Imagine a picture: a schoolboy is writing an essay. A serious topic is asked, for example, about love or about the purpose of life. But the result is nothing: empty stereotyped phrases, nonsense, and even outright absurdity.
“You have to live to earn a lot of money”, “love is the desire to have a family” - and similar, sad thoughts. And it’s good if the child simply didn’t want to pour out his personal things on paper. But that's not always the case, is it? How many children are truly unable to talk about the most important thing in a person’s life!
There are several reasons for this. Here you can find upbringing, media influence, and much more. But let's focus on education. After all, who, if not a teacher, should reveal to a child all the diversity of our world?
At all times, much time has been devoted to education.
In antiquity, during the Renaissance, and in the Soviet past, much attention was paid to education. Education - in the sense of forming a full-fledged, reasonable personality.
What about today? More often - a formal approach to studying. The situation with the Unified State Exam has elevated it to the absolute level. And if in the exact sciences this is more or less acceptable, then with literature, which, in theory, should teach a child to think and express what is in his soul, problems arise.
But there are fighters against the current situation. One of them is Privalov Alexander Nikolaevich, general director and scientific editor of the Expert magazine. Let's get to know him and his ideas.
Alexander Privalov - journalist, scientific editor, TV presenter
Privalov believes that education in Russia is irretrievably lost due to the reforms of the “top”
In his articles and speeches, Alexander Privalov says that in the Russian education system everything is turned upside down. In school there is the one who needs to be taught and the one who teaches - just two significant persons. They are the ones who understand what and how happens in the educational process. And only they need to be asked about the pros and cons of modern schools.
However, in Russia, decisions are not made alone, but by people at the top, who, perhaps, have not even been to school for 10 years. But the word of such people is more significant. Expenditures on education are being wasted, a lot of reforms are being carried out, but, as it turns out, they are useless. Officials should listen to teachers who know the system from the inside. But no.
Privalov is quite pessimistic:
“In the case of education, we can state that it has died.
Education as a single system, in my opinion, is beyond the point of no return.
And it is probably impossible to restore it.
If anyone ever gets around to it,
education will have to be done anew.”
Alexander Privalov
journalist
Echoes of War
The echo of war haunted us for a long time. We climbed the battlefields, looking for mines and shells, and the searches often ended in tragedy. One day my friends found a mine and went to kill fish with it. The explosion was such that they were blown to pieces along with the fish.
One day my friends found a mine and went to kill fish with it. The explosion was such that they were blown to pieces along with the fish
We decided to detonate another shell, from a grenade launcher, in an abandoned well. I installed it at the bottom, the guys found an ordinary water pipe, and inserted a sharp pick from the fence into it. I pointed it at the capsule and shouted: “Hit!” Before I had time to go out and take a step from the well, a powerful explosion occurred. Out of fear, I ran a few meters and fell. One of the guys was wounded in the hand, someone lost an eye, but, fortunately for us, everyone survived. Such cases occurred in almost every village after the war. We won, but the murder weapons continued to bring nightmare to every family for many years after the victory.”
According to Privalov, the state is saving on education, and this led to its collapse
Observing the changes that were taking place in school education, Privalov came to the conclusion that it was collapsing. He comments with sad humor that he would be glad to discover a conspiracy of enemies in this.
But, alas, it turns out that we are destroying the school with our own hands. The only goal of the reforms, from Privalov’s point of view, is to save the government on education. It turns out to be too expensive.
At the same time, he notes that the authors of the reforms themselves were able to make money from their promotion.
But the saddest thing is that this is not a one-time, or even a two-time event. Every year, less and less funding is allocated for education.
Using his rich analytical experience, Privalov came to the conclusion that this situation is characteristic not only of education.
The authorities have brought the economy into a depressed state. Governors now have to solve the primary problem of how to save money.
In modern Russia there is nothing to study for, because educated people are not needed anywhere
Alexander Privalov believes that the collapse of the education system is a natural consequence of all the industrial, scientific and economic troubles that have occurred in Russia in recent years.
Factories and institutes are closing everywhere. Entire production areas are going where the Soviet school went—to the past. In such a situation, there is simply no need to train highly qualified specialists: they have nowhere to work.
“And these people asked themselves: who are we going to deceive, continuing with our last strength to support a system that teaches the basics of nuclear physics to every punk? Why are we doing this, who are we fooling?
There was no “Arab Spring” then, but even before Tunisia it was not difficult to guess that if you prepare a flood of overly well-educated young people, then these young people, upon leaving educational institutions, will understand that there is absolutely nothing for them to do in their country.
And then they will organize some kind of revolution. “Do we want this?” we asked ourselves.
“We probably don’t want to.” And what to do? Since we cannot and do not know how to stop the flattening of the country, it means that the education system must be brought into line with reality.”
Alexander Privalov
journalist
What Privalov finds most unpleasant about this situation is that we haven’t even left any loopholes for the revival of education. It's literally buried. But there is always a chance to think better and find a less destructive solution.
Privalov regretfully quotes the former Minister of Education Fursenko:
“The Soviet education system tried to train creators; We need to train literate consumers.”
Andrey Fursenko
former Minister of Education of the Russian Federation
At the same time, Privalov criticizes “dubious” innovations in educational programs. For example, here is his statement about cyber education:
Works
Alexander Privalov is the author of more than 1000 books, scientific papers and articles. Some works:
- Lover of the Fatherland. — ISBN 5-367-00182-3 ISBN 978-5-367-00182-2
- Skeleton of the attacker. The source and two components of bureaucratic capitalism in Russia. - Publisher: Peter, 2008. - ISBN 978-5-91180-749-8
- Andrey Kolesnikov, Alexander Privalov
. New Russian ideology. Chronicle of political myths. 1999-2000. - M.: Publishing house of the State University Higher School of Economics, 2001. - 364 p. — ISBN 5-7598-0098-1
Teachers have become victims of dismissal, bureaucracy and overwork
Alexander Privalov sympathizes with current teachers. The son of a teacher himself, he knows what difficulties and injustices she had to experience during Soviet times.
But this cannot be compared with the current state of affairs. Even school principals are under constant pressure from authorities.
What can we say about ordinary teachers! They have enough problems:
Loss of jobs. Presidential reforms are only doing harm. Privalov cites the example of the demand to increase teachers' pay. They solved it in the simplest way - by firing people.
Bureaucracy. You must report for all work. This means filling out a lot of paperwork, sometimes useless, but mandatory. As a result, a person spends his energy not on his direct duties - teaching, but on documents that no one needs.
Overload. The teacher's pay increases from 18 hours to 36 hours. In this mode, it is impossible to maintain oneself in a state of efficiency for a long time. This leads to overwork.
Teachers are simply incapable of doing their job well. They work the hours with all their might. Maybe not physical, but emotional.
Alexander Privalov: “School is the place where children prevent teachers from filling out papers for the Department of Education”
Biography
In 1971 he graduated from Moscow State University, Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics.
In Soviet times, he was an employee of a research institute under the USSR State Planning Committee, choosing the topic of forecasting problems. He was engaged in teaching at the Higher Economic Courses of the USSR State Planning Committee. He completed his career at the research institute as the head of the management process modeling sector.
From 1993 to 1995 - editor of the department of property and privatization problems of the weekly Kommersant-Weekly, published by the Kommersant publishing house.
In 1995, together with a significant part of the team that published Kommersant-Weekly, he left the Kommersant publishing house and took part in the creation of the Expert magazine[1].
From 1998 to 2000, he was first deputy editor-in-chief of the Izvestia newspaper.
Since 2002 - Dean of the Higher School of Journalism (HSE)[2].
From 2004 to 2006, he was General Director of ZAO Expert Magazine.
In 2000-2003, he was one of the hosts of the “However” program on Channel One. From 2003 to 2007, he conducted a weekly hour-long broadcast on Mayak radio. From 2007 to 2013, he was the host of the information and analytical program “View Angle” on the Expert-TV channel. Since 2012, he has been working as a columnist on the Rossiya-24 TV channel[3].
There is no quality of training, all efforts are directed towards good statistics
Alas, the quality of education, as Alexander Privalov notes, is getting worse. But it's not very noticeable. Everything is decided by the magic of numbers. The main thing is to correctly present statistics on educational institutions and present the texts in a favorable manner.
And then the papers show that the students are demonstrating success. But this is false. At best, there are only a few people in educational institutions who provide pretty statistics:
“If a school has a more or less intelligent group of teachers and more or less wealthy parents, they collectively give a result that allows the school to seem good.
But this is false. If tomorrow they put a lock on this school, the results of the children who went there may be even better. Because they will not waste time with teachers who are not of the same high quality as the presenters.
And leading teachers will stop wasting time writing papers for the Ministry of Education and will work with children around the clock, as good tutors do.”
Alexander Privalov
journalist
How else can you find out if the school in the next block is good? Ask a common man? He's nobody. Schoolboy? Teachers? Not an authority either.
But a bunch of papers is another matter. That's all the pedagogical dimensions. And no one cares that there is no objectivity in this approach.
Children’s education depends on the enthusiasm of parents; we need to unite ourselves
More and more teachers are becoming disillusioned with working in the traditional field of school education. It is much calmer and more profitable for them to work for themselves - to engage in tutoring.
And for students, if their parents manage to find money, it’s better for them to take private lessons. There they at least explain and vigilantly monitor that the student has mastered the material. And everything is to the point: no red tape with papers, no one is overloaded.
Discussing how the situation can be corrected, Privalov says that it is too late to change leaders. It's all gone too far. Not only the top, but also all levels of education are in decline. To succeed, each of us needs to take the initiative.
If we want a good education for our children, that means we need to unite.
At least try.
Let the value of education in Russia today not be great. Knowledge of chemistry or the intricacies of the Russian language does not greatly contribute to your career and earnings. But it’s still not right to go to school just to wait until you get your certificate. If education is weak enough today, then parents need to unite and try to unite efforts around schools.
We cannot allow all education to go solely into the realm of tutoring. Today, schools are in dire need of patrons. And the tools of the old educational system are outdated. Innovative approaches are needed to help students adapt to new environments.
Don't wait for initiative from the government:
“As long as society is not concerned about school,
parents, teachers, children,
to protect your right to receive no scraps,
and education,
The school will continue to degrade under the confident leadership of reformers.”
Alexander Privalov
journalist
Alexander Privalov: “Living people on their own, without a state, cannot save a unified education system. But they can and should save the individual schools their children go to.”
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Person of the Russian Federation
Leading Russian economic publicist, scientific editor and general director of Expert magazine
"News"
Alexander Privalov, scientific editor of Expert magazine: “Time to put out an invisible fire”
The reason for the conversation with Alexander Privalov was his article “War with the Last Ally” (“Expert” No. 2 (736), 2011), dedicated to the problems of family, childhood and juvenile justice. This publication sounded loud and caused widespread discussion. The editors of Foma took this publication as an invitation to conversation and asked its author several questions. link: https://www.pravoslavie.ru/smi/45040.htm
Alexander Privalov, scientific editor of Expert magazine: Putin was misunderstood
I was very surprised when the newspapers reported that at a meeting with political scientists in Valdai, the president suddenly declared: “Russia must renounce the title of a nuclear superpower.” I don't think he said anything like that at all. Considering that on the same day Minister Ivanov reported to the president about the successful launch of intercontinental missiles, a sudden renunciation of the country’s nuclear status would look strange. link: https://www.kp.ru/daily/23771/57248/
Economist, scientific editor of Expert magazine Alexander Privalov - about state corporations: “Instead of giving money to people who know how to do something, they created meaningless offices”
The Prosecutor General's Office has begun inspections of state corporations. President Dmitry Medvedev ordered this to be done. State corporations are too expensive for the treasury, and the benefits of their work are not always visible. By November 10, prosecutors will sum up: which state corporations eat their bread and butter for good reason, and which ones spread it too thickly with caviar. We talked about the efficiency of state corporations with Alexander Privalov. link: https://www.kp.ru/daily/24353/540498/
How Putin implemented Andropov's plan
“Project Russia,” however, is bright with words, but not with facts. However, indirect evidence, which, if desired, could be interpreted as confirmation of the version, appeared in the same 2005. The scientific editor of the Expert magazine, Alexander Privalov, analyzing the verdict in the first Yukos case, drew attention to the fact that both sides - both the prosecution and the defense - actually ignored the fact that the main beneficiary of the activities of the oil company was supposed to be a certain offshore company. The most interesting thing is that it was registered... November 8, 1984. link: https://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/69445/
Bottom of knowledge
The St. Petersburg Theater Academy, the oldest, most famous, with a 230-year history, did not pass the Unified State Examination level of its students. Yes, they don’t know chemistry and physics well, which, however, does not prevent them from being actors. “This is quite in the spirit of the Ministry of Education, this is its standard policy. They reduce substantive issues to purely formal indicators; they are absolutely not interested in education, they are not interested in the quality of education. They are interested in the economics of education and educational management, and they are interested in, if possible, greater powers for countless bureaucrats. And absolutely zero attention to those people who are saving, under the conditions of the reforms they are carrying out, God forgive me, the remains of education in the country,” says Expert magazine columnist and publicist Alexander Privalov. link: https://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=956877
Replica by Alexander Privalov. Russian economy: a return to the dark past
There is an indicator by which the Russian economy is the world leader. More than a quarter of Russia's gross domestic product, or more precisely, 27%, is provided by domestic trade. For comparison: in the USA this share is almost half as much, 17%, in China – three times less, 9%. link: https://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=968773&cid=6
The “Power Number 4” awards were received by Alexander Privalov and Dmitry Kiselev
The editor-in-chief of the Russian Reporter magazine Vitaly Leibin, the economic publicist Alexander Privalov and the deputy general director of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Dmitry Kiselev were among the laureates of the All-Russian award in the field of socio-political journalism “Power Number 4,” a RIA Novosti correspondent reports from the award ceremony. link: https://ria.ru/media/20110414/364634889.html
Alexander Privalov: “The most honored guests of the Salzburg Festival receive a personalized chair with a bronze plaque...”
Olga Sirota continues the conversation she started in the last program with the famous TV presenter, scientific editor of Expert magazine Alexander Privalov. The program focuses on the classical music industry: Western and Russian experience... link: https://www.muzcentrum.ru/orfeus/programs/issue3190/
The “warm heart” of political journalism
The scientific editor of the Expert magazine, Alexander Privalov, and the editor-in-chief of the Russian Reporter magazine, Vitaly Leibin, became winners of the All-Russian Prize in the field of socio-political journalism “Power No. 4” in the categories “Best Political Observer” and “Best Project in the Field of Political Media.” link: https://expert.ru/2011/04/15/goryachee-serdtse-politicheskoj-zhurnalistiki/
“On Theory and Practice”, Alexander Privalov, “Expert”
At a pedagogical meeting in Maykop, President Medvedev said: “I communicate with teachers in different schools and in different territories. I have not yet heard from a single teacher that the Unified State Exam is not needed.” The reflexive reaction to these words from anyone who has dealt with the problem of the Unified State Exam: strange - for some reason I heard this from quite a lot of teachers. It doesn’t often happen that both opposing statements can be called fair, but this is exactly the case here. The President is right, provided that he is talking about the idea of a unified state exam.
There are hardly many teachers in the world who do not see the benefit of an independent assessment of a student’s knowledge. But we are also right - if we turn the conversation from Plato’s idea of the Unified State Exam, unborn, undying and only felt in thoughts, to its embodiment here and now. There are also few teachers who are comfortable with the growing scandal that has turned into the Russian Unified State Exam for the third year in a row. The most amazing thing is that even those who made it with their own hands do not consider themselves guilty of such a wide discrepancy between the phenomenon and the noumenon. link: https://www.radonezh.ru/monitoring/14916.html
The designer accused the Expert holding of non-payment of debt
Designer Alexander Korotich accused the heads of the Expert media holding Alexander Privalov, Tatyana Gurova and Valery Fadeev of evading debt payments and cheating. Korotich published an open letter to the management of the holding on July 25 on his Facebook page. link: https://www.lenta.ru/news/2012/07/26/expert/
The head of the Deposit Insurance Agency, Alexander Turbanov, joined the Board of Trustees of the Nikita Kirichenko Prize
To date, a Board of Trustees has been formed, headed by Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Financial Ombudsman Pavel Medvedev. The Council also includes First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia Gennady Melikyan, Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Alexey Savatyugin, Executive Vice President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Murychev, President of the ARB Garegin Tosunyan, President of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Alla Gryaznova, as well as heads of the largest Russian financial companies . The Chairman of the Jury, consisting of the most authoritative and honored representatives of business journalism, as before, was the scientific editor of the Expert magazine, Alexander Privalov. link: https://www.asv.org.ru/arc/show/?id=233387
