The head of the association of Parents' Committee of the City of St. Petersburg computer science teacher Mikhail Bogdanov, in a conversation with Rambler, spoke out against the introduction of 12-year general education in Russia.
Previously, Deputy Secretary of the Public Chamber Vladislav Grib announced that Russia is ready to switch to a 12-year education system. He noted that the transition to this format will retain teaching staff amid a decline in the number of first graders and will allow graduates to enter university at the age of 18. According to him, in most developed countries, children start school at the age of 6 and this process lasts 12 years.
Switching to a 12-year study in Russia is not realistic. These world fashion trends have nothing to do with our practices. Schools in Western countries following the 12-year educational path operate on a different principle – like social shelters. They do not teach children, but only keep them within the walls of the educational institution until they become adults, so that at least someone can watch over them. That is, here we are talking about the social function of schools, which is not related to education. At the same time, in Russia it is not necessary to keep children in school for 12 years until they become adults. And those who talk about the need for transformation due to the overload of our school curriculum are turning everything upside down. If somewhere the program is overloaded, then this issue needs to be approached scientifically – simplify it, remove unnecessary items. Schools currently allocate 10 hours per week for extracurricular activities but this time is rarely used for work. Often this is simply a formality or, on the contrary, extra study hours because the child does not have time to prepare for the exam. So now we need to address school programs, not increase school time. If this is not done, there will soon be a proposal to move the school to a 13-year education.
Mikhail BogdanovChairman of the association “St. Petersburg City Parents Committee”, computer science teacher
Bogdanov emphasized that reducing the number of first grade students while maintaining 11 years of education in schools will reduce the burden on teachers.
“Now most teachers work in two shifts, on average working for 1.7 times the salary. Therefore, reducing the number of first grade students will simply lighten the burden on teachers and they will work in normal mode – the mode in which they should work,” said the expert.
With a reasonable approach to educational programs, the period of study in Russian schools can be reduced to 10 years, he added.
“If we remove unnecessary subjects from these programs, which are optimized from the point of view of overload, as well as eliminate “extracurricular activities”, which are quite meaningless and take a lot of time, then we can easily return to habits like those of Soviet times, when we studied at school for 10 years. This should be done, because I repeat, it is not our duty to keep children in school, thereby fulfilling the social function of nurturing care, “says the expert and added that the development of the supplementary education system will also lead to reducing the burden on Russian students.
Before that, Russian blogger Dmitry Puchkov stated about the need to return to the Soviet school curriculum.
