500 children refused to go to school in Petersburg

Alexander Dybin, St. Petersburg

In St. Petersburg, they could not resolve the conflict between the Laboratory for Continuous Mathematical Education (LNMO) and the leadership of the Admiralteisky district and the education committee. As deputy director of the LNMO Maria Chistyakova told Novye Izvestia, most of the parents of 600 children who studied at the laboratory, massively took documents from schools and transferred to family education.

“In total, 19 classes ceased to exist,” Chistyakova said, “70 teachers who worked with us lost their jobs. They were forced to quit because they don’t let us work in the previous format.”

Novye Izvestia has already reported on the conflict over LNMO, a private educational organization that worked in symbiosis with public schools in the Admiralteisky district. Pupils were admitted to state schools, received from them knowledge within the framework of the educational standard, and LNMO gave in-depth knowledge in mathematics, biology and technical disciplines. It differed from circles and sections in that both programs were intertwined and adapted to strong students. The advantage of this format is that, unlike a private school, parents only pay for additional subjects, tuition fees amounted to about 10,000 rubles a month, while a private school costs from 40-50 thousand rubles a month.

LNMO classes were enrolled from all over the city. But this year, a conflict arose between the laboratory and one of the directors of the schools where the LNMO was based. The district and city leadership supported the public school. The laboratory was required to vacate the premises in the five schools they occupied, explaining that they violated the terms of the agreements and interfered too much in the educational process. 600 children who studied under the enhanced program became hostages of the situation, they were asked to stay in schools and study further according to the regular program, or look for an educational institution according to their level. In addition, about 200 children in 2022 only entered different classes of the LNMO, that is, they took documents from the old school, but were not accepted into the new one. At the same time, the main actions of the conflict unfolded in July-August, when neither parents nor teachers had time to look for an alternative. The Parents' Committee asked to give LNMO a year to find a new form for existence - to reformat into a private school or something like that. But this time was not given.

As Anna Melnikova , a representative of the parent committee of the LNMO, told Novye Izvestia, over the summer, parents received about 200 responses to complaints to various authorities.

“Most of the children went to family education, with the exception of those who were able to transfer to other schools, but these are few,” Anna Melnikova said, “we even had a child from Arkhangelsk, they just returned home. The main reason is that the level of state schools that we were offered does not suit us. Now we are studying the regulatory framework, how it will all be, how to take the exam. We have about 80 graduates in the coming academic year. Four people went to gold medals. How will they prepare and pass? All the answers that came to us are unsubscribed: the issue is being considered. I think that now the Ministry of Education will ask why so many children went to family education, about 500 people. After all, schools received per capita funding for them. Just at the beginning of September, money should arrive and all this will be visible.

At the same time, the work of the LNMO does not stop. The laboratory transferred part of its programs to the Znanie society, which will work with children in the format of additional education.

“The prosecutor's office checked us and found no violations,” said Maria Chistyakova, “we will sue, try to restore the lease agreements terminated with us. At the same time, we are thinking about the format of a private school, but this will take at least a year”.

Deputy Governor of St. Petersburg Irina Potekhina, who oversees the field of education, has repeatedly commented on the situation around LNMO. In one of the last posts on her page on the Vkontakte social network, she stated that it would definitely not be the same as before.

“A number of serious violations have been previously recorded. For example, in two out of five schools there is no contractual relationship with LNMO at all - neither for rent, nor for networking. At all. And in these schools, too - it is not known on what grounds - children were selected. And the fate of these children worries me in the first place, - said Potekhina, - the perpetrators of all the identified violations are school directors. As I have already said: according to the legislation, it is the director who is responsible for everything that happens on his territory - regardless of who specifically committed the violations. And it is the director who must now eliminate the violations. And to eliminate them, you will have to completely change the existing format. LNMO leaders should now prepare a roadmap for changes - in strict accordance with current legislation. Only after that new contractual relations with the Laboratory are possible”.