New standards of school education: the main thing is the report, but studies will have to wait a little

Its creators assure that now everything will be different in schools, and it will become known exactly what minimum knowledge a student should master and how to put it into practice. But while parents have solid questions about the school.

Irina Mishina

From September 1, 2022, Russian schools will take on a new life. So consider in the Ministry of Education and Science. The revolution there is associated with the new Federal State Educational Standards - Federal State Educational Standards. The main difference between the updated standards, according to their authors, will be the following: the requirements for the subjects of the entire school curriculum will be formulated as accurately as possible, what the student will master and what he will master will be specified. Emphasis is also placed on the application of knowledge in practice. We are assured that the transparency of the education system will increase, and any parent will be able to understand what exactly their child is taught at school. This means that the involvement of parents in the education process will increase.

It is a sin for officials from education to complain about this very “involvement” of parents in the school process. It is she who has recently become the subject of heated discussions. The fact is that without the help of parents, most children in the current school simply cannot do. In social networks, a post published in the public “Education in faces” caused a stir.

“According to the schedule today, the child had 6 lessons. So, the daughter said that in 5 lessons out of 6 there were control, verification or independent work. For myself, I have long concluded that the school has turned from a place where knowledge is given and received into a place where knowledge is tested”, - writes the author of the post. - I still have the strength and desire to study with my daughter at home, since the child is inquisitive and it absorbs everything like a sponge. We will prepare for the test or VPR accurately. But I would really like to see these works become at least a little smaller. And teachers began to engage in their direct duties and began to teach children.

In the comments, parents began to give one after another examples of how they themselves have to prepare children for tests and tests at home and, in general, go through with the children the material that students are given at home for self-study.

Hope: “They write in an electronic diary: study the paragraph. In history, for the third year in a lesson, the children themselves read paragraphs and answer questions in writing, and the teacher is on the phone. They openly say that if parents do not want to help the school, then what good grades can be. We would have transferred all oral subjects to a distance learning.”

Irina Deulya: “This is called the Federal State Educational Standard, according to it the school is now an examining, checking body, and not giving knowledge, as a mathematics teacher told us at a meeting 6 years ago. Assignments are given in advance for self-study at home, and then, if something is not clear in the lesson, the teacher can ask a question. Do you think kids ask a lot of questions? Therefore, many have tutors from the 5th grade, because. not all parents have the time and knowledge to teach their children”.

elena pominova: “The horror is happening in schools, what they want is what they do with children, teachers are already used to the fact that children have to, but they don’t have to”.

We asked the interregional trade union of pedagogical workers "Teacher" whether, according to the new Federal State Educational Standards, children, in fact, will switch to self-education.

“The modern Federal State Educational Standard says that the child should learn on his own, conduct project activities, and the teacher should only guide him. I personally do not agree with this," Dmitry Kozakov, a member of the board of the interregional trade union of teachers "Teacher" (Uchitel - editor's note), a teacher of history and social studies from the Nizhny Novgorod region, confirmed to "NI".

But, as it turned out, schools themselves are now the object of permanent inspections. In 2022, state bodies of control and supervision in the field of education will inspect all educational institutions. In addition, no one has canceled VPRy - All-Russian verification work, and with it other forms of school reporting.

“There are more out-of-school screening procedures. The number of VPRs has been reduced this year, the Uchitel trade union has played an important role in this. But the checks still remained. Moreover, if the school has successfully written the VLOOKUP, this also becomes the subject of verification. For this reason, the school where I teach got into some kind of “bad rating”, we were suspected of being a fake. Better, it turns out, when the result is average. Now we are going through new checks. In addition, there is also the International Program for the Assessment of Educational Achievement of Students PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) - this is an international comparative study of the quality of education. Add to this competitions in which teachers must participate, constant refresher courses. Now new GEFs are being introduced. This means that teachers again need to take some courses. All this eats up the teacher's time. Of course, it is not enough to prepare for the lessons. Where can I get it if there are continuous checks and courses?”, - Dmitry Kozakov, a teacher of history and social studies from the Nizhny Novgorod region, told Novye Izvestia.

When you watch schools from the side, you get the impression that all the reforms there are carried out solely for the sake of reforms or reports. At the same time, the reformers do not give the first place in their innovations to the quality of education. We asked Evgeny Yamburg, one of the most famous teachers in Russia, Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, Director of Education Center No. 109, to comment on the new Federal State Educational Standards.

“In my opinion, the new Federal State Educational Standards are worse than the previous ones. There is a lot of controversy in the new GEF. For example, they talk about the involvement of parents in the educational process. I am for an alliance with parents, for open lessons. But a parallel arises: the doctor does not consult with the patient before the operation. Why should educators consult? Also, these GEFs strengthen strict control over schools. A unified educational space threatens with templates. For example, according to the curriculum, 2 hours are allotted for "Crime and Punishment". And if not everyone figured it out, and I want to spend 3 hours on it? English is planned to be excluded from the Unified State Exam altogether, the second foreign language is to be removed from the program. This is despite the fact that all scientific literature is now in a foreign language, and those who do not know it are akin to a disabled person. VPR, verification, on the one hand, are important, but the redundancy of checks is not good. In my opinion, in the new educational standards, the function of control dominates the function of development”, - says Honored Teacher of Russia Yevgeny Yamburg.

Along with the new Federal State Educational Standards, new textbooks will also appear that correspond to the spirit of the times. Academician Chubaryan said that the Russian Academy of Sciences is completing the development of a new world history course for schoolchildren. The textbooks will now have less Europe, but more Asia, Africa and Latin America. So what? Instead of the Great French Revolution - an uprising of slaves in Haiti, instead of an uprising by Garibaldi - the activities of the National Liberation Front of Angola. “Seriously, the whole question is what exactly is considered history. If for you history is the movement of ideas, then here the primacy of Europe is undeniable. There are exceptions, but in the overwhelming majority of cases, the ideas that now rule the world were born and developed in Europe. The rest of the world just borrows them. But in principle, this is not the only possible approach. History can also be treated as a simple sum of actions organized by rulers - wars, for example. Then yes - Africa, Asia and Latin America are no worse than Europe. Perhaps even better: take any king there - so he will easily shut Napoleon up by the belt”, - notes political scientist Abbas Gallyamov.

Parents are also tormented by another question: why is such a large place now given to the history of religion in history textbooks - any, starting from the Ancient World? Sometimes it seems that children are taught theology instead of history at school from an early age, preparing them for a career in clergy. “Religion is a modern trend of the state. Textbooks contain a huge number of texts from the Lives of the Saints, for example. Apparently, the emphasis on religion is a state format,” explains Dmitry Kozakov, a history teacher from Nizhny Novgorod.

In fact, a revolutionary situation has developed in secondary education today: the current system suits neither teachers nor parents. According to statistics, more and more schoolchildren in Russia are switching to home schooling. The Association for the Development of Family Education conducted a study and determined that in the 2018-2019 school year, about 20,000 children were homeschooled. In 2019, as a write RIA "News", home trained 100 thousand of Russian schoolchildren. In 2020, this number has grown even more. Experts say the number of students in the family form will continue to grow.

“The trend of moving away from the mass school is obvious. As a result of the discrediting of the school, there is an outflow to family education and to private schools. The school becomes part of market capitalist relations. If you can - pay for education, if you can't - get what you have. As a result of the degradation of mass education, teachers who are built into the system of market relations are also degrading. 500 rubles stimulating in the modern world - how is it? Of course, teachers, due to low salaries and high requirements, go to tutors, they have less and less time left for school. I believe that the school must be withdrawn from the system of market relations”, - said Dmitry Kozakov, a member of the board of the interregional trade union of teachers “Teacher”, a teacher of history and social studies from the Nizhny Novgorod region.

But while Yevgeny Yamburg and others like him are defending the position of the school in the Public Chamber and in the Duma, education, coming into line with the Federal State Educational Standards, is less and less in line with the norms of common sense.

From social media comments. Yelena Ivanova: “It's time to admit to everyone: education in Russia (school in the general understanding and consciousness) has died. Dead body. Everything. Kick it, don't kick it, it's dead. The sooner society understands this, the more children can still be saved, educated, developed, raised to be worthy people. In various ways (from private paid schools to self-education). The fact is the fact - the school is dead. You can erect monuments and write obituaries”.