Each school student in the South Urals will have a digital tablet!

15.07.2013 — Analysis

The Chelyabinsk Region has embarked on the pilot project of adopting new educational standards. Teachers and representatives of the administration staff are coming from all over Russia to the Chelyabinsk Region to gain experience. In the national and international ratings, the South Urals invariably ranks among the leaders in terms of quality of education. Nevertheless, Alexander Kuznetsov, the Minister of Education of the Chelyabinsk Region, is not overenthusiastic about the ongoing situation. In his exclusive interview to RusBusinessNews, he shares his thoughts on what else should be done to reach the European standards.

- Alexander Igorevich, this year the Chelyabinsk Region is finishing the federal program of school education upgrading. What are the further plans?

- The federal project is not winding up; however, its federal financing is coming to an end. The program is scheduled till 2020. The further implementation of the program by using local resources is essential; we provided the conditions complying with the present-day standards to 80% of school students, while 20% are still "overboard".

By and large, the money for financing the reforms has always come from the regional and municipal funds. For example, we are allocating more than 300 million rubles for the modernization project from the regional and local budget funds. However, money cannot solve all the problems; there must be a package of measures. For instance, to comply with the new standards of education teachers must improve their qualification every 3 years.

- What are the requirements to the present-day school?

- Education cannot be confined to school buildings, and we should become more dynamic, provide each school student with a tablet. It is essential for switching to electronic content.

We spend enormous amounts of money on purchasing paper textbooks, which in a few years wear out. Besides, they cannot be adjusted to include the local component that is interesting to students of a particular region or school.

The digital textbook offers a new way of obtaining information. It has both video and audio content. There is, certainly, another aspect – gadgets are almost weightless in comparison with traditional textbooks.

- Are teachers ready for the switchover to the gadget-based system of education?

- If we talk about today or tomorrow, they are not ready. First of all, the electronic content has not been finalized so far. The standard for the digital textbook will be approved only by the end of 2013; then it will be clear both to teachers and publishers what kind of textbook they will have to deal with. After that, we can start working with teachers at a broad level.

- Let’s move on from today’s school students to those who finished their school education. What professions are most popular with high school graduates of the South Urals?

- Careers in law and economics are still popular. However, taking into account that the budget-supported student enrollment has decreased by almost 20% at the respective institutions, the passing enrollment score has increased substantially. It is a positive change, if in the future it will bring us high-skilled graduates.

At the same time, the number of students enrolling in technical professions has increased, and this trend can be observed nationwide.

- Why do high-school graduates tend to shy away from blue-collar professions?

- I have just come back from Leipzig, which hosted the WorldSkills International Competition. It is a skills competition among colleges of vocational education. There were lathe operators, mechanics, confectioners, cooks, hairdressers – representatives of different professions.

I was surprised at seeing how many children from Leipzig and other areas of Germany came to watch the competition. They saw with their own eyes that the blue-collar job is no longer greasy, grimy and dirty; these are jobs requiring skills in operation of high-tech equipment. When you watch a teenager operating high-precision equipment, you become speechless with amazement. I think it is a good and telling example of career guidance. Similar projects are being contemplated here.

When children can see that technical schools and colleges have up-to-date equipment and that they will be taught by competent teachers (and it is a big problem – most of the teachers are old and have never seen advanced equipment), then they will want to study there.

- What measures are taken to ensure that colleges train specialists sought after by employers?

- The blame for the situation can party be laid on employers who cannot say clearly what specialists they will need in 3-5 years. Only large companies can shoulder the burden of investment in long-term projects.

- In 2013, the Federation allocated subsidies to the Chelyabinsk Region for upgrading of pre-school education…

- Almost 1.5 billion rubles.

In his Decree the President set the objective to provide all children aged 3-7 with daycare facilities till 2016. In the Chelyabinsk Region, the objective can be achieved quite easily, as we have one of the country’s highest levels of pre-school education.

In 2013, the financing from the budget funds of all levels will provide 8,049 children with day care facilities. New kindergartens will accommodate kids living in Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk and Miass. After the reconstruction, daycare centers will open their doors to children in Zlatoust, Troitsk, Agapovsky, Plast, Sarafanovo (the Chebarkul District).

Over three years, due to the construction of new daycare centers, we are planning to provide access to pre-school education for another 20,875 children.

In the meantime, there is a significant component – quality of pre-school education. New federal standards will become effective this year. Daycare centers will be the first, primary level of general education.

- What changes will the new standards bring into the education system?

- I look at our system with a critical eye. There is a lot of work to do. Governor Mikhail Yurevich entrusted us with the task to move up to a new international level. My colleagues and I understand what should be done. It will take time – not only because of financial issues, but also due to the changeover in the administrative and teaching personnel. But we are moving ahead, and the Chelyabinsk Region has been taking part in international tests for 15 years. At first, the results were lamentable, but now the situation has changed for the better. We hold the leading positions in the world in the quality of elementary education; today, we can witness steady improvement of secondary education.

The interview was conducted by Irina KALININA