In St. Petersburg, a three-day brainstorming session on improving the quality of school education concluded, with the participation of 350 school directors from across Russia, representatives from the university community, and invited experts. The All-Russian Academic Session "Education in the Interests of the State and the Individual" was initiated by the Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University and the International Center for Competencies in Mining Education under the auspices of UNESCO to develop consolidated proposals on the stated topic.
According to the event organizers, the broader educational community is currently effectively isolated from the decision-making process in its field. However, it does have a voice, and a rather confident one, as was revealed during panel discussions and quick surveys.
The main participants of the meeting were the principals of 350 Russian schools, mostly from the academic partners of the Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University . Specifically, the educational institutions involved in the ”Leader of Schools of Russia” project and UNESCO-associated schools.
The overwhelming majority of meeting participants, 83%, expressed support, for example, for the standardization and unification of school curricula and the creation of unified textbooks for each subject. According to the director of the "Gorny" author's school, Andrei Konkin, in 1999, there were 300 organizations in Russia authorized to publish educational literature. It is evident that the quantity has not transitioned into quality. Today, there are around 80 such publishers, but fundamentally, the situation of "disarray and confusion" has not changed.
«The curriculum designer is a convenient service. It has slightly reduced the bureaucratic burden on teachers, but there are mismatches: the educational programs created with it often do not align with the textbooks in the sequence of the material presented. In terms of calendar-themed planning, which is uploaded into the electronic journal, we go through one set of topics, but in the textbooks, they might be in a different section. This creates confusion.
The federal textbook list. The problem is that quality and proven editions periodically disappear from it. Schools have to restructure the educational process – this is inconvenient for both students and teachers. After a year or two, the textbooks removed from the list return, causing additional difficulties» – said Andrei Konkin.
Discussion participants noted the high-handedness of large publishing houses regarding authors' texts of teaching and methodological materials. Authors have to engage in a prolonged struggle for their formulations, but as a rule, it is easier to concede to the publisher and effectively sign off on their version.
The director of the Physics and Mathematics Lyceum No. 239 of Saint Petersburg, Maxim Pratusievich, supported the central thesis of the discussion – the lack of a unified goal and overarching task in state regulation of education:
«They introduced the subject 'Fundamentals of Spiritual and Moral Culture of the Peoples of Russia' – and then removed it. They introduced Social Studies in grades 5-7 – and then canceled it. They removed the history of the local region – and later reintroduced it. Such contradictions reveal the complete absence of a coherent state educational policy with clear goals.
The lack of meaning and purpose is the main problem. A person must understand that we are not just carrying stones or earning money for dinner, but building, for example, the Rouen Cathedral» – said Maxim Pratusievich.
The issue of goal-setting in education is also placed at the forefront by the rector of the Mining University, Professor Vladimir Litvinenko. In his opinion, the goal of school education is much more than the successful mastery of the school curriculum across all subjects within the framework of state standards. A graduate should leave school with a well-formed basic worldview, having acquired a system of views, assessments, and conceptual representations of the world and the place of humans in it.
Today, as the rector of the Mining University points out, judging by the regulatory framework, the state is self-eliminating from the development of a unified educational goal.
Educational institutions have to rely on themselves and show initiative. The director of the Pre-University and Special Programs Center at the Mining University, Ruslan Babkin, shared that the university conducts 3-4 introductory tours for school students daily and actively participates in pre-university preparation. This year, the university has moved to a closer form of interaction with schools – academic partnerships. Specialized classes are being opened, and joint scientific events are held. An example of this is the research project competition "School Premier League," which was held in parallel with the academic session. All of this is done to ensure that applicants choose the university consciously.
The proposals presented during the academic session will be analyzed by the newly created Public-Professional Pedagogical Council. It will include not only representatives from school and university education but also industrialists, and teachers from secondary vocational education.
The collection of proposals and analytical work on educational reform will continue on an ongoing basis. Feedback channels already exist and are functioning successfully, particularly within the framework of the "School Leader" project.
В Санкт-Петербургском горном университете императрицы Екатерины II начался конкурс «Лидер школы», дающий право гарантированного поступления в вуз в 2025 году за счет образовательного гранта. Соответствующий приказ подписал ректор Владимир Литвиненко.
The event concluded on Friday, March 28, with the awarding of school principals who had been most active in cooperation with the Mining University. Participation in joint projects, the statistics on the admission of school graduates to the country's oldest technical university, and their performance in the first session at the university were taken into account.
Grants of 50,000 and 100,000 rubles were awarded to 26 school and lyceum principals from St. Petersburg, Tyumen, Krasnoyarsk, Perm, Samara, Ufa, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Veliky Novgorod, Tver, Nizhnekamsk, Buzuluk, Magnitogorsk, Surgut, and Cherepovets.
The key joint proposals from the Pedagogical Council will be communicated to the executive and legislative branches of government and widely disseminated in the teaching community to garner support for the consolidated perspective on the reform, the outlines of which have already become visible based on the results of the session.
В Санкт-Петербургском горном университете императрицы Екатерины II прошло совещание по вопросу школьного образования. Модератор - советник президента РФ, председатель Совета по развитию гражданского общества и правам человека Валерий Фадеев. Отправным толчком к дискуссии, инициированной по прямому поручению Владимира Путина, стал вопрос о несовершенстве экзаменационной системы. По оценке модератора и 400 собравшихся директоров школ, сегодняшний ЕГЭ - это экзамен для поступления в вузы, а не оценка знаний ребенка:
