). And therefore, for example, issues of school renovation did not concern me as a director at all. You could only come to Khubulava once. They went with all the plans, he called his deputy, who was in charge of construction issues, gave him everything... The director of Zarya said: they say, everything should be ready by August 20, I’ll come and check. And you don’t have to go anymore, don’t ask. And then all this fell on the shoulders of the directors, on their personal connections. School directors are criticized for asking parents for funds, but there is simply no other option! Although in the last five or six years it has become much better. If you look at the courtyard of our school, we now have a sports ground. For this I am grateful to our mayor Ilsur Metshin. Because we are such a good school, we are located in the city center in an old building, but there was no gym. Instead, two large classes were connected, which we somehow adapted for this purpose. — For a long time there was no gym at school No. 18? — Until 2013, until the Universiade. That's when they built us a luxurious gym. I repeat, I am very grateful to Ilsur Raisovich for having it built. Both the financing and the capital improvement program are all very good. Our school was included in the renovation program, and they did it for us. True, I had to be at school at six in the morning so that everything could be repaired over the summer. My parents helped a lot; they also came at six in the morning. For what? And how our builders work: they arrive at nine in the morning, change clothes at half past nine, and leave for lunch at half past eleven. And they say: why are you surprised? We will always do this before the New Year. What New Year? I have to open school in September. That’s why my parents and I came early in the morning every day to, so to speak, “keep” the builders. And we made it. “IN FIVE YEARS, PROBABLY THERE WILL BE NO TEACHERS LEFT AT ALL” - Some readers will be surprised. Many children are brought to school No. 18 by their parents in good foreign cars. Couldn't several rich people associated with your educational institution have cooperated and resolved this issue without the participation of the state? - Yes, maybe, but it is prohibited. There was a time when fashion took hold, and we opened a school fund. Former students came to me who, as you said, had income, well-being, and status. They really wanted to create a fund, but not for repairs, but to support good teachers so that they would not leave the school. And as soon as we launched all this through the Ministry of Justice, or rather, the graduates themselves filled out everything, the district prosecutor Lyudmila Morskaya immediately called us and said: “Who gave you permission? Where have you seen that this money can be spent on salaries and support?” Although these were not government funds, but our former graduates. Well, we immediately closed the fund. The funny thing is that it was easy to open, but they closed it for a year and a half. — So this kind of extra-budgetary support for teachers is prohibited in principle by Russian legislation? — Now I don’t know how things are going with the funds, I wasn’t interested. But there is a law that allows every school to provide paid services. If they exist, then the division is as follows: about 50 percent is given to the salaries of those who provide these paid services, 28 percent to taxes and 22 percent to the extra-budgetary fund of the school. But in our 18th school you can’t earn much. Let me explain: all the years that I was the director here, the school worked in full two shifts. We simply do not have premises for paid services. If we worked in one shift and at 13:30 all the classrooms became free, then a lot of things could be done... But we are not the only ones who have similar difficulties, there are similar schools in the area where there are no extra rooms, for example, gymnasium No. 3 , 96th, 116th, 39th. By the way, the salaries of teachers and directors working in one and two shifts are the same. This surprises me. — You are talking about the director’s security, which he felt during the Soviet years. Was protection against attacks from parents also stronger in the old days? “Parents, of course, have changed, life is different, and the children are completely different. They are very developed, they go a lot of places, they see a lot of things, they can answer most questions. But at school, while I worked as a director, there was such a procedure: if a parent filed a complaint against a teacher, she told the teachers: “Don’t make excuses, don’t ask for forgiveness. Send it to me right away." Well, and then - how do you come to an agreement with your parent, how do you calm him down... - Are there more and more stories like this? “They didn’t come to see me very often.” (Laughs.) Of course, I have always supported teachers in front of my parents. But if I saw how the teacher messed up, then without my parents I punished him to the fullest extent and demanded order. — Can a teacher give a slap on the head to a presumptuous student? - What are you doing? This goes to the prosecutor's office immediately. In no case. You can't even say words. And before, they didn’t have the right to slap people on the head. And you cannot be kicked out of class. We ourselves are afraid to kick them out; we haven’t done that for a long time. Because you don't know where the child will go. - What should you do if a young, inexperienced teacher comes and simply cannot cope with the class, it’s a mess, there’s noise? - This happens with us often. Therefore, at school No. 18 it is customary to do this: when a new teacher arrives, we immediately assign him to an experienced one. They prepare lessons together, write plans and everything else. How can I tell you, the main current problem of the education system is not even money (they give it for repairs), nor economic issues, because they are also solved centrally (even problems with dishes, food, there are departments), in the last five or six years school principals have an easier time in these matters. But we are experiencing a huge shortage of personnel, there simply aren’t any! About 8-10 years ago a teacher came to me with honors from the Faculty of Philology. You should have seen how happy I was! She came herself, and didn’t look for where to get it. Then I come to class, and the lady philologist makes mistakes in the simplest words, but I saw this, having graduated from physics and mathematics. Of course, she was fired immediately. What will she teach the children, what will the parents say later? This is how they now receive a diploma with honors, which in our time, oh how they won? Be healthy as you should have studied. Now that our pedagogical institute has been closed, I don’t understand for what reasons, and only the Elabuga pedagogical university remains, I don’t know what will happen. Well, what young girl or boy would go to study in Yelabuga to become a teacher, when there are a million other universities and opportunities in Kazan? Don't know. In five years, there will probably be no teachers left at all. Maybe I’m a conservative... Although, of course, yes, I tried with all my might not to let teachers go, even those who are retiring. They studied under the Soviet Union, they have knowledge, they have something to give to their children. And then these people, we are all aimed at self-education, we constantly read, learn, look for something, invite someone to school, scientists who would speak to teachers, to parents too. But modern youth comes, somehow gives a lesson, turns around and leaves. Unfortunately. - Are they all like this? - No, of course, not all. Two girls came to our school with excellent English, and they were wonderful themselves. But they opened the Algarysh program, and the girls were smart, they both left and got married there. And School 18 cried. All. I understand that with the best intentions they wanted to send our teachers so that they could improve there, return and work here as new blood... But they got married and stayed there. “DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY LESSONS ARE LOST?” — This week the final of the Russian Teacher of the Year competition is taking place in Moscow. Kazan young teacher-biologist Nail Mirsaitov is in the top five. And in general, every year teachers from Tatarstan recommend themselves well there. But this is not an indicator of the general level of the teaching staff? — To be honest, I don’t really like such competitions. More precisely, “Teacher of the Year” at the Russian level is great. But all this happens in stages - at the district, regional level, and all schools “politely” ask that someone from their institution participate. And you know, a teacher won’t just do it, he treats his authority responsibly, he will prepare, he still needs a support team, etc., and these are the same teachers. As a result, a lot of lessons are lost. That’s why I tried to evade such competitions or appoint someone weaker, so that the person would not go anywhere further. Otherwise, there is no one to teach the lessons, yes. Do you know how many lessons are lost? Either we have WorldSkills (although, of course, this is a very useful event for both teachers and children, no words), then they invite you to basketball, then somewhere else, but we have our own program and tasks! And then at the end of the year, city council authorities begin to calculate the quality of knowledge down to a hundredth of a percent. Although they themselves give orders: remove children from lessons and send them here and there... We, like a fire brigade, are always ready. Now I’m not talking about my school, but about everything. — The young teachers have changed, and what about the students? It’s just that when you talk to some people who are already over forty, they say that although they were C students, they know a lot better compared to today’s young excellent students. “Today’s youth have tens of thousands of times more opportunities than those who studied much earlier. First, open borders. I myself organized the Sisters City program, or rather, that’s what it’s called abroad, here we call it “Twin Cities.” She took children to the state of Texas, to America, and from there we accepted students here in our families. And for many years. According to another international program, I even took children to Australia, where we spent two months. But all this is possible with our children because they know the language. Traveling with a translator would indeed be more difficult. They still travel now, and their parents spare no expense. “But the craving for abstract knowledge seems to have diminished. And a child who speaks English even perfectly, for example, may not know that the highest point in Africa is Mount Kilimanjaro. “It’s not just about the teacher, it’s about the hours, the number of them. But the sanitary and epidemiological station does not allow increasing the number of hours, plus other programs, in general, there are many problems. The textbooks themselves are different. After all, when you were studying, there were stable benefits for all subjects. And the teacher knew his stuff by heart, and at the same time expanded his knowledge in order to give the children more modern material. And then one year they sent us one group of authors, the others are absolutely forbidden to use. Three years later - another team of authors. And it seems to be written about the same thing, but presented differently. But the teacher needs to study this before presenting it to the students. As a result, teachers are in a position of constant time pressure. When I was at school, Larichev was the author of the algebra textbook, Kiselev was the author of the geometry textbook, and that’s all. It said “edition 43”, “edition 44” and so on. And the teachers knew all these tasks by heart. After all, it is important not only for the teacher himself to know how to answer the problems, but also to present the solution to the child so that he understands. This is the most important advantage of a teacher! A teacher, he is not a mathematician, not a geographer, not a writer. For him, the most important thing is methodological issues, how to convey to the child the knowledge that is needed in the program. — Don’t parents now have to buy or repurchase textbooks? - No. The state buys textbooks. But if they are still not enough, there is an interlibrary agreement. Let’s say that if some school lacks textbooks, then they can, for example, come to us and, under this agreement, ask for such and such books. I must admit, I behaved ugly here and never gave away a single book or textbook from my school. And she did the right thing. Why? Because at our school there have always been three classes in the initial parallel, and for the last four years there have been four parallels. There are a lot of children, so the issue of eliminating the second shift will not be resolved in the near future... “I LOOKED TO BE A FOOL AND SAID: “WHO IS THIS?” — By the way, according to the law, can a school now work in two shifts? - No, according to the law, she must work one shift... - And the idea of switching to a five-day shift, how realistic is that? “We’ve been working like this for the last three years.” Our entire elementary school was five days a day. And so that the rest of the classes... Well, in Moscow they somehow manage and they don’t have a second shift. We, as I already said, have it, so a five-day period is impossible. To implement it in 8th-9th grades, we must give them more lessons. In our case, as soon as the office is vacated at half past two, the second shift comes in. There is no rest. — There was no desire to make some kind of extension to increase the area, or get an additional building? - There is no place. After all, our school is atypical, adapted; it is an ancient building of the second half of the 19th century, built with donations from Kazan citizens. By the way, the aura here is good; it was a women’s diocesan school, a boarding school. The students lived here, and in the upper assembly hall they had an inner church. The building is prayed for, I think. — Did you often have to communicate with the powers that be as part of your job duties? - You see, what does it matter, if they live in this microdistrict, they come here and we are obliged to take these children. That’s why we communicate, of course. But in all my years of work, I have only experienced the behavior of such people once. This was at the very beginning of my work, when one friend came, kicked the door, entered the office with the words “I’m from so-and-so.” I pretended to be a fool and said: “Who is this?” And that’s it, he immediately calmed down, and we had a normal conversation. In general, they are also people and they also have children. - Are there any problems with such children? - No. We didn’t have it here, you can ask anyone. We somehow manage to maintain a balance, and teachers treat such children evenly, and the students themselves know that they will be in demand. Somehow we have already established this for a long time. Because every year there are many such children, but they are all equal. “WHATEVER THE SITUATION IS, A TEACHER MUST RESPECT HIMSELF!” — In the 90s, they talked a lot about how a teacher in Soviet times was a real authority, parents came to the class teacher for advice, but now it has turned into a mass low-paid profession. Has anything changed now? - Not yet. We are a service industry, and that says it all. What could be the status here? Very wealthy people sometimes think that everyone else here... well, you understand. Especially women, men - no, I’m talking about the students’ parents. Because women mostly don't work. But we put them in their place, of course. Whatever the situation, the teacher must respect himself! If he doesn’t value himself, then he shouldn’t work at this job, how can he be here without dignity? Because the child must know that this is a teacher, he knows a lot, will help him gain knowledge and graduate from school. And then, teachers still do a lot of extracurricular work, not only class teachers, but also subject teachers. At the same time, they need to organize various intra-school competitions and so on. The salary is small, I say right away. I left school this year on my own, no one kicked me out. On the contrary, they even asked me to stay. But I’m many years old, that’s all... Looking back, I want to say that, of course, teachers never received much, but if you take it in percentage terms, then it’s quite a lot... So a person graduated from college, received a higher education, and comes to school to work as a teacher. Most often, this is a girl from a rural area, because city children generally do not go to study to become teachers. She needs to rent an apartment and pay for it. For some reason, the educational system does not provide dormitories for young teachers. Why can't you give it to them? You know, I used to have a habit: every day at seven in the morning I met the whole school, which disciplined both teachers and children. And I ask one such girl, a young teacher: “Why are you late, dear?” She replies that she needs to get there by two transports, but she takes one, then gets out and walks, because there is no money to travel with transfers. Therefore, I am incredibly outraged when bus operators every time say that transport tickets are cheap, the cost needs to be increased. But let them say this to a teacher who, with a higher education, receives a salary of 17 thousand rubles, and that includes taxes! And parents also come and shake your license: this is not so, this is not so. Of course, the girl will then get the hang of it, take up tutoring somewhere, and so on. But this will be to the detriment of your health. Why can't she be paid a decent wage? — So 17 thousand rubles is the full salary of a young teacher? - Yes, at the same time you have to pay for housing, food, travel by transport, the fare of which will continue to increase for some reason. Although why doesn’t the Ministry of Education make a travel card for young teachers? As far as I know, there are additional payments of about 1 thousand per month. Well, where is this good? — Is it true that in Moscow a teacher’s salary is 100 thousand rubles on average? - Maybe more. — It is clear that Moscow is a separate planet, but why is there such a huge difference? - Can not say. There was news that the doctors at the cancer clinic there rebelled and someone transferred their monthly salaries - 169 thousand rubles and so on. For us, this is generally exorbitant. Ask any school principal: what salary does he receive from the state? If he doesn’t deduct something from his paid services... “YOU KNOW, WE HAVE ALWAYS HAD RESPECT FOR THE TATAR LANGUAGE” - Let’s talk about the good stuff. They say that at your school there is or was some kind of wonderful theater. — We have a lot of theaters. A famous teacher worked at our school, Vladimir Nikolaevich Yakovlev, who came here during the repatriation of Russians from Shanghai together with Oleg Lundstrem. Yakovlev worked as an English teacher for us and created an English theater. Since then, the latter has continued to work, both Vladimir Nikolaevich’s students and new teachers are working on it. In general, children from primary school are involved in the theater. There is a puppet theater, and a musical theater, and a drama theater - all the guys are involved in some kind. — Is this all part of teaching English? — In Russian and Tatar languages too. By the way, about Tatar. When April 26th approached, for some reason everyone started talking only about the fact that Gabdulla Tukay’s birthday was coming soon, and let’s do something. And I always answered the Tatar teachers: “I have great respect for him, but we, the Tatars, have more than one Tukai. Why is it only him every time?” And we, together with teacher Rushaniya Zakarievna Kharisova, introduced a holiday, it has already become traditional for us (he is 17-18 years old) - “Shayan Show”. Our entire school participates in this event, right down to the chefs: everyone comes up with something, some performances in a variety of genres. Just learning a language, giving tasks to learn or translate something won’t work. It is necessary for children to interact with languages and communicate in them not only as part of the educational process. — We cannot ignore the topic of the Tatar language. We read somewhere that you almost hid in a safe the statements of parents who do not want to study Tatar... - This is not true! I will answer this way: when I came to work at this school as a teacher (my husband and I came here from the Plesetsk cosmodrome), the Tatar language was not included in the program at all. It was a specialized school with its own status, which all similar educational institutions in Russia had, a curriculum, and a plan. After some time, we were told that our institution should have the Tatar language, but there was nothing at all: no teachers, no textbooks, no curriculum. Then I came up with the idea that since we have a method of teaching English, we can use it to teach Tatar. It sounds simple, but where can you find a teacher who knows English and its teaching methods, but would teach Tatar lessons? The first teachers were literally from the street - either a chemical engineer from somewhere or someone else. And then Farida Fatykhovna (a foreign language teacher, and her mother is a Tatar teacher) came to school. In fact, she was the initiator of how we introduced the Tatar language. You know, we have always had respect for the Tatar language, no one resisted studying it, my parents did not behave like they did today. They grumbled a little only when in the second grade of Tatar there were six hours, and Russian - four. — How did School No. 18 survive the latest linguistic vicissitudes? - Very calm. In each class, at parent-teacher meetings, everyone (head teachers, teachers, me) went and told everything. We didn't have any scandals. I won’t go into details, but we make up for our Tatar hours with extracurricular activities; we have a lot of events in the Tatar language. In general, any concert or event must be in three languages: English, Tatar, Russian. “It’s just that for many Tatars this whole situation with their native language in schools is very unpleasant. Why did this happen, in your opinion? — I can’t answer for everyone, but I want to say: the more languages you know, the more convolutions in the brain, firstly. Secondly, it is still a native language. I am Tatar myself. Yes, when I was at school, we didn’t have it at all, all the Tatar I knew was from my mother, but now I need to study it. — But should, say, the son of an officer who came to Tatarstan to join a military unit for several years, learn the Tatar language? - There are such cases, yes, and there is no need to insist here, you can just quietly excuse them from the lesson. Let’s say a manager from Samara came to Sberbank, and after a year and a half or two he was literally transferred to Nizhny Novgorod. So what? There is no need to force. “I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE THIS GIRL COLLECTS AND PLACES PAPER IN RONO” - What has been lost in modern Russian schools from the Soviet experience, what are you worried about? - You see, living in society and being independent from it is extremely difficult. It affects everything, so you won't save anything. One in the field is not a warrior in this case, you obey the entire team that leads you. And, in my opinion, we have too many executives: Rono, Gorono, and so on. What about papers? There has never been so much paperwork, teachers are overwhelmed with it. They are constantly writing and filling out something. Previously, there was a curriculum indicating how many hours, on what topic should be spent, as well as a plan for educational work, if it was a class teacher. Nothing else. Now the teacher simply does not have the opportunity to look the child in the eyes, find out what is wrong with him, how he is doing, since he is busy with paperwork. Plus another problem we have is mobile devices. The command is immediately sent to the teacher’s phone, he sees it - and that’s it... a madhouse. Every year they say that this issue will be streamlined, but still nothing. “A friend of mine taught English at a local school in China and notes that there are no papers at all; not even a single person from the management came to see what this teacher from Russia was teaching their children for six months. - That, of course, is also impossible. We have an example with Tatar-Turkish lyceums, as a result, Turkish teachers were removed from there because they began to teach the wrong things... - What is your forecast as a professional for the future of domestic education? — I don’t want to make any predictions. — Are you afraid of forecasts or are they gloomy? “I’m not afraid of them, I’m just a pessimist.” If the staffing issue is not resolved, the future of schools is unenviable. There is no one to work! Is it normal that you are happy when you lure a teacher from another school? But the other one suffers losses. You see, there are a lot of managers now, in my opinion. When I started working, we had an executive committee nearby, with four inspectors sitting in the rono. Now there are 104 of them... for every teacher. And they all receive salaries, teach something else, but they themselves haven’t worked a day at school. We need to place professionals everywhere. Okay, let it be 104, but if they help the school, the teacher, the director, the parents, and here after all... Papers from Rono, from Gorono to Rono. And there sits a young lady who hasn’t even sniffed the school air, but is only writing by email, saying, today before 13:00, send this, that, that. Teachers and head teachers drop everything and start writing to her. Well, you can’t work like that! Why then does the school have its own leader, an annual plan that must be fulfilled? You have to write papers all the time... like a fire brigade. I don’t even know where this girl collects and puts papers in her rono, whether she needs them at all. Maybe she just needs to show that she is working? As a result, the main activity of the teacher suffers - that’s what you need to think about. Elvira Samigullina, Airat Nigmatullin
Head teacher.Info moreThere are 260 thousand more students in Moscow schools this fall than in 2010. This is the result of the baby boom, which is usually the first to be felt by educational institutions.
The future of the city, represented by the younger generation, calmed down, sighed about the past summer and sat down at their desks. If we speak in terms of numbers, then this is 1.42 million schoolchildren, students, college students, and kindergarten students.
102 thousand first-graders crossed the school threshold for the first time this year. By the way, 90% of parents chose schools near their home for their children. And really, why send a child far away and 15 bus stops to a wonderful school if there is exactly the same one in the next yard? And in the neighboring area, too, and among friends near home too... The quality of Moscow education has increased, so the choice of educational institution has lost its former relevance: almost all metropolitan schools today operate at the same high level.
“Every Moscow schoolchild and college student has the opportunity to receive a quality education,” noted Head of the Moscow Department of Education Isaac Kalina, – and the results of the last academic year confirmed this. And next year’s opportunities give confidence in the reliability of the Moscow school. Today we have hundreds of colleagues from different cities and countries of the world and they see that each school is an entry point into a unified Moscow education system, united by city-wide opportunities and projects.”
Speaking about the results of the year, I would like to recall the school Olympiads, in which Moscow schoolchildren confidently win. For example, our guys showed the best result in the finals of the All-Russian Chemistry Olympiad, which took place in the spring in Saransk. Muscovites won 34 awards (by the way, this is the team’s best result for the entire period of the Olympics). Our children are also quite capable of international competitions - for example, this year a Muscovite became the best chemist in the world among schoolchildren.
Competitions in chemistry, mathematics, physics, foreign languages - students from capital schools invariably find themselves in leading positions. But this is not at all the result of special training and coaching, but the result of the usual, so to speak, general level of teaching subjects at school. If quite recently the winners and prize-winners of such competitions were trained only in selected educational institutions, now the Olympiad awards are won by children from a variety of schools.
“My school is distinguished by its excellent attitude towards each student, understanding, friendliness,” says gold medalist of the International Chemistry Olympiad, now already graduate of the Pirogov school Alexander Zhigalin.– I studied here for all 11 years, without even thinking about moving somewhere else, since here I always had the opportunity to do what was truly interesting to me. The school provides an excellent education to those who really need it. After all, every person is initially capable of much, and his success depends on how much he wants to develop his abilities.”
“There was a lot of competition,” recalls winner of the silver medal at the International Chemistry Olympiad, graduate of school No. 192 Kirill Kozlov.– But I really love chemistry and have been studying this science for the last few years. And in my senior year, I set myself the task of winning the international Olympiad. The school gave me every opportunity for this, for which I am very grateful. All our teachers are interested in giving children the best education.”
The real revolution in metropolitan education was project "Moscow Electronic School"– a new stage in the introduction of electronic technologies into the education system. The experiment, in which several metropolitan schools took part, turned out to be so successful that by the end of next year all schools in the metropolis will be involved in the project.
“We conducted an experiment, created a platform and gave our teachers the opportunity to develop lesson scenarios themselves and upload them to this platform,” said Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. – As a result, in a short time we received 48 thousand scripts, of which 8 thousand have already been tested and are in the public domain. It was a breakthrough of sorts. We realized that this is the path we should follow."
Today the city is beginning a new stage in the introduction of information technology in education.
“We are talking about updating the material and technical base. Today, our schools need to be provided with new computers, interactive whiteboards, and laptops,” the mayor explained. “I think that we will cope with this task during 2017 and 2018.”
Of course "Moscow Electronic School" does not set out to replace the teacher. It is just a unique tool in his hands, a reliable and high-quality assistant, with the help of which the lesson becomes interesting and dynamic. And it allows the teacher himself to save time on checking homework and preparing for the next lesson.
Moscow schools today are among the ten best educational systems in the world. This success was achieved as a result of changing the school financing system, improving the material base, and creating large educational centers. Most schools have specialized classes - engineering, medical, cadet, academic, so that the guys can choose their future profession while still at their desk. And learning has become much more interesting: many classrooms, for example, are turning into real laboratory complexes, and libraries are becoming not just repositories of books, but high-tech information centers.
A rating of metropolitan schools was recently published, the compilation of which took into account eight blocks of indicators, including the results of exams, Olympiads, results of professional competitions, sports training, work with children with disabilities, and much more. The main criterion in compiling the rating was not the learning conditions, but specific results.
“Now, in order to achieve success, we have all the conditions created,” believes bronze medalist of the International Schoolchildren Olympiad in Mathematics, graduate of school No. 1329 Vadim Retinsky. – For example, additional classes in clubs and work with teachers from the Center for Pedagogical Excellence helped me a lot. That is, everything possible is being done both for our victories in the Olympiads and for a high level of knowledge.”
Moscow schools today are surprisingly monotonous: here any class is the “highest class.”
Victories of the capital's youth at the WorldSkills professional skills competitions (WORLDSKILLS) are gradually becoming traditional.
Our guys are winning more and more awards at national and international competitions. What is this - phenomenal luck or the result of the systematic work of teachers and industrial training masters?
Habit of success
“We are already accustomed to the success of our schoolchildren when passing the Unified State Exam, at All-Russian and international school Olympiads,” noted Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyani n. - Traditionally, it was believed that blue-collar professions were not the best direction in metropolitan education. But that's not true. Over the past two years, a team of young Muscovites has taken first places in such professions as carpenter, carpenter, mechanic, aviation technician, repairman, specialist in working with composite materials, and many others. Some of the specialties are traditional, and some are completely new. Such diversity is very important both for the country’s economy and for the economy of Moscow.”
The WorldSkills movement (a competition of professional skills reminiscent of the Soviet “Best in Profession” competition) is gaining momentum in the world; our country joined it 5 years ago and in a short time was able to take a leading position. This was largely thanks to Moscow students and schoolchildren who excel in various competencies.
“Today there are three types of competitions that allow the most objective assessment of the skills and abilities of young people. These are “Worldskills” (competition of masters aged 16 to 22 years), “Juniorskills” (schoolchildren compete in the age categories from 10 to 13 years and from 14 to 17 years old) and “Abilimpix” (professional skills competition among people with disabilities) , - explained the head of the Department for Implementation of State Policy in the Sphere of Education of the Moscow Department of Education Viktor Neumyvakin. - In May of this year, the V National Championship “Young Professionals” (WorldSkills Russia) was held in Krasnodar, in which 1,300 people from 75 regions of Russia took part. For three days, in an absolutely real environment of workshops and workshops, they completed production tasks - they had to assemble an engine, bake a cake, make a table, build an oven, design and create a drone, develop and implement a design... As a result, the Moscow team took first place in the team , having won medals in 32 competencies, of which 22 were gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze.”
Both hands and head
It is important to note that the competitions are held to very high standards - for example, participants in the WorldSkills competitions receive tasks that are usually performed by 4th-5th grade masters in production. But this does not scare them: the bar raised from the very beginning forces the children to learn to concentrate on the task and mobilize all the knowledge acquired during their studies.
“Our competitors are very strong teams from educational institutions in Tatarstan, Yekaterinburg, the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, each of which strived to become the best,” says Director of Entrepreneurship College No. 11 Vyacheslav Sheptukha. - Therefore, the victory of the Muscovites is an impressive result. “He showed the most important thing: the guys know how to work with both their heads and their hands, which means they can secure a place for themselves in the difficult modern world.”
The other day, Sergei Sobyanin proposed rewarding winners with cash bonuses.
“I propose to award the winner a prize of 400 thousand rubles, and the winners - 200 thousand,” he explained. “And consolidate this decision for the future championship, so that the guys know what to strive for.”
How to get a job for a disabled person...
“In the past academic year, institutions of secondary vocational education took part in the II National Championship of Russia “Abilimpix” - a professional competition for students and young professionals with disabilities,” says Director of Technological College No. 21 Nikolay Razdobarov. - 500 people from 63 regions of Russia competed. The Moscow team included representatives of 25 educational institutions. As a result, the capital team won 71 medals and emerged victorious, ahead of the Moscow and Samara regions. Muscovites became the best in such competencies as multimedia journalism, car repair and maintenance, body repair, art design, administration, and wood carving.
It is very important that the children were able to overcome life’s difficulties and become winners. Of the 1.5 thousand students at our college, 565 are children with special abilities. However, the high professionalism of teachers and industrial training masters, their ability to find an individual approach to teaching teenagers allowed us to win: the children of our college won 12 medals at the II National Championship (4 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze). Such competitions allow them to demonstrate the skills they have acquired during their studies and get a great job in the future.
The tasks in the competition were complex and the time frame was limited. But the young masters did an excellent job. And deferred contracts were signed with the three winners, which will enable graduates, after receiving their diploma, to be hired at a car maintenance center and a furniture manufacturing company. Thus, the Abilympics professional competition not only increases the prestige of blue-collar professions, but also gives people with disabilities the opportunity to feel confident and, over time, become in demand in production.
The teaching staff is a very important component of success. I would like to note that we managed to maintain and even increase the team of industrial training masters, since it is their work that is the main link in vocational education. And in addition to the teachers, the winners themselves teach their peers skills as part of the “Mugs from Champions” project. Students really want to be like their young mentors. This means that there are more and more people in Moscow creating wealth with their own hands.”
...and middle and high school students
“One of the main tasks of the Moscow education system and modern schools is the development of real-life skills and abilities of children in their future profession,” believes Director of school No. 1466 named after Nadezhda Rusheva Oksana Vidutina. “And the JuniorSkills championship gives a child the opportunity to feel like a professional, a real specialist, and besides, everything happens in real time. Schoolchildren are faced with difficult tasks; they work on serious equipment.
In May, within the framework of the V National Championship of Professional Skills, the III Junior Skills Championship was held, at which the Moscow team, competing in 13 competencies, took first place. Moscow children won 17 gold medals, 4 silver and 6 bronze. We were able to achieve such success thanks to the joint efforts of directors, teachers and masters.
It is important to remember that high-quality vocational training requires combining the efforts of basic and additional education. For example, technical clubs are very popular at our school, and we are developing this area. At the same time, in the lessons of physics, chemistry, computer science, and technology, children also have the opportunity to gain skills that will later be useful to them in practical work. After all, a modern student should not only know a lot, but also be able to apply his knowledge in life.
Technologies are rapidly changing the world, and in the next 10 years new, hitherto unknown professions will appear, and some specialties will simply be replaced by technology and robots. Therefore, we are now focused on training the specialists of tomorrow.”
Elena VORONOVA,
07.03.2018
On March 6, Moscow State University Rector Viktor Sadovnichy met with representatives of Voronezh Higher School to discuss the challenges facing Russian education and explained how Russia will be able to regain the title of the most educated nation in the world.
“AiF-Chernozemye” recorded the most striking quotes from Viktor Sadovnichy.
On criticism of the Bologna system
“We have made many mistakes in education reforms. We are like a pendulum - from one extreme position to another. We missed a lot. The education system in the Soviet Union was unique, it showed itself, we achieved everything. And then we lost the fundamental nature of our education, it was replaced by the concept of “competence”. We have always been strong because we taught not to memorize or some competencies, but to reflect, think, prove, doubt, overcome. Then he becomes a scientist or specialist. That's how we learned. This has helped us in space and other areas. We tried to copy other systems simply because they exist in the world.
I do not hide the fact that I am not a supporter of the Bologna system. It happened so in life that I participated at the very beginning of its discussion in Lisbon at the Conference of European Rectors. All rectors said that under no circumstances should it be accepted, that each university is unique, and unification is impossible. Later, the ministers of finance and foreign affairs gathered in Bolonia and said that streams of migrants were flocking to their countries, bringing some kind of diplomas that did not mean anything. The Bologna system was needed for labor integration, and it was introduced largely for political reasons. But this is the European community. Why did we need to copy this? I am not calling for new reforms, but increasing the fundamentality, significance and, perhaps, the timing of education is equally overdue. We must come to this. Although the Unified State Exam really helps to better integrate the periphery and the center, on the other hand, there were a lot of mistakes at the beginning. It's getting a little better now, but I think this is not the end. We conduct our own internal exam, which complements the Unified State Exam. We want to see who is coming to us."
The university has three missions: academic, scientific and public. The university is the anchor of society and science; it must serve society and the region.
Victor Sadovnichy
About brain drain and return
“In the 90s, 25 percent of mathematicians who graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics left for the States. Today many come back and really regret leaving. My classmate Andrei Leman, an outstanding guy, winner of international Olympiads, went to America. About 30 years later, at the alumni meeting, I asked him what he was doing in the States. He says: “I am an engineer. Since I arrived, I’ve been working as an engineer.” He did not defend his scientific work, he thought about leaving for his homeland. Don't think that they are waiting for you there. Another classmate of mine also left and has now come back to get a job. Of course, you need to travel, communicate, and do internships. But nothing can replace the birch tree that grows where you grew up.”
On the reduction of admission to humanities faculties
“Language is the bond of a nation. It seems that Olga Yuryevna (Vasilieva, Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation - ed.) should understand this. In the Ministry of Education and Science, apparently, such a phenomenon is taking place - now the priority is engineering education, the digital economy, and nanotechnology. But this should not happen at the expense of the Faculty of Philology and History.”
About historical education
“There are three strategic areas of science without which the country cannot live: mathematics, Russian language and history. I witnessed a certain discussion of the council of rectors, when in different regions about 120 history textbooks were recommended, in which the devil was written. This was aimed at destroying the country and our Russian spirit. Then they began to collect the broken pieces. There are attempts to make 2-3 textbooks. Several academicians write their own textbooks, but the results are very far off. Ring more bells! The number of textbooks is being compressed, but different forces are arising, friction between publishing houses, business, and politics in some places. All this affects the guys - students and schoolchildren. History cannot be let go, otherwise it will turn out that we are the worst country, that we attacked everyone. Do you remember what a fuss they made when they unveiled the monument to Ivan the Terrible in Orel? He was probably cruel. But the English queens executed no less, but there are monuments to them in every square. Because we need to preserve history."
About defeats and future victories
“The challenges of today's education are the position of the teacher, the trajectory of the student and the state of secondary vocational education. We lost blue collar workers back in the day. We shouted: “Don’t destroy technical schools and colleges.” Destroyed, privatized. Now we are collecting bit by bit. We hold World Skills and other competitions, but again everything is from scratch. This is our property - they destroyed it and started from scratch. We understand that vocational education and training is different now than technical schools in the past. In university education, a line has been built: 10 federal, 29 national research, 33 flagship universities. Of course, support from leading universities is necessary, but all universities need to be supported, they are all important. Thank God that today this work is a priority. That's not to say it will be easy. But I think the education system is a strong corporation. We will be a leading country in education. We simply have more talent, we have everything, we are a very capable nation.”
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