Translated material
Seven nannies
Senators propose to include preschool children in the national project “Education”
Even the relatively modest successes of the fertility stimulation program initiated by Vladimir Putin revealed the shortcomings of another national project launched when he was president - “Education”. Officials, having forgotten that the success of schooling depends on the general development and preschool preparation of the child, simply did not take into account kindergartens in the educational national project, thereby indirectly recognizing the specialists working there as “second-class” teachers. Participants in parliamentary hearings on preschool education in the Federation Council came to this conclusion yesterday. The senators propose to fill this gap in 2009 and introduce additional financial incentives for preschool educational institutions (DOU) .According to Zinaida Dragunkina, a member of the Committee on Education and Science of the Federation Council, the “multiple options” of modern preschool education and the lack of control and incentive mechanisms on the part of the authorities have led to a decrease in the quality of work of teachers with young children. “Such forms of preschool education have appeared as additional short-term groups for future first-graders, family kindergartens, 24-hour stay groups, adaptation groups, consultation centers and other forms of work with preschool children, but there are no criteria for monitoring the quality of educational programs that are implemented there. no,” says Ms. Dragunkina. Along with this, according to her, there remains a high demand for places in kindergarten groups. According to data at the end of 2007, the “children’s” waiting list in Russia numbered 1.3 million families.
The senators propose to include preschool educational institutions in the national project “Education” and, along with advanced schools, to annually encourage innovative kindergartens with grants in the amount of 1 million rubles. And as a “carrot” that will promote literacy among employees of state and municipal preschool educational institutions, introduce an annual monetary incentive in the amount of 100 thousand rubles. the best teachers and a monthly additional payment to distinguished teachers in the amount of 1 thousand rubles. “Many regional and municipal government bodies do not have the financial capacity to provide free preschool education, preschool teachers do not have sufficient social protection and wages remain low,” they motivated their proposal.
In addition, according to Ms. Dragunkina, it is necessary to fill in the blank spots in the legislation on education, which currently, for example, does not have uniform state requirements for the compulsory content of preschool education and the state examination of educational and visual aids. Many regions, she said, insist on the need for a special law on preschool education.
The Ministry of Education and Science, however, is not inclined to dramatize the situation. As Elena Nizienko, head of the department of state policy and legal regulation in the field of education of the Ministry of Education and Science, told the hearing participants, “the negative dynamics of the decrease in the number of kindergartens in Russia was overcome” due to the construction of new preschool educational institutions in the regions, the withdrawal from the lease of kindergarten buildings used non-core organizations, as well as the development of new forms of preschool education. As the ministry explained to Vremya Novostei, not all regions are equally active - they are really trying to create new kindergarten places only in Moscow and the Kursk region. But officials consider the scale of the shortage of places in kindergartens to be overestimated, since about 63% of the waiting list are children under three years old, and not all of them will then come to kindergarten. “There are much fewer of those who really need kindergarten,” the Ministry of Education and Science believes. “It’s just that rush demand forces mothers to sign up immediately after giving birth, so it turns out that most people need a place in kindergarten not after the fact, but in advance.”
As for the material incentives for teachers and preschool educational institutions themselves within the framework of the national project “Education”, these tasks will be taken “under the radar” if “the president and the government give the go-ahead and the go-ahead.” Which, apparently, is unlikely in connection with the statements of President Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting of the Presidium of the State Council in Tobolsk in March of this year. Then Mr. Medvedev noted that “a real opportunity to improve the quality” of social services such as preschool and out-of-school education is the entry of small businesses into this area. Apparently, this is why the Ministry of Education and Science is in no hurry to come up with a comprehensive document on education that would take into account all the nuances of teaching preschool children. As the Vremya Novostey correspondent was told at the Ministry of Education and Science, it will appear no earlier than 2010.
According to the director of the Association of Non-Governmental Educational Organizations of Russia, Alexander Moiseev, it is generally impossible to create uniform state standards for both additional education and the so-called leisure activities of preschool educational institutions - “they are very diverse.” In a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, he explained that the few non-state institutions can be effectively controlled through voluntary certification and accreditation, when the private owner is interested in a good reputation. For example, the Moscow authorities are creating a voluntary certification system for the services of nannies and home-based educators. The other day, Mayor Yuri Luzhkov signed a corresponding order.
However, according to the deputy chairman of the commission on education and science of the Public Chamber of Russia, Lyubov Dukhanina, “the fact that the Federation Council raised the issue of including preschool educational institutions in the national project is already a start.” She believes that “young children and their teachers have been unfairly forgotten” and for education in general “it is important that preschool institutions be included in the national project.”