Equalizer of cucumbers

The head of the Moscow Education Department, Isaac Kalina, was dismissed. How did his work be remembered?

On Thursday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin fired the head of the capital's department of education and science Isaac Kalin, who held this post for 10 years. The mayor’s decree says that Kalina quit his own free will in connection with the transition to another job. The Novaya Gazeta correspondent tells how the ex-head of the department was able to deprive the right of voting Moscow schools during his work.

Isaac Kalina began his career in the Orenburg region, from 1996 to 2002 he headed the Main Department of Education of the Administration of the region. Then the official worked for a couple of years in the publishing house of educational and pedagogical literature “Education”, and since 2007 he served as deputy minister of education and science. Isaac Kalina came to the post of head of the Moscow Education Department ten years ago, immediately after Sergey Sobyanin arrived. The chairman of the Mosgorduma Mosgor Duma Commission, Yevgeny Bunimovich, characterizes him as a professional in his field, a person “with ideology”, who was able to achieve a “quantitative” improvement of the capital's education during the work:

- In Moscow, in ten years there are much more winners of the Olympiads, in addition, they study in more schools. The results of the exam, Moscow [improved the situation] in international studies Pisa, Pirls, Timss became better. And outwardly, schools began to look much better, ”the deputy says.

Together with the modernization, however, the atmosphere of learning suffered, and due to the bet on strong students, problematic children began to pay less attention, Bunimovich continues. Nevertheless, the “brilliant manager” calls Kalina and co -chair of the Teacher’s trade union Vsevolod Lukhovitsky, although he sees his results in a slightly different plane:

- He perfectly fulfilled his task: with him the schools became controlled, any protests are impossible, the directors are absolutely dependent, and the teachers are fed. Parents are forced to come to terms in such a situation, ”says Lukhovitsky.

This trend is confirmed by Bunimovich. According to him, during the leadership of Kalina, Moscow education really turned into a “system”, where teachers and director became “cogs”.

A source of Novaya Gazeta, close to the Department of Education, adds that partially loyalty was purchased by increasing salaries (“Teachers receive a lot, and even more directors”). In addition, during the time of Kalina, the dismissal of directors was included in the practice due to any conflict who went beyond the walls of the educational institution.

-Thus, in a year the school could have changed three or four directors. Moreover, they shot right away, a couple of weeks after the conflict, which, of course, was still not a solution to the problem, ”says our interlocutor.

The transformation of the field of education into a silent vertical was largely provided by the most famous reform of Isaac Kalina - school optimization.

In 2011, by his decision, the process of combining schools and kindergartens was launched into unified educational complexes. In addition, there was a fusion of stronger schools with lagging people.

Kalina explained the reorganization of the system, comparing children with cucumbers, who, if they enter one brine, become equally salty. “If adolescents with asocial behavior are placed in a good social environment (primarily school), then they will also become worthy students,” he noted. Nevertheless, then this idea did not inspire this idea (no one wanted to unite the “good” lyceums with “bad” district schools), and they met her to life with massive protests. For example, in October 2014, a rally took place in Moscow, in which one and a half thousand people took part, in addition, a petition was posted on the Internet in the name of Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, demanding to send Isaac Kalin in resignation.

Despite the violent reaction, the reform still took place and, according to experts, had completely different consequences. Evgeny Bunimovich primarily notes that averaging led to a reduction in personality in teaching. The defeat of the education system is called the incident to Vsevolod Lukhovitsky:

- All this is done under the cover of equality. As a result of the real association, it never happened, because even if the “best” school is combined with the “worst”, there will still be a redistribution of resources, including teachers, ”says Lukhovitsky. At the same time, from a managerial point of view, “some advantages” were in optimization.

- It is very convenient when you have not three thousand schools, but eight hundred, where the directors receive a lot of money, and they are delivered to you. Of course, you have an obedient school, ”says the co -chair of the trade union.

Despite the successful work, Kalina still left the post of head of the Department of Education. Among the possible reasons for his dismissal, experts call a solid age (in November the official will be seventy). In addition, Bunimovich adds that the resignations have already been waiting since 2015, "once it had to happen." Lukhovitsky also does not see the conflict in what happened, since "he did everything that viburnum did." Now his place will be taken by the former deputy - Alexander Molotkov.

Evgeny Bunimovich calls the new chapter a technical figure (“The peculiarity of the tough viburnum system is all except him, are performers”).

However, according to the co -chair of the “teacher”, this is not so important:

- The successor will continue his policy. Since the main thing has already been made, you can put a passing figure in its place, ”the expert summarizes.