Recently, various ratings of sites that provide information about current opportunities for scientists have become popular. And, at the same time, young people involved in science are often so busy that they do not have enough time to fully surf in search of a grant or conference. But it’s hard to refuse to watch your feed on social networks...

Increasingly, we are seeing that people receive the lion’s share of information about internships, summer schools and vacancies, just like news in education and science, without leaving Facebook. You may accuse these people of being overly lazy, but the fact remains that most science communication platforms try to have their own social media presence.

Today we will try to put together groups and public pages on Facebook that are relevant for young scientists.

Feature Collectors:

This public page has almost 16.5 thousand subscribers. It is intended not only for scientists, or rather not so much for scientists, but for students, those who are looking for opportunities to get a free education, or for young professionals building up their resumes. However, here you can find offers for both postdocs and graduate students, as well as many summer schools.

The page contains a lot of humor about the modern education system, employment problems, ethnic stereotypes, etc. Administrators try to please their subscribers with all sorts of useful things in life - so-called life hacks.

This page is essentially a representative office of the Ukrainian crowdfunding platform https://biggggidea.com. The number of her subscribers also already goes beyond 16 thousand. Here you can find up-to-date information about language courses, trainings, facilitations, lectures, competitions, etc.

The target audience of the site and group is much wider than just scientists. This platform is designed for young, active and intelligent people engaged in self-education. But useful scientific and popular science events are also covered here. Use and choose.

This is perhaps the largest and most famous academic mobility program today. And the public Facebook page of Erasmus Plus+ is also quite large (over 15 thousand subscribers).

Here you can find program news, advice for applicants, success stories and descriptions of the life of fellows in Europe.

The subscribers of this community include more than 6 thousand people. As the name suggests, the public page is intended, again, for active urbanized youth (conventionally called “hipsters”), however, here you can also find offers with interesting courses or competitions for scientists who are not old and not “with high shoulder straps.” A nice feature of the platform is that partners are often found here to implement socially oriented projects.

As you may have guessed, the community is dedicated to short-term scientific and pseudo-scientific events. There are also a lot of interesting motivational pictures in the group. Almost five thousand meters!

The community numbers almost 4 thousand people. The range of events covered by the group is quite wide - from get-togethers for young leaders to internships in the Verkhovna Rada, from a competition of journalists and bloggers to a summer school on gender studios. Not everything will be of interest to scientists, and not everything covered in the group is science, but there is a lot to be found here.

Yes, yes, our website also has its own public page, which is developing dynamically. She recently reached the 2,000 subscriber mark. Here we collect information focused primarily on the scientific community (grants, vacancies, conferences) as well as articles of a problematic nature about education and science, their prospects and negative trends in development. We also duplicate our digest on this page. Join us!

Representation of the site of the same name on Facebook. Both the site and the page are quite young, but show very good promise. The number of subscribers is approaching the first number with three zeros. It should be noted that the site team monitors foreign “collectors” of opportunities well and qualitatively translates information from foreign resources.

The page is a representative of the site https://confoznauko.wordpress.com/. Quite an ambitious Lviv project. There are already more than 500 people among his subscribers on Facebook. The project is designed for humanists. Its content, covering grants, competitions, conferences and scientific lectures, is distinguished by its originality. I use it in my scientific life and recommend it to my colleagues.

The project was created by enthusiastic student Irina Samchenko, who herself has traveled half the world on various international educational initiatives. Ira simply wanted to share her accumulated experience and I thank her for that. Here are the only opportunities where you can really get in, even for a beginner, even without perfect English. Unfortunately, lately there has been little activity on the page (Irina’s busy schedule is taking its toll, since her carefree student years are already behind her). But she doesn’t completely forget about her brainchild, sometimes delighting with very useful content that you wouldn’t find anywhere else during the day.

Discussion clubs:

The group represents the project of the same name by Yuri Khalavka on social networks, but recently the life of the group has been much more varied and full than the life of the site. The undisputed leader of “discussion clubs” both in the number of participants (almost 5,000 people) and in the intensity of the polylogue. Almost not a single problematic article, not a single bill and not a single reform in the field of education and science goes unnoticed by community members. Although the intensity of the discussion can be quite high.

The number of group members is just over 650 people. There is a lively discussion in the community not only about reforming higher education, but also about secondary education. He was joined by many parents of schoolchildren who were concerned about the quality of knowledge. Despite this, the group does not lose its relevance for the scientific environment (as is known, the solution to a problem must be sought at its root). Among the participants are many university professors.
UPE and the mission of universities, financing of education and the professional choice of a child - this is not a complete list of issues discussed here.

The group started just a few weeks ago and today boasts a fairly representative composition of 302 participants (among them there are many people with a name in the scientific community, to many of whom I am ready to bow my virtual head). Its goal is to unite Ukrainian scientists, regardless of the borders that exist between them due to life circumstances.

The group has quite strict rules: “To become a member, you need to prove that you are a scientist, affiliated with a scientific-recent or initial pledge” (how the examination of the authenticity of evidence in the horizontal world of social networks is carried out remains a mystery to me).

The founders are no less demanding about the quality of published material - exclusively a strategy for the development of Ukrainian science and education. Failure to comply with the group's ethics may result in expulsion from the group. Obviously, due to this, the number of publications is small. Personally, I didn’t take the risk...

“Five reasons why you should not become a professor” is the title of Vera Afanasyeva’s note published on social networks, which caused a wide resonance among the teaching community. After the scandal, the Department for Combating Economic Crimes came to the author with an inspection. We asked Vera Afanasyeva seven questions about this situation.

1. Why did you decide to write this note and post it publicly?

I constantly write something on Facebook or on a blog on the website of the Vzglyad-info news agency. I wrote the note in January, when another useless campaign to rewrite documents began at SSU. I was so tired of it that it was impossible to remain silent, so I wrote it all out in a blog.

2. Did you expect that after the publication an investigator would come to you with an inspection?

I didn't expect this. For me it was a literary trifle. But the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets in Saratov saw in him something related to corruption in SSU. The newspaper filed a request with the prosecutor's office. The investigator from me and the vice-rectors tried to find out exactly what violations I described. I think their goal is to accuse me of slander. They promised to conduct a linguistic examination. In my opinion, all this is absurd.

3. Are you afraid of losing your job because of this story?

I'm not afraid of anything at all when it comes to my interests. But I have something to lose - my professorship. If there had not been a public outcry, my days at the university would have been numbered. Leaders are smart people. Their reprisals will not follow immediately. But in a year and a half, I may not pass the re-election competition for the position, which is held by teachers every five years.

4. Did your essay influence the position of other teachers?

We created the “Problems of Education and Science” community on Facebook. It includes educated and caring people who are going to create a project to improve the Russian education system. Colleagues from SSU did not join there.

5. Are bad students a failure of teachers?

The low level of students is a general trend. This is largely due to the Unified State Exam system, which creates fragmented thinking. And also with the fact that most students come to university not for education, but for a diploma. Some of this is also the fault of the teachers. I have seven lectures every week, and I have to prepare for each one. And I'm writing papers.

6. You write that teachers are afraid of freethinking, which is abhorrent to ideological censorship. What is the ideology of Russian education?

The ideology is this: the boss is always right. This is due to the aging of the teaching staff. We either have young teachers who depend on their superiors. Or pensioners who, under the Soviet system, remember what freethinking leads to.

7. You also mention that higher education is subject to church canons. How is the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church manifested?

I see aggression on the part of the Russian Orthodox Church regarding education. Our Department of Theology and Religious Studies often holds joint conferences with the diocese. And sometimes I’m scared to go there without a scarf on my head and a floor-length skirt. I have had situations when I filmed reports at a conference, because such an audience could be hostile to my speech. And the fact that an Orthodox church was built on the territory of a university where people of different nationalities and religions work and study is simply unethical.

From a note by Vera Afanasyeva:

“The current professor is in constant fear. He is afraid of his superiors (everyone who was not afraid flew away long ago). He is afraid of losing his job, and with it the opportunity to do science, because modern science is a collective endeavor. He is afraid of his natural freethinking, which is disgusting to the university leadership, party norms, ideological censorship, patriotic guidelines (Kant was a German, although he lived in Kaliningrad!), church canons, and the feeblemindedness of the officials above him. He is afraid of the cheeky and ignorant student spitting on him from a high bell tower. He is afraid of not being able to do it, of not finishing it, of not pleasing, of mediocrely dying from fatigue during the next worthless office campaign. And he is afraid of himself, afraid that sooner or later he will remember the great moral principles and ideals of scientific knowledge and send all his tormentors and guards in the way that only Russian professors can do. And he’s even more afraid that he’ll never do it.”

https://www.site/2018-02-28/vladimir_putin_idet_na_vybory_s_nevypolnennymi_obechaniyami_pedagogam_i_uchenym

“The country does not need educated people - they are difficult to manage”

“Catastrophic transformations”: what Russian science and education have come to

Kremlin press service

Tomorrow, March 1, Vladimir Putin will read out his next pre-election Address to the Federal Assembly. In early February, while visiting Novosibirsk scientists, the president promised that he would pay special attention to science in his Address. “Strengthening scientific potential for the future of the country is a fundamentally important issue. The world is undergoing dramatic technological changes; in scale they are comparable to the era of technological revolutions and the era of discoveries and scientific revolutions that radically changed the way of life of people on our planet. It is obvious that now the leader will be the one who will have his own technologies, knowledge, and competencies. They are becoming the most important development resource and ensure the country’s sovereignty - without any exaggeration,” Putin said in Novosibirsk. And the day before yesterday it became known that the Address will be followed by specific presidential decrees implementing it.

Meanwhile, the famous “May decrees” of six years ago have not yet been implemented. The order of the head of state to increase salaries for scientists and education workers is being carried out: for the sake of reporting, the staff of scientific organizations is being reduced, employees are being transferred to part-time positions, while maintaining real employment and under the threat of “repression.” According to the deputy chairman of Vnesheconombank, Andrei Klepach, “in real terms, funding for science has not increased, but has fallen over the past four years, and we are losing the competition to everyone.”

Research data from the Higher School of Economics: as of 2016, 720 thousand Russians are employed in science, a little more than half - 370 thousand - are directly involved in research and development. This is the absolute minimum since 1995. The average portrait of a Russian scientist: 47 years old, without an academic degree. From which we conclude that young people do not aspire to science.
In recent months, academicians and corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences twice addressed the president with open letters: “The situation requires immediate action...” The last time was a week ago. In both cases, there was no response from Vladimir Putin and his administration. But in Novosibirsk, during the presidential visit, a 52-year-old doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, who went out on a solo protest picket. The court fined the scientist “for disobeying the police.”

On the eve of tomorrow's speech by the president on the real state of affairs in higher education and science, we are talking with Saratov State University professor Vera Afanasyeva. Vera Vladimirovna is the author of another open letter, which last year thundered throughout Russia and also remained unanswered.

Website of the Saratov National Research State University

“Everything is based on old footage, and there are fewer and fewer of them”

— Vera Vladimirovna, in one of his election articles in 2012, Vladimir Putin wrote: “The Russian economy can not only buy, it can generate innovation. The high level of education of the population, the enormous heritage of fundamental science, the presence of engineering schools, the pilot production base that has been preserved in many industries - we are obliged to use all these factors.” In your opinion, today, six years after the article was written, are these factors still strong? Can we still rely on them?

— I’ll tell you honestly and from the position of a scientist. I think that many of these factors were already absent at the time of writing that article. Domestic education has been methodically destroyed for almost a quarter of a century and is now in a catastrophic state. Every year it becomes poorer, it has a weak material base, and is based on a structure thoughtlessly copied from the West and not adapted to Russian realities. It is crushed by bureaucratic requirements, littered with a bunch of unnecessary papers. All this has an extremely negative impact on the level of our education, so it cannot be called high today.

As for the heritage of Soviet fundamental science, it has long since become intellectually outdated. Fundamental science is always expensive, and if its funding is less than the costs of the military presence in Syria, then one cannot expect any return from it. And the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences made fundamental science also dependent on bureaucratic incompetence and voluntarism.

If we talk about applied science, then the majority of industrial research institutes died a long life back in the nineties, the remnants eke out a miserable existence. The money that could revive them is being thrown at “Potemkin villages,” imitations like Skolkovo, which have already demonstrated their inconsistency and even become disgraced.

Russian engineering is also dying. Over the last quarter of a century, the young and middle generations of specialists have dropped out of it; everything is based on old personnel, and there are fewer and fewer of them left. So, in my opinion, this statement was already purely populist even then, but today things are much worse.

— Another quote from the same article by the president: “Restoring the innovative nature of our economy must begin with universities - both as centers of fundamental science and as the personnel basis for innovative development. The international competitiveness of our higher education should become our national goal. By 2020, we should have several world-class universities across the entire spectrum of modern material and social technologies... Russian research universities should receive resources for scientific development in the amount of 50% of their funding under the “Education” section - like their international competitors.” How, according to your information, are the goals set by the President in the field of higher education being fulfilled, and what are the results?

— While there are almost no world-class universities in our country, even Moscow State University is only in the second hundred in various university rankings. In most of them the situation is extremely difficult. I know firsthand, since I have been working as a professor at Saratov State National Research University for a decade and a half. Last year, in my open letter to the Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva, “Five signs of a serious illness,” I formulated the main problems of Russian higher education: poverty of teachers and their complete lack of rights, huge “scissors” between the incomes of ordinary employees and university administrations, extreme formalization of all university activities , poor preparation of applicants and low final level of graduates.

Press service of the President of the Russian Federation

Russian higher education has long been turned into a huge office, littered with piles of useless papers. Teachers spend time and effort writing them, which they should devote to the educational process, science, and their own development. But the pursuit of ratings, on which salaries and positions depend, forces university employees to imitate scientific and methodological activities; lies and falsifications reign everywhere. And the arbitrariness of administrations, the virtual absence of their election leads to constant and widespread fear of dismissals, forces people to remain silent, and kills university solidarity. Teachers become uncomplaining proletarians of mental labor. And most importantly, universities have long lost their original spirit, they have ceased to be that sacred place where intellectual, cultural, and ethical models are passed on to the younger generation. Thus, ineffective enterprises in the diploma issuing service sector.

At research universities, the situation is not much different: government funding goes primarily for show and huge salaries for administrations. As for the international competitiveness of our universities, so far they are popular, and even then relatively, only in the countries of Asia and Africa. For our universities to become prestigious throughout the world, the diplomas they issue must be valued abroad. This does not exist yet, and presidential decrees alone cannot achieve this.

— Next we read the article by Vladimir Putin. “Ten-year programs of fundamental and exploratory research must be approved for the Russian Academy of Sciences, leading research universities and state research centers. There will be a several-fold increase—up to 25 billion rubles in 2018—increasing the funding of state scientific funds that support the initiative developments of scientific teams. The size of the grants should be comparable to what they provide to their scientists in the West.” Have you been able to fulfill your plans in the field of fundamental research?

— Firstly, it is completely unclear how this will happen, where will the money for this come from given the stagnation of the economy? Secondly, scientific research requires not only cash injections, but also the most important thing - specialists, professionals. With the current university training, there are fewer and fewer of them, and the best of them go abroad. So there are very few strong scientific schools left in the country. And thirdly: of course, we cannot do without research programs, but we must not forget that fundamental science is a slow business, and one can never count on quick results. The knowledge of truth is difficult to manage. Remember the movie "Taming of Fire"? There, the hero performed by Kirill Lavrov says: “Understand, a cognitive process is underway! You can’t speed it up with anything!” Such processes do not obey directives from above.

— In 2012, Vladimir Putin set clear goals for bringing Russian science and the entire innovation infrastructure to the global arena: “It is important for us that the leaders of the global technology market... create new technologies and new products in Russia. But they will come here only if they see world-competitive technical universities and research centers.” What results in this regard can we talk about today?

“I teach philosophy at my home physics department and I see that laboratory workshops use the same electronic generators from the sixties that were used by students from the eighties. I sometimes visit the huge electronic institute where I worked in the nineties - there is complete destruction and desolation. Recently I was at a congress in Moscow, in a building that houses several academic institutes, including the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and saw a deplorable sight. Are these “world-class research centers”? Where and how should new technologies and products be created? At best, this is a utopia; at worst, we are being deliberately misled.

“Today’s transformations in education lead to the loss of Russia’s sovereignty”

— In another programmatic election article, Putin pointed out that almost 60% of Russian youth, people aged 25-35, have higher education, and the next generation, he said, will be 80% covered by higher education. “The economy must become such that citizens with a high level of education and a high level of demands can find a worthy place for themselves,” Putin declared. — Creating 25 million new, high-tech, well-paid jobs for people with a high level of education is not a nice phrase. This is an urgent need, a minimum level of sufficiency.” Are 25 million jobs for those with higher education already a reality?

— I’ve already said about the economy. As for the large number of educated people in the near future, in Russia there is a completely different strategy - “caste” education. This means that fundamental, “human” education, due to its high cost, will be reserved only for a select few - the rich or the very capable. For most, only cheap computer training will be available. The number of universities in Russia may be reduced to 200-250.

Let me remind you that in one of his open lectures, the director of the “Young Professionals” direction of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, Dmitry Peskov, described the model of “caste education” something like this: one group of people are those who manage; the second is the so-called “one-button people”, who should not have the skills and abilities of leadership and creativity, but only the ability to use ready-made developments. Deputy Prime Minister of the federal government Olga Golodets echoes Peskov: two-thirds of the population does not need higher education. So there will clearly not be 25 million citizens with a good education in the foreseeable future, and even less so 25 million high-tech jobs for them. The country does not need educated people - they are difficult to manage, and it is possible to maintain gas pipelines and work in the service sector without a higher education.

Sergey Kovalev/Global Look Press

— Six years ago, Vladimir Putin named pharmaceuticals, chemistry, composite and non-metallic materials, aviation, information and communication technologies, nanotechnologies, as well as the nuclear industry and space. In general, according to the president’s plans, by the end of this decade the share of high-tech and intellectual industries in GDP should increase by one and a half times. Do you feel a sense of growth?

— It’s difficult for me to judge the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. But the space industry constantly shows us its failures, sometimes completely ridiculous. Rockets either fail to take off or fall, satellites are lost, and recently, during a launch, the Vostochny Cosmodrome was confused with Baikonur. And the fact that the country that launched the first artificial Earth satellite today produces less than 2% of the world's satellite telecommunications technologies? The state of the aviation industry is reflected by the closure of factories across the country. In Saratov, for example, a huge enterprise that produced Yaks was literally razed to the ground. What kind of advanced industry can we talk about then?

In addition, there is clearly a territorial imbalance in our industry: what is happening in Central Russia, in the belt around Moscow, is noticeably different from the situation in many regions - in Siberia, in the Far East. There are also regions that are openly stagnating industrially, such as the Saratov region, and it is not the only one. Even with our traditionally good mathematical education and excellent programmers, improving industrial technologies and creating new ones requires huge capital investments - in the creation of advanced enterprises, in the training of good engineers and highly qualified workers. But with the current quality of technical education, they will not appear in the required quantities in the near future; years must pass. At the same time, for example, investments in Far Eastern production began only relatively recently, in the last five years. This also applies to nanotechnology: Russia has many talented specialists in this field and interesting laboratory developments, but they are very far from industrial production. So there is no way to talk about global competitiveness in these industries or the declared increase in the share of high-tech industries by 2020. This is a project, not a project.

There is one more consideration, at the level of common sense. Any production becomes competitive on a global scale if it first “learns” to compete within the country. But Russian high-tech industries are often monopolists in the domestic market; they have no one and no need to compete with them. So first we need to create conditions for full competition within the country, and then talk about global competitiveness.

In Russia today, only some defense industries appear to be competitive and high-tech. These are, for example, rocket science, air defense systems, aviation technology, ground systems, automatic and small arms. But their competitiveness is also limited by political reasons: sanctions can significantly narrow their sales market.

“The idea is that higher education itself can be a cutting-edge industry with highly productive and well-paid jobs.” In another of his pre-election articles, on social policy, Putin wrote: “During 2013-2018, the average salary of professors and university teachers will be gradually increased by 2 times (from the regional average) and brought to 200% of the economic average. Increased salaries should be immediately established for those who have scientific results and are respected by students and graduates. By identifying worthy, competitive teachers, we will ensure the necessary renewal of higher education personnel.” Are university professors satisfied with their salaries? Have you been able to attract “new blood” to higher education?

— A twofold increase in the salaries of university teachers relative to the national average was guaranteed by the so-called “May decrees” of the president. The Ministry of Education and Science reported on their implementation at the end of last year. The average salary of a teacher was named - about 60 thousand rubles. There is no other way to call it a lie. In the country as a whole, teacher salaries remain meager. There is a Facebook group “Problems of Education and Science”, where teachers’ salaries are regularly monitored. On average, a professor receives about 30 thousand rubles, an associate professor - 15-17 thousand rubles, an assistant - 12 thousand rubles. The amounts named by the Ministry of Education are the “average temperature in the hospital.” The trick is not at all tricky: the million-dollar income of university administrations is added to the tiny salaries of teachers and divided by the number of employees. Well, no one has yet canceled the registration in Russia. There is no influx of “fresh blood” under these conditions. Education is getting older every year.

In general, today's transformations in education can be regarded as catastrophic. They exclude the reindustrialization of the country, the revival of science, and the construction of civil society. And as a result, they lead to the loss of Russian sovereignty in the field of education, that is, to the destruction of national security in general.

The material was prepared with the participation of Alexander Zadorozhny.

Problems of education and science in Russia and strategy for the 21st century

VIKTOR SADOVNICHY
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Rector of Moscow State University
named after M.V. Lomonosov

Social and economic progress is unthinkable without the rise of education, science and culture
The wrong course of education reform led to its crisis and degradation
Strategy for the 21st century. - priority development of education, science, culture, morality as the foundations of high human qualities

When discussing the strategic directions of socio-economic and scientific-technical development of Russia, as well as developing proposals for forecasts and programs for the long-term development of the country in the 21st century. there is clear uncertainty. The forecast for a century ahead would be extremely doubtful.

It is more reasonable to limit forecasts and projects to the immediate and strict time frame. We are talking about 10-20 years. We can, with a higher degree of certainty, list those major global problems of education that the 21st century will undoubtedly inherit from the 20th century. With a lesser degree of certainty, but in principle it is possible to predict the development of the situation with education in Russia at the start of the new century. We can say even more definitely about the solvability or unsolvability within the specified time frame of already known problems that life, the state of knowledge and practice have posed in the field of fundamental science.

World education problems

If we summarize the judgments expressed by the world community about the fate of education and universities at the turn of the century, we can distinguish two main theses.

n First thesis is that today there is success in solving the most common world problems - ecology, economic growth, demography, etc. - largely localized by local and regional characteristics. International structures dealing with such issues can and do give specific countries very useful, but no more than the most general recommendations on how to resolve them.

It seems that the most valuable thing in such advice is what should not be done, what should be feared, what should be avoided, based on the experience accumulated by mankind. But what, how and how to do it, i.e. the choice of development path must be determined based on the location of action. “One Gospel is given to the human race, but every people understands it, applies its actions to it in its own way, until all people have formed their own flock. Thus, every people has its own physiognomy, its own philosophy, morality, poetry and religion, or better, view of religion." These are the words of M.P. Pogodin - one of the founders of Russian historical science, professor at Moscow University. It is from this angle that I look at the development of education in the world in general, and in Russia in particular.

n Second thesis is to find a positive answer to the question of how, while integrating into the world community, at the same time remain yourself, preserving your national characteristics.

For Russia, the question of the model of higher education is extremely important and acute. It is here that the most noticeable discrepancies between the federal government, education and the university corporation. Everyone has known this for a long time. There is an idea to form an education system in Russia according to certain Western models, basically copying the American system. However, in my opinion, the mechanical adjustment of the domestic school and science to any foreign systems is one of those negative trends that, if maintained, will bring much more trouble to our national education than it has already brought. There are many specific examples of this.

How to achieve an effective balance between tradition and innovation? How can we act so that, while continuing to develop within the framework of the European and global educational process, we not only maintain the high place of Russian education, but also increase its contribution to achieving common goals? What and how should we do so that, while transforming and dynamizing our education, we do not lose its national roots, traditions, and values ​​that lie at the foundation of Russian culture?

The questions are not rhetorical at all, they are vital. And, by the way, it was not only Russia that faced the problem. They have been actively discussed for at least 25-30 years, with increasing intensity as the turn of the new century approaches. These discussions have generally made it possible to clarify a lot, although not everything can be calculated accurately enough due to the large number of influencing parameters and restrictive conditions. In the main thing, everyone is united. The educational problems facing every country in the world are the same. With slight variations, they are inherent in the national education systems of all states. The difference is in scale, severity, and determination in finding positive solutions.

n It is no secret that the education system, even in the richest countries, is experiencing significant financial difficulties and legislative constraints. In this regard, again and again they turn to the problem "Education and the State"I will remind you of two fundamentally important conclusions made at the conference of Nobel laureates “On the threshold of the 21st century,” which took place in 1997 in Paris.

First. It is necessary to overcome the disunity that exists in many countries between political circles and the scientific community. To do this, each party must recognize the role that the other plays in society.

Second. Education should have an absolute priority in the budgets of all states and contribute to the development of all types of creative activity. Unfortunately, the leaders of many countries are not always guided by these absolutely correct conclusions made by people representing the world's intellectual elite. Russia is among them.

n Educational institutions and scientific institutions in all countries feel the growing tension around them and, in connection with this, again and again turn to the problem " Education and society". Its essence is that there is a loss of trust in education on the part of society, and society itself is one of the reasons that gave rise to the existing gap between social needs and education.

In all countries, many do not sufficiently understand that the so-called critical issues of education - its quality and relevance, equity of access, freedom of choice, employment, efficiency and financing - are not purely educational. The education system does not exist in a vacuum. The tasks that it is called upon to solve, the successes that it achieves, the failures that it suffers, are determined mainly by the forces surrounding it, historically rooted in the national culture, and all the circumstances of a specific socio-economic situation.

Not everyone understands that domestic politics plays a major role in the dynamics of the educational system of any country. Nevertheless, society strives to get the maximum return from education, sometimes denying it even the minimum of attention, often sacrificing education to politics.

n Education systems at all levels - from primary to postgraduate - are increasingly demonstrating the inadequacy of what has been invested to what has been achieved. In this regard, we have to return to the problem again and again." Education and people". In the eternal triangle since the times of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle - state, society, man - education has always played a role main civilizational factor in human development.

Russian specifics

All the problems of global education are inherent in Russia, but have a pronounced Russian specificity. Moreover, this specificity is not so much in our historical past, our traditions, but in the uniqueness of the time the country is going through.

When we talk about the current moment in reforming the education and science systems, while trying to build some schemes of transformation, and take Western school and science as some guidelines, then this approach must be recognized as not entirely adequate for a number of circumstances.

n First. In all Western countries, school and science represent the state investment sphere: Somewhere they invest more in it, somewhere less. In Russia today, on the contrary, education and science are spheres for the state resource withdrawal of all types - financial, logistical, personnel - for redistribution to other areas. The scenarios of reforms in higher education and science in recent years are a continuous chain of such seizures carried out by administrative and volitional means: privatization of university property, pumping out qualified personnel, entanglement in debts and extortions.

Therefore, the question of developing a new strategy and tactics for further reform of education and science directly depends on the answer to the question - whether the process of resource withdrawal is completed or not. If finished, what level did we end up at? Hence one strategy and tactics for the entry of Russian education into the coming century. If this process is not completed, then we must try to understand what and to what extent will still be withdrawn from the sphere of science and education. Then the strategy and tactics for solving the above-mentioned problems common to world education will be different. Our starting conditions at the beginning of the 21st century will also be different.

I think it is appropriate to draw a parallel here with the conduct of military operations. There, between strategy and tactics, for example, a front-line operation, the connection is such that, under certain specific conditions, tactical tasks acquire the character of strategic ones, and strategic tasks become tactical. The one who understood this in time and made the appropriate conclusion won the battle. But the reform of education and science is not such operations; they are larger in terms of goals and resources and more significant in terms of the ensuing consequences. If we thought deeply about these goals and consequences, the result would be different.

n Second. The reform of education and science is taking place in conditions when Russia is experiencing a profound cultural shock, the negative impact of which on society is already disproportionately more destructive, primarily in moral terms, than the instant impoverishment of the bulk of the population, which was the result of shock therapy. Financial discrimination against a scientist, lecturer, teacher, constantly voiced doubts about their professional level, derogatory opposition to foreign colleagues - this and much more is not only in itself fundamentally wrong, but also carries a negative social charge that is dangerous for the state and society.

Let us also note this fact. The state somewhere finds enormous financial resources to send thousands of our specialists to study abroad for so-called retraining, and so far has not invested any funds in solving a similar problem directly in Russia. If it were otherwise, perhaps there would not have been a situation where teachers at Russian universities, as shown by the results of a 1995 survey, assessed government policy in the field of higher education extremely negatively (“it promotes the development of higher education” - 1% of respondents, “it is not effective enough" - 13, "it is destructive" - ​​43%).

Speaking about the state of the Russian education system at the turn of the 21st century, I am especially concerned by the fact that in some ways de facto, and in others de jure, there is an attack on a natural and constitutional human right - the right to education, the largest conquest of the twentieth century. The desire to politicize education, especially higher education, and the nationalism and extremism developing on this basis are depressing. I am sincerely concerned by numerous facts indicating a narrowing of the cultural and educational functions of education.

According to the Russian Ministry of Education, over the past five years, the commissioning of new schools has decreased by 4 times, while the number of students has increased by 1.1 million people. Classes are overcrowded, 36% of schools work in two or even three shifts. Research shows that approximately half of the Russian population does not read a single new book in a year. Entire types of literature are dying out. Publications on art, poetry, scientific and technical literature, and classics are disappearing - they account for only 2% of the total volume of publications. Only 30% of the population can afford the luxury of buying a book.

As a university professor, I am alarmed by the symptoms that indicate a drop in the level of professional training of students. What is frightening is the rapidly growing moral deficit, which is much more dangerous than the budgetary or commodity deficit, since its roots lie in the attitude of the state, society and the individual towards education. It is no longer considered prestigious and a priority. A.S. Pushkin, in a note on public education, compiled by order of Nicholas I, wrote: “It’s not just the influence of foreign ideologies that is detrimental to our fatherland; education, or better yet, the lack of education, is the root of all evil. Let’s say, enlightenment alone is able to restrain new madness, new social disasters."

n Third. When we talk about the current moment in reforming our higher education and science, we must keep in mind that the use of concepts such as crisis, critical condition, etc., has a different meaning in the conditions of today’s Russia than in the most developed countries, where They also operate on them. When people talk about the crisis of universities, for example, in the USA, Japan or France, they are not talking about the division of educational and scientific space, or a threat to the very existence of hundreds of research institutes and universities. The competition between state and non-state higher education in the West does not at all mean a landslide transfer of state universities and institutes into private hands, but a brain drain - a mass departure of professors from universities. That is why, if to describe the situation with Russian higher education we use such concepts from the dictionary of international education as crisis, critical condition, competition, brain drain, etc., then this must be done with very great caution.

It seems to me that the reasons for the difficulties that our higher school is experiencing are not entirely correctly indicated. Two directly opposite points of view prevail. According to one of them, all the troubles of universities are consequences of the shortcomings they acquired during Soviet times. Another point of view connects the crisis situation with the current state line in the field of higher education.

Of course, there is some truth in both statements, but they differ significantly. This difference can be eliminated if we recognize that many problems of the Soviet period were extremely aggravated as a result of ill-conceived, hasty, willful actions taken by the country's leadership in the late 80s to reform higher education and science. As is now clear, the basis of these actions was ignorance of domestic history and traditions of development of education and science, mechanical copying of far from the best foreign practices, neglect of our undoubted advantages, artificial exaggeration of shortcomings, opposition under the guise of democratization of a student to a professor, a university to a technical university, a general education schools - higher, etc.

Unfortunately, even today little has fundamentally changed in this approach. This is largely why, it seems to me, reform of the education system is so difficult and at such cost.

The rise of education, science and culture - the path to the revival of Russia

Today, as in the past, special responsibility for solving problems of the relationship between education and the state, society and people lies with Moscow University. This is how history decreed and confirmed life. Moscow University was conceived and created by its founders M.V. Lomonosov and I.I. Shuvalov as national, all-Russian. He never changed his purpose and never betrayed it. And today there is no reason to do otherwise.

There was and is no other university like this in Russia. This may be his weakness, or perhaps, on the contrary, his strength. The weakness is that the blows that were dealt to Moscow University had an even more painful impact on domestic education, higher education, and culture as a whole. There was no one to avert or soften these blows. The strength lies in the fact that Moscow University, while defending itself, simultaneously defended all domestic education, higher education, and culture, taking the main burdens upon itself.

That is why Moscow University has become not only a leading national center of scientific education and culture, but also a symbol of Russian morality, moral attitude towards the state, society, and people. All this determined and determines the line of behavior, content and forms of action of Moscow University in relation to the reform of education and science at all its stages.

They often talk about the desire to integrate into world civilization. I personally don’t think that Russia is somewhere on its outskirts. And yet, if we say so, we will be guided by the words of UNESCO Secretary General Federico Mayor: “The time has come to recognize culture as a direct inspiring force of development, to give it a central role as a social regulator.” Louis Pasteur, who was once elected honorary professor at Moscow University, wrote: “At the stage of development that we have reached and which is designated by the name “modern civilization,” the development of science is perhaps even more necessary for the moral well-being of the people than for their material prosperity. There is only one path to civilization, to the future of the country - in an alliance between science and the state." He understood this 100 years ago.

The main, all-determining goal for Russia at the turn of the 21st century. I think restoration of confidence in ongoing further reforms of education and science. Without this, everything will go in vain. The reform is carried out by professors, teachers, students, but not by officials. It is high time to understand and accept the formula - not education for the state, but the state for education. We should remember the wonderful words of our compatriot: “One of the hallmarks of a great people,” wrote Moscow University professor V. Klyuchevsky, “is its ability to rise to its feet after falling.” And he added that “social revival will be achieved by processing the word of science into the work of life.”

The article was prepared on the basis of the author's report at the All-Russian Scientific Conference "Russia - XXI Century" (September 25-26, 1997), organized by the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

1. Introduction

5. Conclusion

1. Introduction

At this time, there are a sufficient number of problems in our education system that require urgent solutions. After all, the quality of our education, unfortunately, leaves much to be desired, if you remember the education system in Soviet times, then Russia was in 2nd place in terms of the most reading countries, and all because in those days enormous efforts were invested in the development of education, there were more stringent requirements that They brought with them the most missing quality of today's students - responsibility. From a young age, children were attracted to education and viewed it as an important part of social life, an engine of progress.

education system student teacher

2. Definition of education, education system

To talk about the problems of education, you need to understand what education is.

Education system is a complex of institutions, standards, programs and characteristics used in the education process.

Modern education is a purposeful, multifaceted and multi-stage process of acquiring knowledge and skills, but in addition to the process, education is also the result of this process. This is so freaky

Education as a process implements an educational program (a set of basic characteristics of education: organizational and pedagogical conditions and forms of certification, in cases in which this is provided for by the Federal Law on Education, work programs of academic subjects, courses, disciplines, other components, as well as assessment and teaching materials)

We should not forget that education is a multi-stage process, because even Jan Amos Comenius stated that education should be divided into levels appropriate to age. He was supported by many philosophers of the time.

Education in this country is divided into several main stages:

General education- the first stage of education, which provides basic non-specialized and non-professional knowledge. In turn, general education is divided into several stages:

Preschool education- providing the foundations of physical and intellectual development due to nature. Just as during the development of an embryo, a person undergoes a transformation in life from a more biological to a more social one.

Primary general education- characterized by the provision of knowledge about the basics of communication, ethics, and understanding of the world around us. This period is also marked by laying the foundation of personality

Secondary general education -can be called the most interesting and problematic period of a child’s education for a teacher. If in primary general education the foundation of the individual is laid, then during this period of education walls are erected, and the walls are not built quite evenly. Intelligence may develop in a timely manner or even ahead of age, but emotional maturation may be slow. Most often, it happens differently: emotional and intellectual maturation occurs according to biological age, but physical development is ahead of age and this reveals many social and pedagogical problems that need to be solved, paradoxically. Also, the development of a child as an individual also presents a whole bunch of pedagogical problems that do not and cannot, in principle, have a standard solution.

Secondary (complete) general education -a stage aimed at creating a system from all the knowledge acquired at the previous stage. More in-depth study of information. Despite the older contingent, this is an equally interesting stage of education, both for the teacher and for the student himself. The previous stages are aimed at the formation of personality, at the presentation of spiritual and cultural values. And this stage is needed rather for realizing oneself as an individual.

Special education -A period of education aimed at obtaining special professional knowledge that guarantees the professional competence of the student in his work field. At this stage, a person has already been formed as a personality, by biological and psychological standards, and is now gaining experience in social activities, honing communication and interaction skills. The least interesting period for a teacher from the point of view of solving any non-standard situations, because the student becomes in a position in which he receives most of the knowledge on his own, and conflicts and social aspects are not processed by a higher school teacher. This can be called both a plus, because it fosters independence, and a minus, because the transition from school control to university freedom is quite abrupt and painful.

The versatility of education is especially indicative of the Ancient Greek model of education. There, an ideal image of a person was brought up, developing in himself: physical strength necessary for health and longevity; intelligence is obviously necessary for life, not existence. They also did not forget about the spiritual sphere, which consisted of cultivating a moral image of a citizen who is responsible to himself and understands the essence and meaning of his life.

3. Main problems of education, education systems and their classification

Educational problems can be classified according to the sources of these problems. Let's list the main sources of problems.

Problems coming from students- the main part of the problem in the pedagogical process is created by students, but we should not forget that solving problems in the learning process is the main task and purpose of the existence of pedagogy as a science. This also includes social problems and problems with parents.

Problems emanating from the education system -A huge part of the problems of a modern teacher is associated with bureaucratization and ill-conceived education system. This is a problem with the simplest possible solution - it is necessary to discuss typical problems that arise due to the education system. Problems of this class arise due to the fact that education officials, when carrying out reforms, are quite far from schools and educational institutions, and without seeing the problem on the spot, it is not possible to come up with a reasonable and adequate solution.

Problems coming from the teacher -Teaching activity, although it does not require physical activity in the traditional sense, is actually very exhausting, and with such stress a person works to the limit of his capabilities. And when a teacher comes home, he needs rest, but in our country this is not always the case; stress affects and manifests itself in weakened health and in many other aspects. In addition, problems can be caused by a lack of experience.

Let's look at the problems and their sources using examples.

3.1 Problems coming from students

A person develops along a long path in which he encounters problems of a different nature. A teacher is a person who gives knowledge and helps solve problems that arise along the way. At the same time, I would like to note that the best approach is not to solve students’ problems, but to help students solve them independently.

What are the problems posed by the students? In their personality. Individuality is an excellent quality that poses many interesting problems, because the techniques used for one group of students (or even an individual student) can work completely differently for another group, even if the groups are identical in age (which, even in theory, is very rare).

A real example from practice: In the first grade with the letter "A", the teacher offers summing the number of oranges as a task. Everything is going well, students are moderately active and summing up oranges perfectly. In another class with the letter “B,” absolutely the same approach is used, but one of the students (for example, Kolya) declares that he is allergic to oranges. The teacher replaces oranges with apples; several people claim that they are allergic to apples. Kolya is indignant and demands that other students give up their allergic diseases. Massive children's fight - lesson disrupted.

What does this example illustrate? This example illustrates that the same methods may not work for similar teams, even if there are even minimal differences between them.

And there are a huge number of such problems and examples. Moreover, even trying to systematize them is very difficult.

3.2 Problems emanating from the education system

Things are a little simpler with the systematization of problems emanating from the education system

Problems of material and economic support are receding into the background, but are still a pressing problem. It consists of limited economic support for schools and other educational institutions. Lack of textbooks, teaching aids, little opportunity for practical and laboratory work. It seems like a minor problem, but in fact it grows into a very serious one. Lack of practice leads to loss of interest in the subject, and this already gives rise to new problems that the teacher has to solve in the course of his activities.

The second problem caused by the system is the lack of decent personnel. Many teachers by nature now work in a profession that is far from theirs, but why? They are afraid of small salaries. And those who have decided to face more global problems that are repulsive. There are few teachers, which means that the free workload is transferred to already overloaded teachers. Overload, working at the limit - also scare people away from the profession and this is the fault of the system.

The third problem is an attempt to standardize the educational process. In the modern world, there is a tendency to build an assembly line and industrial production in everything, however, from the example it is clear that this is not always a successful tactic to use in the educational process. This manifests itself in total bureaucracy. A myriad of paperwork comes with the new government. education standards. Standardization is a great idea, but there is not enough strength to implement it in this country.

The fourth problem is weak reflection and slowness of the system. The system is very unresponsive. It is almost impossible to change something in the interests of students; dozens of meetings, hundreds of people decide one issue and it is not a fact that this issue is so important.

Example: The decision to introduce uniform uniforms in schools. This decision has been discussed for years. The decision is not the most important, but its discussion dragged on for many years. Why all this? Bureaucratization, slowness.

3.3 Problems coming from the teacher

But in education, problems come not only from the environment; sometimes the teacher himself creates problems for the teacher. These problems can be divided into several groups.

Household problems - Problems caused by the teacher’s living conditions. Overload, poor living conditions, family problems, lack of material opportunities. Many teachers in the 90s were acutely faced with these problems. Non-payment of wages was normal. This came back to the students in the form of poor quality of presentation of the material, sometimes teachers simply lost motivation to study. activities and quit their jobs.

Subjective-objective problems are problems emanating from the teacher, but initially caused by external factors. For example, a lack of motivation or experience that was not given in the right amount during their training.

Problems are subjective - caused by the qualities of the teacher himself. For example, the underdevelopment of any personal qualities. Or professional deformations.

Example: The teacher has very strong knowledge in his subject. He shines with erudition and, in principle, is a genius, but bad luck, he is an absolute zero in communicating with people. Has no communication skills. A very common occurrence in modern schools. Teachers are obsessed with their subject. They don't care about the students at all. Sometimes you come across personnel who receive psychological satisfaction from a higher level of knowledge than their students. Such problems are clearly subjective and need to be treated.

4. Research (sociological survey of teachers)

In the process of conducting the research, I decided to use a short sociological survey, with detailed responses from respondents, among primary school teachers. The research audience is diverse in terms of experience and age.

What are the main problems in education?

What problems do you experience?

What are the possible solutions to these problems?

people noted that the main problems of education are poor provision and lack of quality young specialists.

the person answered that the main problem is the lack of motivation for development and a poor-quality training program.

people responded that they felt obvious problems with housing and material support, although they added that the situation was beginning to improve.

people responded that they felt a poorly designed training program and excessive bureaucratization.

responded that a radical reform is needed with the involvement of practicing teachers

people noted that it is necessary to improve the existing system.

Study conclusion:

According to the results of the study, it becomes clear that the majority of teachers are dissatisfied with the existing educational system and note that changes are necessary, others believe that changes are not necessary, it is only necessary to improve the existing system.

5. Conclusion

During the abstract, we examined the problems and causes of certain types of problems that arise on the path of the teacher, and we also tried to classify them using data obtained in live communication with practicing teachers.

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