“United Russia” party has started working on the project “School Bus” designed by our teachers. As the “Nizhniy Novgorod Worker” Newspaper has already written, chairman of the education committee of the State Duma, Doctor of historical sciences Vyacheslav Nikonov, is heading the list of “United Russia” for Nizhniy Novgorod Region at the elections of State Duma.
He was the first one to be elected at the “United Russia” primaries in our region. And it is no wonder – at the moment of primaries, he had already plunged into the problems of Nizhniy Novgorod kindergartens, schools and universities, and these are the problems, which involve every single family of the region. We discussed with Vyacheslav Nikonov how the problems of education in this sphere are going to be solved in our region and in the country in general during his visit to Nizhniy Novgorod last week.
– Vyacheslav Alekseyevich, you have visited many kindergartens, schools and universities of Nizhniy Novgorod, where you collected suggestions from teachers for the election campaign of the “United Russia” party. A short while ago, the party’s forum “Education and Science – Russian Future” was held in Novosibirsk, its final resolution was made after the Forum. What suggestions of Nizhniy Novgorod were included in it?
– It has to be understood, that suggestions of Nizhniy Novgorod reflected many federal problems. Saying big, it is a program of supporting big educational centres in the framework of “5–100” program. It is a large federal program, which helps increase competitiveness of our main universities, including Lobachevskiy State University of Nizhniy Novgorod. Ideas of building a big amount of schools in the nearest future were, of course, supported. But many ideas of precisely Nizhniy Novgorod were reflected in the “United Russia” party forum resolution. I can mention specifically Nizhniy Novgorod' s ideas like “School Bus” project – it will be included into the “United Russia” party’s campaign into the Government’s programme of the coming years. A suggestion to create a title of “Honorary Worker of Additional Education” is also from Nizhniy Novgorod – this suggestion was also included into the Novosibirsk forum’s resolution, as did many others. So, numerous meetings in Nizhniy Novgorod were held for a reason – the ideas we had discussed here are in demand now.
– Do we have to wait long for them to come true? Do we have to wait for elections at first, or is the “United Russia” party going to start working on some of them right now?
– Certainly, the work has already been started. For example, we have already started building schools and two schools are going to be opened before September 1 in the Nizhniy Novgorod Region in the framework of this programme. Suggestions are ready for 71 schools of the Nizhniy Novgorod Region – some of them are going to be reconstructed, but the most of them are going to be built. The Chairman of the Government has already been encharged the task about the school bus programme – so it’s just a matter of time. We have already agreed with the Minister of Education and Science about creating the “Honorary Worker of Additional Education” title– it will be an institutional award.
– There are regular suggestions and among many others – a suggestion to introduce changes into the system of the Unified State Examination. Could you please tell a bit more; the topic is still stirring up the public opinion.
– We managed to increase visibility of the system and it is not only about setting the cameras or checking for mobile connection at the examination, but about cancellation of such an attribute of evaluation, as an average regional point of the examination. It was cancelled on basis of our recommendation. After this, the system became more visible – now there are no students from sunny Russian republics with only hundred-degree-result at the examination. The second important change – we returned essays back. The third one – spoken part has emerged in them. Speaking is now in the foreign language examinations and I think it has to be introduced into Russian language examination, too. Or there will be no motivation for students to speak. Furthermore, there are no multiple choice tests now, so the answer cannot now be just guessed anyway.
– Do schools and kindergartens need different ratings? Sometimes, participation in ratings increases the number of events, but makes their quality lower. They start a race of exhibitions, hand-made contests, speeches and often parents make-paint-write all of these to manage in time, not children…
– I have very mixed feelings about all these ratings systems etc. You see, there emerged a great amount of those, who want to give points and it is evident that many of these organisations do it for profit. So I’d distinguish between the impartial ratings of the state educational bodies and the ratings made by different indistinct associations with shallow status. Competitiveness is good for education in general, I suppose, if there is a real opportunity to evaluate one or another educational institution. So I don’t mind about ratings as such, but I object to ratings used as a means of corruption and eyewashing.
– Over the last years, the Russian schools are too much into computer availability. At the same time, the net is full with different researches, that show how harmless gadgets are, like gadgets designers from the Silicon Valley don’t give their children smartphones and iPads for them to develop better and Russian experts keep tilling about the connection of orthography with direct writing with a pen, not with a keyboard…
– I absolutely agree with the connection between manual dexterity, orthography and good speaking skills – it was indeed proved in research. And our children keep writing many things with a pen, despite of the fact computers are now available in the class. What comes to Silicon Valley – I’ve been there, but I saw many young people with gadgets there. Young people and adults use them, so I think that this research was just made up. It is clear that children start using gadgets everywhere starting from the most tender years. My younger son is four years old and he is a very active user – much more active, than I am. There’s nothing to do in the modern world without computer skills. Fortunately, 98% of Russians up to 29 years old are active users of the internet and computers. It is one of the highest indices in the world – perhaps, the highest. Senior citizens are usually inactive users, but the country will soon be computer-literate. Apart from everything else, digital technology is a very serious sphere of economics and it has to be developed. Digital technology companies are today the leaders of capitalization. It is also a good margin for development, for a leap… But it is absolutely inefficient to “live” on the internet. There is a great volume of information there, which is not a must to comprehend, and which contradicts reality and is not worth the time.
