Shall we try it ourselves?

Director of the regional scientific and educational Center "Logos" (Yaroslavl), researcher at the Research Institute of Hypercomplex Systems in Geometry and Physics (GSGF Research Institute), Ph.D. physics and mathematics Science Sergei Kokarev proposes his project for the reorganization of Russian science and Russian education. The project offers a new look at all levels of the non-state education system. This material is an invitation to a discussion on the topic of how we ourselves can “equip Russia.”

It's better to light one small candle,
than to curse the darkness.

Confucius

It seems to me that there is something deeply wrong in the fact that the pages of the “Trinity Option” are increasingly turning into an obituary for Russian education and Russian science. I quite agree that the overall situation with education and science, by most reasonable criteria, is bleak. However, I am going to write about something completely different. I want to suggest a change of perspective on things. And perhaps, in the light of this new point of view, through the ruins of negativity it will be possible to discern the contours of some future positivity.

In the USSR, the state set tasks for science that were based on the global goal of building communism. Problems were often successfully solved, but the goal was never achieved. In modern Russia, large-scale strategic directions of development are also periodically voiced, related, by the way, to the development of a serious scientific infrastructure. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately!) their relevance and possibility of implementation are questioned by the majority of the country's population, and especially among professional scientists. Why, in fact, does anyone decide the fate of Russian science and education, other than the scientists themselves and the teaching community? Why do we keep waiting for someone to guide us, tell us where to go, give us money and support us along the way? Maybe it's time to remember the famous rule: saving drowning people is the work of the drowning people themselves?

Reforms in these areas undertaken by the state, in my opinion, reveal a simple and sad fact: the state DOES NOT KNOW how to organize education and science in a market economy. The situation of some in the woods, some in the woods with a school and university education and a real demand for scientific personnel in the field of Russian science and production is highly ambiguous and, of course, cannot continue indefinitely. The school still (and reform is just around the corner!) continues to teach schoolchildren according to Soviet-style programs, sometimes even with in-depth training. If the school curriculum is not enough, there are options for additional education, ranging from tutors to specialized centers for additional education. I have been leading one of these centers for physics and mathematics (it’s called “Logos”, www.logos-distant.ru ) for 7 years in Yaroslavl. Very smart guys come to us, and they enter the best universities in Russia - MIPT, Moscow State University, Moscow Higher Technical School named after. Bauman and others. At the Center we teach physics and mathematics, we require, check, and graduate. Then university teachers teach, demand, test, graduate. But…

One question: why all this, if in 95% of cases our young people get jobs that are not in their specialty at all? Maybe the sphere of Russian business and production really does not need competent scientific specialists? To my knowledge, this is not the case. As G. K. Chesterton said, “The problem is not that they can’t find a solution, the problem is that they don’t see the problem.” There is a shortage of qualified personnel in any company; however, it is considered by its management as a temporary inconvenience, easily solved by announcing a competition and increasing salaries. Vadim Asadov, the general sponsor of our Center, in his company Neurok regularly selects applicants for high-paying jobs at the intersection of mathematics, physics and programming. According to him, it’s good when out of 50 applicants (all with elite higher education) participating in the competition, 2-3 remain, and in a month only one of them will remain. Thus, in society there are schools and universities with still high potential, and there is an already established sphere of knowledge-intensive business and production. Why not establish their constant effective interaction? Why shouldn’t scientists and teachers themselves take the lead in this process right now? And why don’t we, finally, take advantage of our democratic rights and try to organize our own education and science, since the state does not know how to do this?

The fact that non-state school specialized education is capable is shown at least by the example of Logos. I would like to emphasize that “Logos” was formed in 2003 not thanks to, but in spite of the actions of the state, which, together with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), launched the “Education System Reform” project. As a result, the entire future Logos team, which worked with talented schoolchildren in the region for 11 years, found itself outside the profession (you can read about the organization and work of Logos: http://www.vsLux.ru/node/7077 ). As an example of an effectively operating non-state higher education institution, I will cite the Independent Moscow University, which I hope does not need to be discussed in detail here.

Is the idea of ​​a non-state scientific institution feasible in principle in Russia? The positive answer follows from the fact that I am an employee of one such institution - the non-governmental Research Institute of Hypercomplex Systems in Geometry and Physics (GSGF Research Institute), founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Pavlov in 2007 in Fryazino. The Institute has about 20 employees, publishes its own journal, holds regular international conferences, organizes schools for undergraduate and graduate students and a monthly scientific seminar. As the name suggests, the institute was created for a specific general idea, the essence of which boils down to the development of physical and geometric theories based on the commutative-associative generalization of the algebra of complex and double numbers and the solution of related auxiliary problems. The work of the institute and the scientific results of its employees can be found on the official websites www.hyper-complex.ru and www.polynumbers.ru . The work of the institute in the private funding mode, of course, has its own characteristics - I will not dwell on them now.

I have almost no doubt that among the readers there will be critics (of those I mentioned, as well as others) of non-state projects, and some of their criticism will be well deserved. But the one who does nothing is not mistaken. Having secured examples that are vivid to me, I get to the point. What could we talk about (or, more precisely, dream about for now, in the good sense of the word) if we temporarily distract ourselves from the existing psychological barriers and postpone for a while the solution to inevitable material issues? It seems to me that the time has come to seriously think about the SYSTEM of alternative (i.e. non-state) school and university education and science. Here I will limit myself to describing the general picture, leaving the details (which, of course, are important!) for further discussion with interested colleagues. What is important is not individual centers, but a flexible and coherent system, the individual links of which (school education - university education - science - production) work in concert and responsibly to each other.

Let's use the abbreviation SAON (system of alternative education and science). Schoolchildren receive high-quality in-depth education at the school level, focusing on their future specialization or profession, a data bank for which is available in SAON with some time advance. Next, these schoolchildren are transferred to the appropriate universities, where they receive a higher specialized education, periodically being sent for internships in scientific or research and production teams in their field. University graduates get jobs in these teams or in newly created ones in the corresponding profile. The most important point here is working in tandem. No matter how well Logos or MIPT works, if there is no demand for scientific or scientific-engineering personnel, then the special education system will function in vain.

As an organization, SAON should be non-governmental, non-political, founded on the personal initiative of a group of interested parties, primarily, of course, scientists and teachers, the main goal of which is to organize high-level training of Russian scientific personnel and coordinate their interaction with high-tech production and even active participation in the formation of the sphere of such production. At the initial stage, there is no need to organize any new specific institutions. It’s enough to look around and think what can be organized from what already exists and is still working.

For example, if we are talking about physics, then in every regional center there is a physics and mathematics department. school and physics department of the university. Judging by “Logos”: we, of course, maintain contact with “our” university (YarSU), and some of our students end up in it. But the majority, having the opportunity based on their level of preparation to enter a Moscow university, where the passing score is significantly higher, still go to Moscow. Because there are more employment opportunities there, unless, of course, you are limited to your chosen specialty. This means that the local SAON group, consisting of physics and mathematics teachers. center and university, it is necessary to take care of the issue of interaction with employers in your region or even in another region, from where a potential employer can order the training of specialists in a particular profile.

At YarSU, for example, there is a task group on the “radio engineering” profile, which is paid for and hosted by the Yaroslavl Radio Plant. I admit honestly that my attempts to organize the training of this target group, starting with the school at Logos, have not yet been crowned with success, but I am not abandoning them. Ideally, the SAON should have complete current information on employers and coordinate the school, university and employers within the framework of its capabilities and authority. Areas of coordination can be divided either by geography, or by SAON units, or by profile, or by several parameters at once, depending on the amount of work. In addition to the passive form of work on collecting information and orders from employers, SAON, apparently, should have an “active brain group” that generates its own ideas for the formation of new knowledge-intensive projects. Or even on the development of old ones, those that would be of potential commercial interest for business and would be interesting for the development of our own scientific infrastructure in Russia.

Members of the focal point and brain group may be located in different cities or even countries (modern means of communication remove geographical barriers).

Other types of SAON activities are also possible: preparation of printed scientific, scientific information or popular science publications, conferences and schools, round tables of scientists and businessmen, etc.

A few general words about the financial side of the idea. The independence of SAON from the state presupposes, of course, independent sources of funding, i.e. participation in a Russian business project. We can talk about either gratuitous patronage of the arts, or sponsorship (say, in exchange for public service advertising), or commercial interaction between SAON and business structures. Here it is important to find living points of contact between the scientific and educational community and business, create an atmosphere of trust and constantly maintain it. By and large, we are not talking about what and how much science and education can give to business and vice versa. We are talking about the joint efforts of Russian society for its self-preservation, independent of the state. Of course, self-preservation should extend not only to the intellectual sphere, but it is precisely this sphere that is now under attack, and it is in this sphere, in my opinion, that one can expect the greatest intersection of various positions present in society.

If our instinct of self-preservation has not yet been lost, if businessmen and scientists have not yet completely given up the idea of ​​seeing their children and grandchildren in an educated Russian society with a high level of culture, in which it is interesting to live and in which everyone feels and accepts professional responsibility for prosperity this society - there is every chance to come to an agreement and begin “saving the drowning.” We must negotiate on our own, without the help of the state, which in this area has so far only revealed its helplessness. Precedents in history are known: Robert Boyle and Alfred Nobel successfully combined business with scientific research. Modern examples of projects by Dmitry Zimin, Vadim Asadov, Dmitry Pavlov and other entrepreneurs investing in education and science give us hope that constructive interaction between education, science and business is truly possible. Although, of course, the dialogue does not promise to be simple. But it is important - and I would like to emphasize this once again - to begin to arrange the necessary “field of communication” ourselves and bring to life the fruits that will ripen on it.

As an immediate plan of action, I propose:

1. Discussion of the SAON concept by all interested parties in the SAON group in VKontakte and on the pages of this newspaper.

2. Formation of the SAON initiative group.

3. Drawing up an information letter for representatives of Russian business and organizing a meeting with them.

4. Detailed development of the SAON concept, taking into account discussions and meetings.