In recent years, a strange division can be observed in the school. For example, a child has math in their program and then something else that looks like math but it doesn’t. Or there is reading and literature and then there is something similar but not about books, but nearby. Or there’s the world around, and geography and biology, and something else that’s too complex, not too clear for them. All this comes after the main courses, in the form of extracurricular activities, elective courses, elective courses. All this under the guise of “There’s a kind of literacy”: reading, math, finance, natural science, home, computer, and finally functional. What are these parallel universes? Why are they? Why can’t one be enough?
This fun has its roots in international education quality studies, all these PISA, TIMSS and other PIRLS. The truth is, these studies test the ability to use that knowledge in life rather than knowledge. That is, no one there surrendered to the Pythagorean theorem, the ability to quote Tolstoy on entire pages or to draw a part of a human kidney from memory. It is important whether a student can solve some everyday problems with the help of geometry, for example in terms of minor repairs, whether he really understands the meaning of the text and understands how to calculate it, for example, a court decision. How much water to take with you if you suddenly decide to take a day hike in the Sahara. The achievements of Russian schoolchildren during these studies were not particularly impressive.
For example, in 2018, our students ranked 31st in reading, 30th in mathematics and 33rd in science in PISA. This upset many officials from the Ministry of Education and Rosobrnadzor. And they gave the schools the authority to catch and pass anyone they could catch. In general, the party said “Necessary”, the Komsomol, ugh, the school answered: “Yes!”. For this it would be reasonable to assume that improving the quality of teaching school disciplines, perhaps changing something in programs and methods, and even – scary to imagine! – to attract professional subject teachers, to raise salaries in the field of education as an option. But we went the other way again. They basically did not change anything, they just offered to quickly prepare everyone in their spare time without study. The dragging has begun. Instead of a thorough study of classic topics, they began to solve tasks from the tests of the past years. In short, everything we love.
The next measurements were to be made in 2021. Due to Covid, the study was postponed to the spring of 2022. For obvious reasons, Russia was excluded from this event. However, no one rejected the idea of measuring how well schoolchildren do in different types of literacy. They explained: We, they say, will test ourselves with mustaches, our schoolchildren in a narrow circle – this is even better. Whether elective courses are brought in vain.
This is how our education was split, as if you were looking a little drunk or rereading Hoffmann slowly: here’s math and here’s math and financial literacy, here’s computer science – and that’s the same thing.
It is not clear why one is not integrated into the other. Ok, there is no economics, it is a separate block in social sciences, but there are definitely economics problems in algebra course. The exam includes various puzzles on which loan is better to choose and how to calculate compound interest. In general, there are many application-oriented tasks in different disciplines: in biology, chemistry and physics, for children – in the outside world (although sometimes it is difficult to understand the direction of thought of compilers on these tasks). So why is everything clogged? Why, in addition to the main program, are children, their parents and teachers overwhelmed with all sorts of elective, targeted activities, distance courses and tests? And all this is done without any system, logic and common sense.
Here is the best of the last. In early spring, St. Orders were sent to St. Petersburg schools for everyone to participate in the All-Russian Financial Literacy Weeks campaign for Children and Youth in 2023. Many head teachers immediately rushed to throw it to their classroom teacher. And it doesn’t matter that almost all schools now seem to pay for extracurricular activities for the same financial literacy and those responsible for it, it doesn’t matter that most classroom teachers teach subjects that are far from economics in content. All tools are good if you need to provide the mass character. But the results are often bad, but that’s okay, the main thing is to set a move and then have everyone accounted for. This time it was necessary to report to the finance committee. I sincerely hope that at least many, if not most, teachers will sabotage this wonderful initiative.
Or this is interesting too. Even earlier, programs for healthy eating courses for kids were held in St. Petersburg schools were sent. Both middle school and elementary school students had to pass them. And there are very long training videos, articles, instructions, and tests with certification at the end. The control was again given to the classroom teachers. And now they’re begging parents to be in this madhouse, so they’re sending these certificates. There is crying and grinding of teeth in parent chats: no one wants to offend the teacher (then he will suddenly start giving the child two points), but some tests are absolutely hellish, even the Internet does not help (no videos watch idiots and no time).
Then they somehow found their way, the Ivanovs wrote half from the Petrovs, the Petrovs – half from the Ivanovs, so they won. So the children “passed” the next course on healthy lifestyles. After all, on a regular schedule, they won’t discover the fact that vegetables are healthy and chips are garbage. To master this secret knowledge, it is necessary to join the Sect of the Chosen. And so the parents downloaded the certificate, and it seems that the information itself appeared in the head and was activated, right?
Of course it’s blasphemy. Imitation. Absurd. Waste of time and nerves. And psik at the exit. Why all? And they say this is the wrong question. That’s right – not why, why. Can you guess the answer? It turned out that everything was out of ignorance. In winter, Olga Vasilyeva, head of the Russian Academy of Education, told everything in a popular way. Children are overloaded with school, but they also cannot master the program because they lack functional literacy! Everything, the circle is closed. We thought that literacy was the result of education, of mastering all the basic disciplines, but now it turns out to be a condition. Thanks for explaining. Now we will build a house, starting from the roof. Probably better this way.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.