The scandalous law on enlightenment entered into force. Where will he bring the EdTech market?

From June 1, the sensational amendments on educational activities came into force against which the entire education market opposed . Officials promised to finalize the document, but so far this did not happen. In the current option, everything can fall under the new regulation-from online courses to YouTube videos. The founder of the PRODUCTAR online university, Mikhail Karpov, in a column for The Bell talks about how to regulate educational activities and whose experience to the government should be adopted.

What the law

The bill on educational activities was submitted to the State Duma on November 18, 2020 by a group of senators and deputies, headed by the chairman of the Commission for the Protection of Sovereignty, Andrei Klimov and the chairman of the Duma Committee of Security and Countering Corruption Vasily Piskarev. Vladimir Putin signed this law on April 5, and from June 1, he came into force.

The amendments were supposed to fight propaganda in schools and universities, including those inspired from abroad and aimed at discrediting state policy, a revision of history, and undermining the constitutional system. ”

On April 24, the Ministry of Education published a government draft resolution, which will be regulated by the application of the Law on Educational Activities. “Regulation on the implementation of educational activities” regulates the “order, conditions and forms” of enlightenment “in organizations engaged in educational, scientific activity and activity in the field of culture”. The ministry clarified in the commentary to Kommersant that we are talking about "schools, theaters, libraries and other organizations." The document was submitted for public discussion and caused hot disputes. As a result, the Ministry of Education in mid -May promised to finalize the resolution taking into account the wishes of the industry, but so far this has not happened

In detail about which areas are regulated by the law, who falls under it and why participants in the education market were so unhappy with them, we told here .

Why did the law cause so many disputes

On the regulation.gov.ru website, where public discussion of the law continues, its text was scored by only 73 “likes” and more than 25 thousand “diesels”. In May, the four largest associations in the technology market, including Apkit and Russoft, wrote a letter to the head of the Ministry of Cyphra Maksuta Shadaev with the criticism of the project.

Criticize the law of the counting chamber and academics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. They indicate that the concept of “educational activity” in the law is too vague, and the regulations for players are not clear in this regard. Only one example: according to the new law, the lecturer must engage in enlightenment for at least two years, as well as undergo a physical examination.

This, for example, will complicate the exchange of personnel between universities and an IT sector: today, many technological players supervise training in universities, read copyright courses and accept students for internships. We also look in this direction. The market of additional education develops without great influence of the state and enriches official education, shows a high -quality bar, responding to the needs of time, teaching precisely those specialists who are now important to companies. All processes in these segments will become more complicated against the background of the fact that the industry needs it so much in the IT frames and the academic base for their preparation.

Therefore, the concern of all participants, of course, can be understood. Now it is not clear how transparently the decisions of approval or refusal for companies that are somehow engaged in educational or educational activities will be made, whether this will not be an additional reason for corruption. State educational institutions will definitely encounter great difficulties in connection with international cooperation (for example, in an invitation of foreign speakers and in joint programs). As a result, although initially the law was conceived as a measure of protection against anti -Russian propaganda, it affects the activities of absolutely all companies and individuals that produce educational products.

About the author

Mikhail Karpov was born in 1988, studied at the St. Petersburg Polytea at the Institute of Computer Sciences and Technologies and Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov.

He began his product career in Yandex, where from 2010 he headed the work “Work”, then was responsible for the development of “Search” in Turkey as a product manager. Since 2015, Mikhail led the VKontakte social network service, in 2017 he headed the multimedia direction, which, along with the video service, includes a musical service and Live broadcast. Since 2018, he worked at Skyeng as a director of products (CPO).

In the same year, together with the partner Roman Abramov (Carprice Director), Mikhail founded ProductStSTAR , an online university with an examination in grocery management, analytics and programming. Startup has more than 63 thousand graduates in the areas of production management, analysts, marketing and development. The company's revenue in the first quarter of 2021 amounted to 23.8 million rubles (+300% year for the year). Mikhail is the author of the ProductStar courses, conducts lectures and develops an educational methodology.

Regulation as a result of growth

However, let's admit that regulation for any growing market is inevitable, and this is not always negative. The Russian Haytek has already experienced such processes repeatedly. Everyone remembers the free days of the Russian Runet in the early 2000s, when it was possible to do almost anything on the Web and express their thoughts as you like, but, as soon as the number of network users began to grow, the norms appeared. For example, the state clearly outlined the boundaries, which content cannot be distributed on the network, after which there was a mechanism that regulates the removal of unlawful content with Internet sites and hosting providers.

Any new market comes to the phase of development when the state notices it and begins to “restore” in its own way. An example of a positive influence of such an intervention is the Internet video market. Several years ago, the government tightened measures for the spread of pirate content, and the disappearance of torrents led to the development of the culture of consumption of content on the network. Legal venues, electronic books stores have grown, and the video market itself on the Internet is growing by 50% per year (in 2020 it reached 38.9 billion rubles). This growth is a direct consequence of regulation.

The Russian market EdTech over the past two years also rushed up. Its predicted volume at the end of 2020 was supposed to amount to 60 billion rubles : this is a large figure. There are both unicorns and large players, such as Netology, Yandex and many others, and many small courses, schools and individual entrepreneurs that no one actually controls. True, the new law affects not only online, but also offline education. In any case, the intervention of the regulator was inevitable. Another question is how environmentally this will happen.

Laws that do not interfere

From the point of view of the state, regulation is a clear step. When I was engaged in the development of the company in China, I was already faced with a similar law and the introduction of restrictions on educational and educational activities. The Law of the PRC on education states that "education should serve as a socialist modernization." For example, trips of Chinese citizens permanently residing in the country, abroad with the aim of studying, research, in the framework of academic exchange or teaching should be carried out in compliance with the relevant state decisions. In China, the state makes a very strong emphasis on regulation of education. And we are now walking along the Chinese path.

However, in China there are positive trends: to attract the latest technologies from abroad, the PRC government increases quotas by the number of foreign teachers. In addition, the country's status is very high in the country. The state protects the legitimate rights and interests of teachers, improves their workers and life conditions, increasing their social status.

Most countries share the concepts of enlightenment (increasing awareness of science and the popularization of science) and education, but in Russia they are now trying to merge and regulate them. At the same time, in many countries that should be guided by, the approach is exactly the opposite: the popularization of science there instead of barriers finds support from the state. In Europe - softly and in the format of recommendations, in China - more directively through a special law on the need to popularize science, even in South Africa the state is actively involved in this issue. For example, now new legislation is being prepared there, according to which grants for research and development of scientific councils and state universities will contain conditions that require their recipients to report their research on their research.

Accepting such laws, it is important to remember that the market already lives according to some formed schemes, and if it grows, it means that they work. It is important not to break what has already been built. The law on educational activities in Russia in the edition in which it now exists, in my opinion, will have a negative impact on the EdTech market. Of course, it will not be instant. It will become more difficult to launch a new business, additional obstacles will appear. Now the educational market is developing without great influence of the state and enriches official education, shows a high -quality bar, responding to requests and teaching exactly those specialists who are now needed by companies. A partnership trend-joint educational programs of universities and large EdTech players also gradually appear, we also look towards such partnerships.

As in any regulation, balance is very important here. It is necessary that the state be on the side of citizens and first of all help them, and not pure its interests purely. A good example is the law on the protection of consumer rights, according to which a person should always be able to familiarize himself in detail with the service and, in certain cases, receive a refund. Perhaps it is worth working on the law on educational activity in this direction, focusing on changes in the structure and habits of consumption, which have brought technological projects to our lives over the past 5-10 years.

Photo on the cover of the material: Dom-Fou/Unsplash