Russia 2010. Part 6. Education

(the part of book "Russia 2010. Report of Transformation")

Part 6. EDUCATION

The beginning of 2011 was marked by a public discussion of an education reform that had been proposed by the Ministry of Education and Science. However, there are reasons to say that with ‘the big election’ season coming up, the issue of the government’s social responsibility in this problem, which is so important for the voters, will stay open. A number of reforms started by the Ministry gives reason to suppose that in the mid-term prospect, the government will make serious personnel steps to remove ‘unwanted’ officials from the government vertical, one of such officials being the Minister of Education and Science, Andrey Fursenko.

From the career point of view, Fursenko’s positions have been weakened by a great scandal about a draft law on a radical reform of secondary and higher education. In the spring of 2010, the State Duma approved the Ministry’s draft law that would reform budget-funded institutions including the schools.

According to the new law, all the institutions will be divided into three big groups, namely, government, budget, and autonomous ones. For government institutions, all cost items including even utility bills, transport costs, and stationery will be prescribed very precisely. Money for such schools will be given by the treasury in accordance with a schedule, just like it is done now.

Budget entities will be funded with state treasury subsidies without a clear specification of the cost items. Small things will not be specified. A school headmaster or a university rector will be able to decide on his own how much money should be spent on repairs or a celebration. Budget schools will still be allowed to offer elective and extra subjects for a fee, just like now.

Autonomous schools will be the strongest and most competitive institutions that will get the greatest financial freedom. They will be allowed to offer paid services, draw investments, and spend their proceeds at their own discretion.

Teachers’ salaries in autonomous schools may be much bigger than in government or budget ones. If it is stipulated in the school’s constituent documents that a teacher’s salary depends on the number of school Olympics winners in a class, the headmaster may pay him or her five or even seven basic salaries.

The transition period is scheduled until July 1, 2012. The list of government institutions must be drafted by the Ministry of Education and Science and local authorities. To become an autonomous institution, a school will need the consent of its owner and a general assembly of the staff.

The idea of the innovation is that the government will only fund the part of education for which there exists a government order. The scope of such order will be determined by the municipality that controls the school. Any missing money will have to be earned by the school itself.

According to this law, the municipality may make a government order just for three lessons a day. In senior classes, it is planned that only three subjects will be compulsory, namely, Russia in the World, Life Safety Basics, and Physical Education. There will be no single state examination in these subjects. All the rest will be elective. Out of six subject groups, namely, Russian or National Language and Literature, Foreign Language, Mathematics and Programming, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Arts, one or two subjects will have to be selected.

The Ministry’s idea is that being allowed to select the subjects and the study intensity, i.e. on basic, enhanced, or professional levels, should teach senior high school students to use their knowledge more efficiently, make them more independent, and avoid overwork. The other subjects may have to be paid for. Opponents say that it may happen that the government order will only include mathematics, Russian, and religion.

Most of the criticism was about the new education system, in which the school subjects will be paid and therefore voluntary. This is how school funding has become a hot discussion subject. For example, since 1992 the law on education has been losing provisions that contained financial obligations for the government.

According to the new law, the government will only fund general education schools that work within the framework of the state component. All the other education services will have to be paid for.

There is also discussion about the higher education reform due to Russia’s integration in the Bologna system. Since 2010, higher education has been split into levels, and the learning process has been divided in two stages, Bachelor and Master. According to the Bologna Process standards, this will enable Russian students to continue their studies in any European university. However, the critics of the Bologna system including the Moscow Lomonosov State University Rector, Viktor Sadovnichiy, say that the new leveled system involved many risks. Rector Sadovnichiy was also against the introduction of personal state financial obligations, according to which a certain amount from the state budget would be assigned to each student depending on his or her score at the single state examination. In Sadovnichiy’s opinion, this approach reduces the government’s role in providing free higher education and in actual fact makes it commercial.

It should be mentioned that Sadovnichiy’s career position may be strengthened by Fursenko’s resignation, at which Dmitry Medvedev has hinted. Sadovnichiy is seen in the Russian government system as a relatively independent person who is somewhat related to the ex mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov. After Luzhkov’s dismissal, Sadovnichiy has been backed up by Vladimir Putin, but the academician’s image of an ‘education retrograde’ does not match the government’s modernization concept of Russia’s integration into the European education and science system. However, the need to create a positive ‘social’ image of the tandem as the Parliamentary and Presidential elections are coming will make the government neutralize ‘arguable’ officials, one of which is Fursenko. A formal reason for Fursenko’s dismissal may be the failure of state procurement in the research sector, but the real reason may be the Minister’s low popularity.

According to the most recent March poll by VCIOM, the Minister of Education and Science holds one of the last places on the Russian government officials’ trust rating. On the end of the list there are Igor Sechin and Yury Trutnev whose low rating is mainly caused by the low publicity of their work. On this background, Fursenko’s low results may be regarded as an act of public distrust in the official, which will be the last argument in making the final decision on the Minister.

Science

§1. Nobel has gone to the UK

A key event of the Russian scientific life was the award of the Nobel prize to the Russian scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov who work and live in Great Britain. The noted event has marked the beginning of the President’s ‘science-oriented’ activity which has showed nearly every month in the first half of 2011.

The high appraisal of the Russians’ research work has once again given rise to the issue of taking measures to prevent ‘brain leakage’ abroad and to establish a good work environment for promising inventors in Russia.

The issue was made especially pressing by Geim’s demonstrative refusal to return to Russia in order to continue his work within the framework of the Skolkovo innovation city project. In the opinion of Geim, who is a citizen of the Netherlands, the reason why he had to leave Russia is that there were neither facilities, devices or funds for experimental research nor a normal work environment.

However, at his first new conference during the presidential term, Medvedev mentioned the dependence on hydrocarbon exports as a problem, which can be interpreted as admitting the fact of the innovative economy’s stagnation.

One of the weaknesses of the modernization economy adepts is the situation on the oil market due to the revolutionary disturbances in the Arabic East. The growth of the ‘black gold’ prices, which at some point have nearly reached the pre-crisis level, has become a trump card for the adepts of the ‘resource’ model of the Russian economy’s development. It may be that rumors of Fursenko’s possible dismissal are a significant episode in the conflict between the liberal and conservative groups on the eve of 2012.

§2. The international presentation of Skolkovo

The Skolkovo innovation center is intended to become one of the ways to optimize the Russian science (primarily in the area of high-tech developments). In late 2010, the project was presented internationally during the Moscow visit of the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The emphasis on US approval of the Russian innovation city is intended to create an impression among the Russian political and scientific community that Skolkovo is a competitive project having the necessary research and scientific tools as well as a qualified staff of future employees. It is remarkable that Skolkovo was presented a week after the Nobel laureates had been announced, which gave the observers reason to regard this visit as a counterattack against the Geim and Novoselov awards.

The second measure for raising the attractiveness of the Russian research sites is the law on acknowledgement of foreign diplomas in Russia. This initiative was announced by Medvedev in his speech at the Global Economic Forum in Davos and was mainly intended to motivate Russian scientists with foreign university diplomas to return to Russia. According to the President, “the inflow of foreign professionals is mainly necessary to use the experience and establish a nutritious environment for the creative work of our professionals. This is why we are ready to unilaterally acknowledge the diplomas and academic titles granted by the leading universities of the world.”

As a follow-up of the President’s initiative, the Ministry of Education and Science drafted a law on acknowledgement in Russia of diplomas and academic titles granted by the leading universities of the world including the USA. In early March 2011, the work groups that are on the Russian-American commission established after the meeting of the Presidents of Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama in July 2009, met in Moscow to identify the areas of cooperation on joint projects and acts in order to achieve strategic stability, international safety, and economic wellbeing. One of the work groups will work on science and technology matters. It is headed by Andrey Fursenko and John Holdren, advisor to the US President for Science and Technology.

It is specified in the draft law that the order of selecting universities for acknowledgement will be specified by the Russian government. Discussions with the association of US and European universities are in process for this purpose. Within the framework of the discussions, common requirements are expected to be developed for acknowledgement of diplomas and academic titles granted by leading universities of Russia.

§3. Engineers

Finally, the third tool of the Russian science optimization, in the President’s opinion, must be the growth of technical professions’ prestige. In March 2011, Medvedev went to Khakasia where he visited the RUSAL Sayanogorsk plant and the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant. At meetings with their employees, the President said that he is soon planning to pay close attention to engineering professions and their prestige. In Medvedev’s opinion, “all the modernization will be done by engineers and exact scientists only.” Later, at a meeting on providing qualified engineering and technical staff for the Russian industry, the President said that specialized technical universities should not train students in non-core majors.

By betting on holders of engineering diplomas who have not used their profession since graduation, the President is aiming to solve two conceptual problems. First, there is the staff vacuum, which has become a key problem for the Skolkovo innovation city already at the earliest stage. The lack of young professionals who could compete with foreign (primarily Asian) engineers is pushing the President to intensify work on this severe social problem.

Secondly, by declaring the importance of engineering education for implementation of modernization projects, the head of the state wants to gain attention of the guaranteed supporters among the ‘sophisticated’ part of the public. In this respect, the bet on engineers in the context of the elite groups’ fight for the protest electorate in 2012 might be considered.

Culture

§1. Moscow – Rome: not just about energy

The cross culture year of Russia and Italy in Russia may be regarded as a key cultural event of the first half of 2011. The political context where Moscow and Rome are demonstrating cultural closeness is putting a special emphasis on this event. A paradox of the Russian-Italian relations is that regardless of the ideological dominant, the Italian government is willing to build close and even friendly relations with their Russian colleagues. The cross culture year is intended to fix the positive dynamics of the bilateral relations that are based on spiritual things rather than just joint power sector projects.

The Italian government needs to maintain stable contacts with Moscow, since Italy is not just interested in the Russian energy resources but also wants to show the independence on its foreign policy on the opinion of Brussels officials.

The importance of maintaining the achievements in various areas is explained by the fact that Russia regards Italy as a key partner in Europe as well as NATO. The success of the Russian lobbyists became clear during the famous NATO summit in April 2008 in the vote on accession of Ukraine and Georgia to the NATO membership Action Plan. Italy spoke against it, which, inter alia, was due to Rome’s unwillingness to spoil its constructive relations with Moscow, especially in the energy sector.

The Russian-Italian cultural year started on February 16 with a visit of Dmitry Medvedev and Silvio Berlusconi to a major Alexander Deineka exhibition from the State Tretyakov Gallery collection. Italy is also holding exhibitions entitled From Icons to Malevich from the Russian museum collection and The Kremlin Treasuries from the collection of the Armors Chamber. In addition, Russian film directors are presenting their pictures in Italy at The New Russian Film in Italy festival.

The Italian side is betting on the world-famous heritage of their national artists, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Raphael, and Giorgione. Their works are exhibited at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. There is also an exhibition of the Medici family collection in Moscow. The literary part is represented by Italy’s leadership at the Moscow book fair.

It is remarkable that the cultural closeness of Russia and Italy is being fixed as major domestic political processes are going on in the Apennines both in relation to the Berlusconi scandal and the intensified problem of uncontrolled migration. In this view, the cross cultural year is intended to optimize Italy’s image in the eyes of mass media and public all over the world and remind that this country is most famous for its cultural values and not scandals.

§2. The Brest Fortress brought Russia and Belarus together

An important event in foreign politic and culture was the show of The Brest Fortress, a collective Russian-Belarussian motion picture. The film was made under the aegis of the Union State of Russia and Belarus and was intended to show the strength of the bilateral relations even despite the energy and milk ‘wars’ that have been going on between the two countries.

In January 2007, the Television and Radio Broadcasting Organization of the Union State (Union TRB) made an initiative of making The Brest Fortress, a patriotic fiction picture. The proposal was approved and supported by the Council of Ministers of the Union State. The author of the idea was the Chairman of Union TRB, Igor Ugolnikov.

In 2009, the Television and Radio Broadcasting Organization of the Union State did a sociological survey of Moscow schoolchildren about the Great Patriotic War. It turned out that the children not only did not know about the Brest defense but could not even remember the starting date of the war. With the current trend of reviewing the results of the war, The Brest Fortress film was made to create patriotic views and patriotic education of the young generation. The filming took place in the middle of 2009 in the Brest Fortress.

§3. The Mikhalkov case

On the Russian scene, an important event was the merger of culture and politics in ‘the Nikita Mikhalkov case.’ The information event that moved that cultural discussion to politics and vice versa was the appearance of Mikhalkov’s blog, which was new for the Russian cinema. The film director’s blog appeared just before the second part of The Citadel, ‘a great film about a great war,’ which in the critics’ opinion repeated the fate of its predecessor and did not pay back the production costs.

The privatization of the Great Patriotic War subject and its role in the modern Russian life was continued by the film director in his letter to the Ministry of the Defense. In late May, Mikhalkov, who is also the Chairman of the Public Council of the Ministry of the Defense, asked the Ministry officials for resignation, which will by default deprive him of the emergency car light, an ‘anti-public’ symbol. Mikhalkov explained his act by disagreement with the format of the Victory Parades in 2010 and 2011.

The blue emergency light on the film director’s car has caused a wave of public criticism. In February 2011, the Ministry announced that it is considering removal of the light from Mikhalkov’s car. In April, photos were published on the Internet of Mikhalkov driving his car with the blue light on the opposite side of the road near the Rublevo-Uspenkoye highway.