"Girls can do a lot too"

Interview of the Director of the Perm Gymnasium, where they installed a different passing score for boys and girls

In the Perm gymnasium No. 4 named after the Kamensky brothers, a different passing score was installed for the receipt of boys and girls in the first grade - 65.7 and 69.1, respectively. Parents learned about this from the statement of the decision of the selection committee. Director Tatyana Dyakova explained that the gymnasium has a “gender principle of training”, and although the boys have lower points due to a lack of diligence, “then they become leaders.” The city hall said that there should be no differences in admission to the educational institution on gender signs, and promised to conduct an audit in the gymnasium. In an interview with Medusa, the director said that the list of children accepted to school is not final, and her words about boys and girls were a joke.

- Tell us about the system of admission to your gymnasium. Do you really have different passing points for boys and girls?

- This is a far -fetched story. Reception [to the gymnasium] is carried out in accordance with the law , there are no violations. The priority right is given to living on the territory fixed [behind the gymnasium]. From the first of February, we begin to accept applications from parents living in the microdistrict. The order [of the Ministry of Education] says that the educational institution carries out the reception to the remaining places on the basis of [internal] regulatory act. Our act says that children who graduated from our “Saturday School” have a priority for free places. Many educational institutions have schools for training children for schooling.

We have a small gymnasium, we can take only two classes. This year, 159 people study in the Saturday School - all of them claim to enter first grade. This is not to mention the microdistrict. During the academic year [in the Saturday School] the dynamics of the child’s success is monitored. It is expressed in points. There are three diagnostics: starting, middle and final-so that the dynamics of the child where he grows and where he has some problems is noticeable. All parents know about this - [this] is explained at parent meetings. When the Saturday School completes the work, the selection committee determines the children who most successfully under the training, and draws up a list of recommended for enrollment.

[We] do not count boys and girls. In the gymnasium, we have an approximate ratio of boys and girls 40% by 60%. There are more girls. The gymnasium implements humanitarian programs, perhaps that is why they give us more girls. We look at the readiness of the child. He is a boy or a girl, we don’t care.

- Parents told the Perm publication 59.ru that the passing score for boys 65.7, and for girls - 69.1.

- These are the results of the "Saturday School", not the results of the reception. There really, boys have the results lower than the girls. For many. Although the boys are the top of the rating. But these are our internal documents at the end of the Saturday School. Each parent has the results of his child. These are not documents of admission.

- You said that you are trying to observe a gender balance at school. You refuse girls and take boys, although their points are lower. This is wrong?

- Everyone understands how they want. Artificially we do nothing. What is the balance of boys and girls, if fourteen people came to the microdistrict, of which five boys and nine girls? What are you adjusting there? They live in the fixed territory, these children are enrolled. This is some kind of fishing of sensations from nothing. The work of the selection committee for free places has just begun, the order for admission to free places is published on July 1. Parents are building some assumptions. There are really a lot of offended, because we cannot enroll everyone. We are chosen according to conditions, by the quality of education. We get hostages of this situation. Very often you have to answer questions that arise from nothing. There is no order to enrollment yet.

- Who enters the selection committee?

- Teachers, who are also working in Saturday School. The selection committee evaluates the children as a whole, not boys and girls separately. We are not only arithmetic. We are talking about every child. Everyone has a diagnostic diary, [in which] you can see how it developed: what he came, how he showed himself in the mid -diagnosis, on the final diagnosis. We say what achievements he has, we demonstrate successful work. Because there are not so many free places, we still want to pay attention to children who make success.

- Where did the discontent come from, do you understand?

- When the children finish the Saturday School, we give everyone a certificate. There are all the results. Some comparison begins. If they see the recommended boy in the list-I can only assume-and his score is lower than that of the girl, there are probably some comparisons. This is the work of the selection committee. It is possible that someone else will change his mind, go to another school.

- And how could a boy with a point below the list of recommended ones than that of a girl who did not get there?

- I'm not saying that he will definitely be on the list. These conversations are going on every year, because parents want to check how objectively we evaluate the children, [how] enrollment to free places. We are as open as possible, we give each its results. We do not hang comparative results - this is the preservation of personal data. Parents sometimes demand that we open the whole picture completely - this is also impossible. Children are children. The parent must know the result of his child. Receive advice on your child. Why comparisons that have absolutely nothing objective under them? Every year there are some questions. This year we came from this side - boys, girls. Perhaps I commented on somewhere half a good thing about the fact that the boys later leading the country. Apparently, you can’t joke here.

- That is, it was a joke?

- You don’t have to look for any subtexts. If you can abandon this phrase, I will refuse it. I really joked. Former boys later become very successful politicians, businessmen, and so on, showing themselves differently in childhood-only this was meant, nothing more.

- Are there any other good schools in Perm?

- In the city of 129 schools, as far as I know. Among them are approximately 40 status. They are really in demand. Why are parents so determined? Many schools have a second shift, we have no. Then, in Perm there have long been ratings of educational institutions. They [parents] focus on the rating. Someone focuses on relatives who studied with us. Or the parents themselves graduated from our school, they have good memories.

Sometimes there are people whose actions I am surprised. [They] are looking for what is not: some reasons for, I do not know, to justify or enter the gymnasium in any way. Some behave very dishonestly: they are temporarily prescribed in the microdistrict in order to only enter [to us]. Although in fact, they do not live here. Someone does not do such things, but then he is looking for some nit-picking on girls-girls. Unfortunately, it happens. We are reception openly, honestly. We talk about everything with parents. There is nothing to look for tricks here.

- This is not the first scandal associated with your school. Last fall, you removed a student from classes who painted the hair in pink. There may be a feeling that you have prejudices in relation to women, is that so?

- Of course not. There is absolutely no connection. The situation with the hair was put in the first place. And the situation with the passes of this child, with a violation of the rules, - for example, non -renewal of textbooks in a timely manner, there is no pass [to the gymnasium] at the beginning of the school year, a constant violation of the gymnasium form, and so on. These are questions on which I had to talk with my mother. Instead ... You know, the best way to protect is sometimes an attack. Therefore, the hair was in the first place ( after the publication of the interview, the student’s mother rejected Tatyana Dyakova’s claim against her daughter and accused children and unprofessionalism - approx. Medusa ).

- It seems to you that in our country women are equal in rights with men?

- Certainly. [In our situation] the problem of a cashed egg is not worth it. We love boys and girls equally and objectively evaluate them in the educational situation. I myself am also a girl ( laughs ). It seems to me that the girls can also be a lot. Again, I’ll go, and it will be awkward.

Kristina Safonova