The atmosphere in many Moscow schools is determined by fear. This is a fear of the Department of Education and its leader Isaac Kalina personally

The history of the “intellectual” forced society to turn to face those schools that stably give the highest results in Moscow, Stoballnikov in the exam and the winners of all kinds of Olympiads. What happens to them in the conditions of "optimization"?

The history of the “intellectual” (see the article by Elvira Goryukhina, No. 114 dated 10.10.2014) forced the society to turn to face those schools that stably give the highest results in Moscow, the Stoballnikov in the exam and the winners of all kinds of Olympiads. What happens to them in the conditions of "optimization"?

Schools that have disaster

Many of the good, “rating” schools have been in the same plump position today as the “intellectual”. Like unhappy families, each of the unhappy schools has its own story. For example, Kurchatov school (No. 1189). This is one of the best schools of the North -West I, the competition is 5 people per place, scientists are conducted by scientists. Kurchatov, and training in the 1189th is the first step in the direction of this institute, so the school has serious emphasis on physics and mathematics. But the main thing is for what they go to Kurchatovskaya is an environment in which it is easy to study, it is fashionable to be smart, where the cult of knowledge and study. Since the school is small - it has only two classes in parallels - it looks like a large friendly family.

Suddenly, without a preliminary discussion, on September 22, the school was announced that it was united with school No. 2077, which had already “merged” with other educational institutions (several kindergartens, 5 schools, of which 3 are general education, one is corrective and one for children with deviant behavior). Kurchatovskaya, unlike the “intellectual”, has no problems with money: she receives a common money financing, so attempts to explain the feasibility of merging with improved financing do not withstand critics: at the school, with which the “Kurchatovites” are united, the same 123,000 rubles per student per year. “We are afraid that the merger will lead to averaging: the motivated children who have passed the selection who were engaged in the courses are gradually stirring with the children who are serving the number,” says the dad of one of the students, Oleg Mitasov. “We are told that nothing like that will happen.” Then the meaning of the unification is incomprehensible. We went to one school, but we will find ourselves in something else, and there is a suspicion that this new one will be worse. ”

Finally, since the leadership of the Kurchatov school is displaced and the director of the director became the director of one of the schools with which they were united, the meaning of the unification was finally lost: people who were able to build a successful educational institution are pushed away, and their brainchilds were transferred to other people who, judging by the results, managed a less effective school. “In our case, no one even asked the consent of the managing council,” continues Oleg Mitasov. - We have already gone through the association in primary school, and this did not lead to anything good. We tried to get out of this situation, chose the best school, studied, entered - and fell into the same situation: instead of the debugged process and the built culture, a mess will be obtained again. As a result of the association of schools No. 1189 and No. 2077, parents will lose the opportunity to give talented children an appropriate education, the Kurchatov Institute will remain without young personnel, and Moscow will lose one of the best schools. ”

The Lyceum "Vorobyovy Gory" (No. 1525) has its own story. The lyceum was created on the basis of the Palace of Pioneers, in fact, this was the first multidisciplinary lyceum in Moscow. Each profile made its own team based on the palace. “The Lyceum was a strong research component,” says Evgeny Ablyuk, a honored teacher, teacher of the Lyceum, Associate Professor of the Department of Educational Programs of the Higher Superior. “Children wrote coursework, defended them in front of opponents, graduates and professionals came to defense - that is, the lyceum was strong because you could not measure any criteria that are now offered for evaluation.”

The Lyceum grew, and meanwhile the legislation changed, and he could no longer be a division of the palace - turned into an independent legal entity that simply housed in the palace. Gradually, the connections began to weaken, over the past year the concept of development has changed in the palace, it was a question of creating a huge holding on its base, which included two more schools, two kindergartens, two additional education institutions and a construction college. The Lyceum voted against, and the palace demanded that he move out.

“To say that we left the palace is difficult is not enough: heavy meetings were arranged, at which both the employees of the palace and the parents they prepared accused us of treason,” says Evgenia Ablyuk. - As a result, the Lyceum moved to Krasnoselskaya to the extension to the current school No. 1305. The school was, of course, unhappy, turned to the prosecutor's office, the city hall, and the department. Today the situation is this: the Sparrow Mountains have the lowest possible funding - 63,112 rubles for a student of a high school. It is so because the lyceum did not enter the pilot project, although he wanted to enter, but could not, since he did not have his own room. Two weeks ago, the head of the Dogma CAO came to us with the words: “I came to you in order to merge you with 1305 school.” This is the only way to save us, ”explains Evgenia Semenovna,“ otherwise the financing will end in 2 months. We are afraid to lose our atmosphere, Wednesday, but there is still a moment that, it seems to me, can harm more than the merger itself: they tell us, the school should earn. It is scary that in conditions of underfunding, education in our lyceum will become partially paid. More precisely, the profile courses will turn out to be paid. This will lead to loss of face, destroy the atmosphere. ”

Schools in which everything seems to be fine

For comparison, I talked with schools, where everything seems to be fine. It turned out not quite good. For example, one of the strongest gymnasiums-No. 1543, which takes 4-5th place in the Moscow rating, is kept, according to the teacher Alexei Kuznetsov, the name and authority of its creator and director with 40-year-olds Yuri Vladimirovich Velsky. The gymnasium has a Middle Highway financing (123,000 rubles) plus grants for a high place in the ranking. “They tried to merge us, but the director said that first we had to dismiss him, and Kalina (head of the Moscow Education Department . - Ed. ) Did not dare to do this. As soon as the director leaves - and he is 87 years old - they will eat us. But our case is atypical. I believe that such schools as ours are 30 to Moscow, 100 to the country. Dressing them is to realize the Sharikov principle that we need to take everything away and divide everything. ”

In another school, from the top 20, I spoke on the terms of anonymity: the school is afraid to harm itself with any careless movement. According to my interlocutor, the money also ends, but so far there is a “fat” that will allow you to reach until November. What will happen next is incomprehensible, but at school they hope for a "cuporous solution to the issue." “The creation of educational holdings, in my opinion, is pointless,” my interlocutor is sure. -Firstly, it is very difficult to manage a school where 1000 children, and they have an ideal-reach 1800, this gives additional funding. Secondly, when the good and bad school merges, one good one cannot turn out: the load is reduced, the school hours are reduced. Thirdly, in the new conditions of wages, it is unprofitable for schools to have a part-timer, and in lyceums and gymnasiums this is very important: for example, at the Lyceum “Second School”, teachers from Moscow State University, from the Physics and Emergencies, lead a bunch of classes.

In the speeches of Kalina, the results of the association look very optimistic, for example, he says that a score for the exam has grown sharply, losing sight of the fact that the entire USE of 2013 was totally written off. It seems to me that what is happening with the schools is a reflection of the general trend: the state dumps the social sphere, tries to save. Although I do not really understand what savings are here: buildings, teachers remain the same, managerial personnel are reduced slightly. We are experiencing a wonderful moment: the state came to the field of education in its worst version. ”

“School League” (No. 1199) is one of the smallest public schools. About 60 children study in it. The most important achievement of the school, the subject of its pride is 25th place in the world in an international study of the quality of education of Pisa in 2009 (this is an incredible result for Russia). To the question of whether the “School League” experiences the same as other good small schools, difficulties, founder and director of the school Sergei Bebchuk replies: “We still exist the same as before, no one will join us, there are no talk about it. We entered the pilot project, and we paid us until August 31 as before: about 200,000 rubles were obtained with the coefficient and money for additional education. Since September 1, we have 123,000 for a high school student. So far, this is the only trouble that happened to us. Psychologically, we were ready for this, but in fact - no: I have no agreements with anyone to give us money. But, since the school is small and we need small money in absolute dimension - 7 million rubles - I am still calm. I made some conclusions for myself. First: the state is not needed by such a school as ours. And this was an important understanding for me, because when I started all this in 1993, I wanted, let it sound pathetic so that Russia is proud of such a school as ours. Since it is not needed, it means that I will have somewhat other steps and priorities in my business positioning. Secondly, I can see that some money can be obtained with the help of government work, without spending a lot of additional resource on this. They may not give, but so far I look at this option with optimism. In any case, we plan to start collecting money from parents - this is precisely the consequence of my understanding of the state’s position, and in this way I will test how much parents we need. The state accepted such rules of the game, but we teach more, differently and better, and someone should pay extra for this, and the first obvious thought: that this “someone” is parents. We had ideas to look for sponsors, but these things are quite random, one -time: there are few funds, and there are a lot of petitioners. But, since the absolute figure is ridiculous, I think that the financial issue will not kill us, and if we die, then for other reasons. ”

Life after a merger

But maybe everything is not so scary, and it is quite possible to remain a good school after the merger? The teacher of the Moscow school from the upper lines of the rating, which has already begun to merge, on the condition of anonymity, told what happened after the union. “The most important problem was the lack of leadership. There is no main thing in our building, we are now each for ourselves. We cannot preserve our traditions and principles, forced to live according to the charter of another school. In addition, for some reason, after the merger, financing has decreased, we lose teachers, educators, circle breeders-and their duties are “hung” on the remaining employees. Moral forces at the end, it is impossible to work in such conditions. ”

The only school that the pedagogical community unanimously calls a unique example when a strong school managed to unite and save itself is the famous 57th. Deputy Director Boris Mikhailovich Davidovich talked about how the school managed to achieve this. “Our main building was built for a real school and was designed for 300 children. At the end of the twentieth century, we studied 700 people, and we began to choke. Our primary school was located in two apartments in a neighboring building. This, of course, was inconvenient: we annoyed the tenants, we were filled and so on. We fundamentally did not want to abandon elementary school - by the way, we are the only school included in the first five lines of the rating in which there is a beginning.

We began to look for a room with the Department, and in 2006 we found school No. 40 on Frunzenskaya. It so happened that there were very few children, 60 people: no one wanted to go there. We received this building with a scandal that the parents of the remaining children raised: they believed that we would put up the deuces, they will put them under themselves, protested in full, with demonstrations, television, newspapers ... Our teachers have learned these children to the end-by the way, half of them were Vietnamese, so there were strong guys and completely non-speaking Russian. And since 2000, our elementary school has become unusually popular. And when 3 years ago, by electronic recording, 500 people signed up for us, and we accept 75, we realized that we must do something. The only way was to take another building: we searched for it and found it on the "sports". In this five -story school, 9 children signed up in the first grade, there were five classes of 10-15 children in total: many students fled before our arrival, and they were afraid of a strong school. Due to the per capita financing, small classes of this school are difficult for us: there is a complete set of teachers, but there are few children, but we tolerate it, we understand that we must teach children. And the fact that when merging with other schools we did not lose our face, but received new incentives for development and managed to realize a long -standing dream - to open a biochemical direction - the merit primarily of our director, Sergei Lvovich Mendelevich.

Of course, there are a lot of problems: for example, with what is now often called the "atmosphere." Children come from another world, new teachers are difficult, because the atmosphere is not created immediately. This is a long job for several years, but we work. We also do not have enough money: now it turned out to be a little less than we received before with our allowances. Of course, we are accustomed to high salaries, to the ability to lead all circles and live well, but we hope to cover this difference. I can’t say that it is easy for us, I need to write a lot of papers, applications, but if you take a Western scientist, he also takes a lot of time to apply for grants. ”

"This is a matter of money"

Evgeny Yamburg, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Academician of the RAO, director of the Center for Education No. 109, says that he does not believe in the theory of the conspiracy - no conscious destruction of education happens: “The ministry and the Department are tools: if the system gives money, they manage them, and now the financial situation of the country has worsened, of course, and they reduce expenses. I think that this is a pure issue of money and a huge amount of gaps made in the legislation. The school that got into the top can get grants, but they are not so large in Moscow measures. The law provides for special financing of schools for gifted, but there are no developed mechanisms for this. A small school, where 200 people, is not viable based on purely financial and accounting considerations. There is a state work system that gives the schools money, we are now fighting to ensure that it works, and, if you fuss very much, the school can cover some expenses with grants and government work. But in general, my forecast is very simple: in order to survive, small good schools will have to merge with other schools, differentiate their work, leave gifted, but at the same time think about working methods with other children. I do not think that noise and rallies will be able to help young schools save themselves - you need to work on creating mechanisms that will allow them to exist in the form in which they are. ”

"If only it was not worse."

I wrote this material for two weeks. I went to schools, searched on social networks of people who are ready to speak, talked with directors. Mail and messaging services were breaking from incoming. During this time I heard the phrases: “Only you don’t write about it” and “I will not say for publication” - as many times as I have not heard in journalism for all the years of work. Many Moscow schools today live on the principle of “if not worse”, they are afraid to provoke the Department for immediate Karu (the dismissal of the director, the merger in order), substitute colleagues and their favorite school.

Recently, the most fashionable word in relation to good schools is “atmosphere”. Small strong schools, resisting the merger, call the atmosphere of one of the most important components of their success and are afraid to lose it. But one of the main definitions of today's atmosphere in education is fear. Many teachers and administration, who are constantly under the press of reforms, who most often receive a little money, twisted by shouts, threats and orders of the department, observing what is happening with naughty schools - they are afraid to talk with journalists, they are afraid to write in social networks, they are afraid to talk with their parents, are generally afraid to say aloud what they think. Many go to rallies “on the appeal of the party and government” and are photographed with voting ballots to confirm their participation in the vote.

By the way, these same votes usually take place in the territories of schools. Those in which everyone is afraid of everything.

From the editorial office

The New Gazeta appeals to the mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin with a request for a meeting with teachers of the capital's schools who fell under “optimization” (some of them are discussed in our publication). Возникшие в связи с этим проблемы нуждаются в действительно оптимальном, взвешенном решении, чему, безусловно, может служить встреча педагогов с руководством столицы.