What is the main problem of the Russian education system?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

So, for example, the destruction of intergenerational ties was provoked by the orders of the educational system. From the first years of life, children were given over to be raised among their peers by specially trained people. That is, from year to year, most of the life of children is without the direct participation of parents.

The development of the Russian Federation, together with the economic, political and administrative vectors, also presupposes the development of the country's human capital. It is thanks to human capital that it is possible to implement any conceived, planned development projects. In many respects, the low efficiency of economic and political reforms of the late twentieth century in our state is associated with an incorrect assessment of the human factor.

So the transition to market relations, initiated, first of all, by reforms "from above" came across the problem of implementation and implementation of legislative initiatives in the early 90s. So for the successful introduction of market relations, reforms in a necessary way had to rely on a special psychotype of a person. Classically, he was described in the works of A. Smith as an egoist, inclined to exchange for the sake of personal gain. However, for several decades, a different standard type of behavior has been formed in the country, based on the idea of equality, justice and self-sacrifice for the sake of public interests.

Of course, in the Soviet state there were also individuals who shared the ideals of human behavior in the spirit of A. Smith, but at that time they were subjected to public censure, and those who especially manifested themselves on the basis of economic activity were tried and sent to the appropriate places of correctional nature. Therefore, after the reforms of the early 90s, accompanied by an amnesty for economic crimes, we received a strong criminal tilt in the introduction of market methods of economic organization of the state. That is, it is human capital that has determined the low efficiency of market transformations.

One of the most significant determinants of human capital accumulation is the education system. However, the educational reforms initiated since the mid-90s of the twentieth century do not provide grounds for a positive assessment of human potential for the implementation of the development goals of the Russian Federation. The modern education system of our country resembles the mythological character "chimera" - a creature made up of parts of various animals. The combination of the Soviet educational tradition with the Bologna process makes such a product of little use for the needs of the country's modern society.

What was the strength of the Soviet education system? First, it was built into both the political and economic systems of the state. That is, in the educational institutions of the Soviet Union, starting from the preschool level and ending with higher education, there was a purposeful work on the formation of a person with parameters predetermined by the state.

The state knew what it wanted from the population, and clearly formulated its request for education. Secondly, the need for unified educational programs throughout the USSR was intended to form a unified ideological space, a unified system of values. Thanks to this, it did not matter in which part of the state a person received education, his behavioral patterns and train of thought were understandable at any end of the country.

This element of the system was called general education accessible to all. Thirdly, the system of planning the number of specialists in each industry and assignment to places of work made it possible, on the one hand, to saturate the lagging regions with the necessary specialists, and on the other hand, it gave young people a guaranteed place of work and a starting point for starting a professional career.

Positive achievements of this system can be called the rather reliable operation of social elevators up to a certain point (whose work was not very effective in the Russian Empire), the appearance of scientists and representatives of the creative intelligentsia, recognized at the international level, and the presence of colossal scientific breakthroughs that are significant for the entire world community (for example, flight man into space, etc.).

This educational system also had negative aspects for the formation of social reality, which until the early 80s of the twentieth century were not decisive. Among them are the destruction of intergenerational ties, the weakening of the importance of the institution of the family, the revival of community and class models of behavior in society in a new way. So, for example, the destruction of intergenerational ties was provoked by the orders of the educational system. From the first years of life, children were given over to be raised among their peers by specially trained people. That is, from year to year, most of the life of children is without the direct participation of parents.

First, a kindergarten from 8:00 to 20:00 (and there are also night groups where children spend the night in a kindergarten), then the main shift school + additional circles (and there are also boarding schools). It turns out that the processes of transferring experience from parents to children are disrupted, since the child, at best, has the opportunity to communicate after a day of his labors with the tired older generation in the evening or on weekends. They spend most of their time with their peers and teachers. The importance of family education is declining, as is the role of the family in society. Communication with peers involves the development of their own internal rules of conduct, code and values. This is superimposed on the archetypal models of community behavior and class.

As a result, by the 80s of the twentieth century, we get the closure of labor communities for their corporate interests (including informal and criminal youth groups), cronyism (they studied together at school, university), encouragement of labor dynasties (transition to class) and the emergence of a party class. nomenclature (new class).

In my opinion, these problems of the era of late socialism could have been avoided if the ideological development of the state had not stopped after 1956, when at the XX Congress of the CPSU, along with the exposure of the personality cult, the creative message of this work for new generations was lost. This led to the fact that old slogans did not inspire young people to new achievements, economic growth slowed down and the need for social, political and economic transformations arose.

Now, probably, few people remember that the education reform in the mid-90s began under the slogans of the humanization of education, the introduction of a personal approach to overcome the "facelessness and equalization" of the Soviet system.

In 1999, the Bologna Declaration was adopted and Russia acceded to its provisions in 2003. There is a restructuring of the entire educational system of the state. However, this restructuring is essentially a superstructure of the crumbling Soviet education system.

The beginning of the collapse was laid by the cancellation of the state order for the training of specialists and the system of distribution to places of work. The cancellation of the state order led to a decrease in the demand and degradation of education in the regions. Of course, this cancellation was associated with the cancellation of five-year economic development plans. Thus, the involvement of the education system in the interests of the state was eliminated.

But at the same time, the principle of the universality of education, one for all, has been preserved. These decisions laid the foundation for the migration processes of the new Russia. Following the Bologna Declaration structured and reinforced this migration. At the same time, the assessment of students and schools based on the results of the USE in the test form led to the destruction of the educational and developmental functions of education and leveled the ideas of humanization in the mid-90s.

The modern education system cannot cope with the implementation of the main idea of education, inherited from the Enlightenment. This idea can be formulated as follows: "Education should acquaint the younger generation with the image of the world in which he will live." Education should prompt young people where to make their efforts, what problems are relevant in the present and provide them with the necessary (or accumulated) knowledge, skills, and create motivation. The central subjects introducing students to the social, political and economic field of concern is history and literature.

What does history teach? Here is a community of people living in a certain area. He has such a list of problems. It solves these problems in these ways and gets the following results, consequences. And so, from century to century, the younger generation gets acquainted with the problematic field of the region.

If we are talking about Siberia, then geographically the territory of Siberia and the Far East occupies more than two-thirds of the territory of the Russian Federation. A reasonable question arises: "What can we learn about the problem field of this region from modern school (and university) history textbooks?" Most of the narration concerns the history of the central region of the Russian Federation. Literature, in turn, introduces students to the customs of the region. The second question arises: "Why is it impossible to replace some literary works of similar subjects with the works of Siberian writers?"

This is of tremendous importance for the development of the regions of our state. Since a capable student who masters the school curriculum well at a regional school, by the end of the course, he is disoriented. At school, he is taught in one problem field, while other problems are topical in the region.

This becomes even more important in the system of higher professional education after joining the Bologna Declaration. Ask a graduate of a regional university who was trained in the field of business economics, management, municipal administration or entrepreneurial activity: “Where do you intend to implement your professional knowledge? In which region? " 90% of the answers will be in Russia or in the region where he currently lives. Ask the second question: "Do you know at least one domestic economic theory, the theory of motivation or management?" Over the past 7 years of teaching at an economic university, no one could remember at least one. I will repeat once again that they are capable students who do well in almost all the disciplines taught.

It turns out that an excellent student after graduation from the university does not have the knowledge and skills necessary for independent professional activity. And when he, even if he gets a job in his specialty, from his employer the phrase: "Forget everything that was taught at the university and start over," a serious discord occurs in his mind. Its essence is simple: he is the owner of knowledge that is not suitable for life in this society, on which he spent about 20 years of his life, a lot of time, nerves and efforts.

From this situation, there are three ways for an excellent student to resolve this conflict. The first is to do as the employer advises and start over. It is accompanied by strong psychological costs. The second is to find a job in a different specialty: still retrain. It's easier psychologically. Therefore, a large part of the modern economy is built by non-professionals. That is, the state spends a significant amount of resources on the education of a specialist, and its economic return for the state is several times lower than expected. The third way is as follows: If knowledge does not correspond to the place of work (region of work), then I will go to the place where this knowledge will coincide with the problem field and the needs of the region. That is, the education system itself lays down migration processes. Moreover, they begin not with the "region-center" antithesis, but rather with the "village-city" antithesis.

Smart children in villages receive knowledge that will be in demand in the city, the regional center. They tend to leave these small towns for regional centers. From there to the federal center and then abroad. Moreover, it is the most active and capable people who leave, exactly the contingent that their small homeland needs for its development.

Without a doubt, the idea of such an education was formulated and implemented at the dawn of the formation of the USSR. But the outflow of intellectual resources from the region to the center in Soviet times was compensated by the distribution of specialists by region. Now the return flow of specialists from the center to the region is negligible. Usually, citizens from other cultural environments come to the regions, undermining the social stability of the region and slowing down the possible pace of development of the region, since those who come need time to adapt, immerse themselves in the cultural traditions of cohabitation and the problematic field of the place where they came.

Thus, the education reform should begin with an answer to the question: what population and with what set of qualities the state wants to see in 15-20 years. In turn, the answer to this question should be decided on the basis of the strategic development plans of the state, which still do not exist. At the same time, the idea of a single education for all lays down migration trends from less developed regions to more developed ones. Therefore, government mechanisms are needed to compensate for these processes. Either we abandon the idea of a unified education and create an education system with a regional problem area, which will allow us to retain a part of the active and well-educated population in the regions. In any case, the choice of this or that option presupposes the determination of the ideological guidelines of the state. Lack of choice and letting the situation go by itself slows down the possible pace of development of the Russian Federation. And from a certain moment this can lead to a situation where the lack of purposeful work with the human capital of the regions will become a source of destruction of statehood in these territories.