25 school principals from different Russian regions received incentive grants of 50 and 100 thousand rubles for popularization of engineering education and active cooperation with the Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University, where a pilot project on modernization of the system of personnel training for the national economy is being implemented today. The ceremony was held within the framework of the All-Russian methodological seminar "New Approaches to Secondary Education in the Interest of Forming the Country's Technological Leadership".
According to Vladimir Litvinenko, Rector of Gorny, the grants were awarded to the heads of those educational institutions whose graduates most actively participated in the School Leader of Russia contest last year and successfully, i.e. without a "C", passed their first session. In addition, he said that the second season of this project has already started this year and assured that the majority of first-year students during the upcoming admission campaign should enter the university as its winners.
Forpost decided to find out the details of this endeavor, the motivation of its initiators, as well as the attitude of school principals and young people to it.
Why we need to popularize engineering education
As Vladimir Litvinenko explained, today it is vitally important for our state to solve the problem of the deficit of competent young specialists capable of ensuring a painless generational change in the real sector of the economy in the future. First of all, at mining and processing enterprises. The digitalization of adolescents' minds creates additional difficulties on this path, which hinders the development of analog thinking, i.e. reduces the ability of young men and women to build logical chains and analytics, and provokes them to look for easier career paths.
Another obstacle to increasing the number of engineers in the country is undoubtedly the current USE rules. First of all, schoolchildren are less and less willing to choose physics and chemistry exams every year, preferring "simpler" disciplines. That is, they initially deprive themselves of the opportunity to enter a technical university. And, secondly, the very process of studying in high school is aimed not so much at acquiring knowledge as at successfully passing the test. In order for it to be successful, it is not so important to be "seven eyes in the head", it is enough to understand the algorithm of template tasks and to get rich experience of their solution.
All this leads to the fact that young people whose potential varies greatly enter the first year. Moreover, many of them literally fall into a stupor if a question is not accompanied by answer options.
In this regard, among the most important tasks of the management of any university is the search for mechanisms aimed at improving the quality level of applicants, attracting not only talented, but also mentally ready to compete in their field of training young men and women.
What is the Russian School Leader project
One of the programs that should help achieve this goal is the Russian School Leader contest. Its essence is that as early as 11th grade or even earlier, any student, no matter what region of the country he/she studied in, can sign an agreement with the Mining University on the intention to participate in the project. In the event that he or she achieves the necessary threshold score (it is different for each specialty), he or she will become a candidate for the right of guaranteed admission to the oldest higher technical school in Russia.
The most interesting thing is that it will happen a month before the end of the admission campaign, that is, among other things, the guys save themselves from unnecessary nervous worries. The mechanism works as follows. If young people in August get on the lists of those who have been admitted to budgetary places, they are trained at the expense of budgetary allocations. If this does not happen, the Mining University pays for their entire period of study at its own expense
"In order to educate a new generation of engineers and scientists, it is necessary not only to introduce modern technologies and methods into the educational process, improve the infrastructure and enhance the quality of teaching staff. It is equally important to create a competitive environment that motivates students to show their best qualities - diligence, hard work and determination. At the same time, it should be understood that applicants "do not come from nowhere", they come to us from school. Therefore, our task is to demonstrate to young people that their focus on academic success, participation in social and research work, sports competitions, and most importantly - the choice of a specific paradigm of development, will be recognized, including financially. For the winners of the School Leader contest, for example, we provide additional scholarships, the opportunity to choose a place in a dormitory, free meals and a number of other incentives. In particular, compensation for tickets home after the first session, on which we spent almost 19 million rubles. This project is part of our work aimed at improving the quality of human capital and creating synergy through the integration of higher and secondary education," emphasized Vladimir Litvinenko.
What school directors think about the School Leader project
Elena Volguntseva is one of those who received a grant for popularization of engineering education. She heads school No. 4 named after Alexander Sidorovnin, which is located in the town of Sorochinsk, Orenburg region. This is not the first time she has come to the Mining University; she brought her students here in the fall of 2023. Moreover, the university made such an impression on the children that half of them decided to enroll here.
"The School Leader project is an excellent initiative. In my opinion, it is aimed not only at the motivated part of schoolchildren, but also, very importantly, at those who need a little push, to show that this is a real opportunity to succeed. To convince that everything will definitely work out, you just need to make an effort, to be a purposeful and diligent student", - says Elena Volguntseva.
Her colleague, Inessa Kashenova, director of the Lyceum at Tomsk Polytechnic University, also supports the idea of the contest. She popularizes it through social networks and tells schoolchildren about it during extracurricular activities.
"This is really a real chance to enter one of the country's flagship universities. I am absolutely sincere about this. It is a wonderful start for talented, promising kids who would like to get a high-quality engineering education and connect their fate with the specialties taught at the Mining University. These are oil and gas, energy, geoecology, geomechanics and many other areas of training, which are in high demand by the Russian industry," Inessa Kashenova believes.
What participants of the first season of the School Leader project think about the project
The opening ceremony of the All-Russian seminar "New Approaches to School Education in the Interest of Forming the Country's Technological Leadership" was attended by last year's winners of the School Leader of Russia contest. They are now studying at the Mining University and are absolutely sure that they have made a successful choice.
For example, Sofya Loginova, who came to St. Petersburg from the Komi Republic, says that she has long dreamed of entering the first Russian technical university. Therefore, when in 11th grade she was offered to take part in the project, the girl did not hesitate for a second. However, she thought that it would be much more difficult to become its laureate.
"I really expected that I would have to write a paper or take an entrance test, but everything turned out to be much simpler. It was enough to have a desire to become an engineer or scientist in the future and then to score above the threshold in the USE. For its part, the management of the Mining University guaranteed a number of privileges. For example, compensation for the road home after the first session and priority choice of a place in a hostel. But for me personally, the most important advantage was enrollment in the first course in early July. That is, while all my classmates were "in the race", I have already won it," Sofia Loginova shared her emotions.
Danila Shimko came to the city on the Neva from Moscow specifically to enroll in a specialization course. He recalls that the infrastructure of the St. Petersburg university exceeded all his expectations and made a literally stunning impression. This applies to the level of dormitories, laboratories, and virtual simulators, on which you can hone your skills before going "into the field" for practical training.
"For those students who have enrolled under the School Leader grant, there is really a lot of support. Moreover, it did not stop in the second semester. For example, the Mining University pays from its own budget an increased stipend of 10 thousand rubles monthly to students who passed the session with excellent grades, and 5 thousand rubles to those who got B's. At the end of the semester, group leaders can count on encouragement in the amount of 25 thousand rubles. But for this, of course, you need to show yourself in social work, study, sports, show interest in science. Another plus is the "Pitman's Snack", i.e. free meals - soup, two cakes and tea - provided for all contestants," said Danila Shimko.
By the way, it is quite possible that this year it will be even easier to become a laureate than in the previous year. At least, the number of places for future students who became winners of the project has increased from one thousand to one thousand six hundred. No one doubts that this approach contributes to the enrollment of much more motivated young people than before. The dry figures also testify to the same fact: not a single winner of the project was expelled from St. Petersburg Mining University at the end of the last session.
