"Pseudo-experts tried to destroy the education system"
The Russian education system is currently undergoing a renaissance, becoming integrated, believes Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov. And this approach will be consolidated in the Education Development Strategy currently being formed until 2036. The 90s, according to the head of the Ministry of Education, left a complex legacy — the teacher remuneration system, which was left at the mercy of the school leadership. Therefore, an experiment is now being launched to introduce a more transparent remuneration system for teachers. The minister spoke about this, as well as how to maintain a balance of theory and practice in the school curriculum, in an interview with Izvestia at the WEF-2025.
"There can be no good practical training without a foundation"
— A strategy for the development of education until 2036 is currently being prepared. At the All-Russian Pedagogical Congress, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said that the challenges, goals, mission and values of the strategy have already been formed. What are they?
— The essence of the strategy is, on the one hand, not to make the mistakes that, unfortunately, were in the 90s. At that time, pseudo-consultants and pseudo-experts tried to actually destroy the education system, impose values alien to our country through the education system, so that virtually every school would study according to its own curriculum. Unfortunately, we had 100 math textbooks and 54 history textbooks.
Since the 2000s, our education system has been actively developing, and today we have come to uniform programs, textbooks, and requirements. As a matter of fact, we have revived the education system as a system. Yes, there are problems and tasks that need to be solved, but it is much easier to solve when there is a complete system.
And the strategy provides answers to the questions of concern. For example, whether the school will switch to a distance learning format. The strategy clearly states that there is a traditional form of education, and digital technologies are an addition to it. The strategy also sets out the issues of financing the education system, the principles of improving infrastructure — major repairs of schools, kindergartens, colleges, and the construction of new educational facilities.
At the same time, we are talking about the challenges facing our country. These are the development of artificial intelligence, the demographic situation, and migration policy. These are the challenges that we must respond to and be ready to address.
— And how, according to the strategy, should artificial intelligence be developed?
— It is very important, as artificial intelligence is developing, to give an answer as to how to use the capabilities of AI for system education. You need to act very carefully here, you need your own language model so that the content is verified and there are no distortions.
— What is missing from our education now? Practical skills?
— There was a problem when virtually every school taught according to its own curriculum. Hence, some schools had good fundamental and some had good practical training. But there can be no good practical training without a foundation. These are interrelated processes. That is why federal programs developed by the best specialists, including with the involvement of teachers of the year, combine fundamental and practical training. There must be a balance here.
And if we see a bias in the implementation of unified programs, and I remind you that the order on them came into force on September 1 of this year, in the theoretical or practical part, then something can always be corrected, adjusted, improved. But I would like to note that the programs were widely discussed by experts and we tried to find a balance between basic training and practical training.
— A pilot project on a new teacher remuneration system has now been launched in three regions of Russia. The experiment will take place on Sakhalin, Udmurtia and Vladivostok. How will this system differ from the current one? And what's wrong with the current one?
— It is difficult to say and give grades — bad or good. We need to look at the facts. What do we see today? Unfortunately, we also have problems here that have remained since the 90s, when, in addition to the fact that the school determined the content of education, it was left to it to form a wage system. And when implementing the presidential decree, when the average teacher's salary was supposed to be equal to the average for the economy, we see that there can be very high differentiation within the region — even in neighboring schools there is a different wage system and a different level of remuneration.
And the task of the new wage system is to build a unified payroll system that would take into account the work of young teachers, incentive payments, compensation payments, and basic ones. It is necessary that the teacher has a clear understanding of what the salary is paid for, how incentive payments are calculated, and so on. And this, of course, will make it possible to clearly define and bring order to the remuneration system.
"By going to college, you can get a good major"
— There is an acute shortage of personnel in the country, especially those who have completed secondary vocational education. In Moscow, such vacancies account for 75% of the total. Have calculations been made to what extent colleges, and in particular the Professionalism program, make it possible to close the shortage?
— Today, the share of those who went to college after the ninth grade is 62.5%, plus 10% go after the 11th grade. According to the results of this year, 50% of ninth-graders in Moscow have chosen secondary vocational education.
This is due to the fact that colleges are actively developing, and "Professionalism" has already been adopted as a law. The guys see that by going to college, you can get a profession, a specialty, and several with guaranteed employment and a good salary.
The college's infrastructure is also developing. Colleges, especially those that participate in the Professionalism project, are modern buildings with modern equipment. All teachers undergo advanced training. The championship movement is actively developing here.
According to the forecast of the Ministry of Labor, about 70% of specialists with secondary vocational education will be in demand in the market. This does not mean that the prestige of higher professional education is declining. This indicates that the economy and small and medium-sized businesses are actively developing, where specialists in working professions are in demand.
— Are there any concerns that as a result there will be a shortage of specialists with higher education?
— World experience shows that in some countries this ratio is 50-50, somewhere 60-40. In Soviet times, in my opinion, 25% of school graduates went to higher education institutions. Therefore, there is probably no tragedy here. The economy largely determines this, and if, as I said, small and medium-sized businesses are developing, then working professions are in demand. Now quite a large number of colleges are actively involved in the implementation of the military-industrial order. Hence this result.
We also carry out career guidance activities. And the guys themselves see that by going to college, you can get a good specialty, and in terms of "Professionalism" — two or three related ones. And employers are actively involved in this work. An enterprise is assigned directly to each college, and the enterprises themselves are already coming to the college, participating in the training of students, and talking about the opportunities available at this or that enterprise. And this kind of interaction, among other things, gives such an amazing result.
— The mayor of Kazan, speaking to schoolchildren on the line on September 1, said that excellent students make excellent students, and mayors and regional leaders make up of three students. Do you agree with this forecast? And what would you say to the children who heard it?
— To be honest, I didn't hear about it, what was said. But just recently, I met with guys who scored 300 points on the Unified State Exam. One girl scored even 400 points in Russian, mathematics, physics and computer science. And when I asked her: "And what, Nadezhda, is your success?" she said: "I studied." Therefore, the first thing to talk about is that the assessment shows the level of knowledge: where to catch up, where is the zone of immediate development. And the second, and maybe even the first, is education. This is the formation of those qualities that make a person a person with a capital letter. And patriotism, kindness, love for the Motherland, family values, historical memory. Just recently, we celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, the Year of Defender of the Fatherland. Therefore, these qualities that are formed in school are very important for the future, regardless of what grades a student has.
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