But the result is absurdity and complete eyewash, making it appear
And there are obvious reasons for this, which will soon become clear.
Second grade – not a marriage?
At the same time, the administrative superstructure of education is repeatedly pressed and shaken up. It all started at the end of the USSR, 1988. The Ministry of Education of the RSFSR was merged with the Ministry of Vocational Technical Education, and after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the Ministry of Higher Education of the USSR, the Ministry of Education of the USSR and the Ministry of Education of the USSR, and then the Ministry of Science of the USSR were also added to this ministry. Until the end of the 1990s, the new ministry was reorganized and renamed. Naturally, the schools, being on municipal funding, were generally on the sidelines and were left to their own devices. And in the new ministries, pedagogical education was treated as under-education, and pedagogical universities were openly classified as second-class universities.
Both in the government and in the ministries, pedagogical universities have forever become the object of discrimination, they were treated according to the residual principle. This can be easily seen from the list of government grants and awards. Among them there is nothing within the framework of pedagogical topics. No funds have been allocated for pedagogy and are still not allocated. Neither the government nor various funds see it at close range.
At one time, until the mid-2000s, schools and pedagogical universities (like other universities) were actively supported by grant funds from the United States and the European Union. There was scientific integration, the emigration of domestic scientists and teachers to the USA and Europe decreased. But because suddenly someone decided that it would be better to let domestic universities and scientists not receive any funds than receive them from the West. Both overseas grant programs and cooperation were blocked.
In 2011, a project was almost implemented to liquidate pedagogical universities on the American model. There are no pedagogical universities in America, although many want to become teachers. There, to become a teacher, you need to graduate from a regular university, and in addition to short-term teaching courses. And then pass the appropriate state exams for the right to teach. School education is not centralized, there is no federal standard. Somehow they do without it and a single educational space. At that time, Russian pedagogical universities barely defended as a result of public outrage.
All these years, the pedagogical universities that remained afloat were in a fever. The FSES of higher education was adopted and modernized (not in any way connected with the school FSES), there was a gigantic paper-making in terms of work programs. It has become a typical situation that there are no 2 groups of students at the university who would study according to the same program: this practically does not occur. Under pressure from the ministry, the hours in all disciplines have been significantly reduced 123helpme.me. Less than half or even a third of what was before is left. Major disciplines are split into small ones, which run once a week, or even two. It remains a mystery why all this was done (and is being done). Does anyone really think that it is possible to improve the quality of students’ knowledge in this way? But the result is absurdity and complete eyewash, creating an appearance. Teachers both read lectures (according to old notes) and read, simply skipping large chunks and sometimes changing a few words for the sake of form.
Then, after 2010, when they suddenly realized that the number of universities had doubled in comparison with the times of the USSR, and the number of places in them became more than the number of school graduates. In order to somehow justify the liquidation of universities, they came up with an assessment of universities for “efficiency” as a reason for liquidation. How, in your opinion, is it possible to compare the “efficiency” of, for example, the Moscow Physicotechnical Institute and the Voronezh Pedagogical University, for example, according to the USE assessments of applicants, the funds raised for scientific research? It turned out you can! But salty and red, heavy and hot have much more in common!
A separate song is the merger of universities (as well as schools). Why are they carried out? “This secret is great!” – said Mikhailo Lomonosov. Allegedly, to save money, to improve efficiency. But, as elementary analysis shows, no one saved anything on the merger. But on the contrary … There was a huge pedagogical university: the Moscow State Correspondence Pedagogical Institute (MGZPI), founded in 1951. In its best years, 60,000 students studied there. Then it became a humanities university (Moscow State University for the Humanities named after Shologov), and now it was “attached” to the Moscow State Pedagogical University, through the complete merger of management structures. Who do you think is currently studying in the buildings of the Moscow State University for the Humanities in the center of Moscow and the suburbs? Nobody. They stand empty and collapse. So the merger is actually the same liquidation, just a side view. It seeks to eliminate less influential educational institutions by more influential ones by shifting financial flows and management.
Teachers are not the same
Now it seems that the newly formed Ministry of Education has returned to the idea of eliminating teacher training universities. Of course, this will make it easier for him to work, there is no need to fool with any pedagogical universities, and the rest of the universities are subordinate to another ministry. This is, most likely, what is hidden behind the rejection of the obligation of pedagogical education.
Of course, pedagogical universities are no longer what they were in the 1980s. Over the years of underfunding, as well as all this absurdity and confusion, young people did not become teachers, and, on the contrary, a lot of active and independent figures in education and science left universities and found application in other areas. What do you need to be to stay on this sinking ship? But there were also those who remained, on average, quite elderly people. In conditions of constant competition and struggle for scarce resources, they have created a very aggressive, I would say, toxic environment. The moral and psychological climate here leaves much to be desired. In order to increase the salaries of teachers in accordance with the May decrees, they had to be cut in half. How do you think this affected the general scientific level and the quality of teaching?
But it is impossible to take and close pedagogical universities even with the lowest quality of their work. Pedagogical universities are the organizational and scientific basis for the professional training of teachers, the basis for professional education in this industry. Therefore, teaching cannot exist without pedagogical universities, although, of course, there should be other options for entering the profession: a set of courses, self-study. Now the teacher has become a scarce profession.
I know from my own experience and wrote about it that it is more difficult to find a teacher than an accountant, economist, manager … A good teacher.
One must understand that, firstly, teaching by itself is impossible without a pedagogical education system. A teacher needs vocational education as long as it is a profession, and vocational education exists as long as it is needed. This is an axiom. And now, with its permits, the Ministry of Education is finally finishing off both the profession and training for it.
And secondly, in order for teacher colleges and teachers to survive, it is necessary to take emergency resuscitation measures, actively renew, strengthen and develop pedagogical education. To return to him everything that he was not given in the past years.
If we talk about some reforms and improvements in education, it is necessary to start precisely with strengthening the system of teacher education, forms of teacher training (including on the basis of university education), it is necessary to dramatically strengthen and modernize the courses of pedagogy and methodology in all subjects, launch training projects based on different models and paradigms, to remove the requirement that all schools operate on the basis of a single model … But we are hardly ready to take such radical measures. This shows the “abolition” of pedagogy. So the Ministry of Education will not solve the problems of staffing the school, massively specialists without pedagogical education will not run to school. But the overall quality of education will suffer greatly from these actions of the Ministry of Education: pedagogical universities will be closed, the Federal State Educational Standard and the regulatory requirements for schools will collapse. So the knot of problems is only tightening ever tighter.
Reforms for Reforms?
In the meantime, since the 1990s, schools have hung on meager local budgets and quietly collapsed, and teachers left. Only in recent months schools have been transferred to regional budgets. Some experiments are underway to finance schools from regional budgets. But, nevertheless, chronic underfunding of schools, low salaries persist. Active and developed youth do not enter the profession, students are becoming weaker and weaker: these are those who cannot study at other universities.
The teaching profession has become one of the least prestigious professions in the country. Even the parents of the students treat teachers as second-class people.
In 2005, the president was forced to announce a national project “Education” in order to send some federal funds to the school, and since then, federal funds have been going to schools within the framework of such projects and programs.