The situation is very similar to the one that was in the Soviet school in 1943
Basic military training returns to the Basic Life Safety course. Photo by RIA Novosti
Participants and veterans of the Northern Military District may be involved in teaching basic military training in schools. But only after appropriate professional pedagogical training. This was recently stated by the Minister of Education of the Russian Federation Sergey Kravtsov.
Here are a few more theses voiced by Sergey Kravtsov. About 80 million Russians are connected with schools – teachers, students, their families, etc. That is why the school is not a service, but a vocation. Within the school walls there is a social and political socialization of children and adolescents, so a large role is assigned to “Talk about the important” and deputy directors for educational work.
The regionalization of school education, that is, the transfer of schools to the jurisdiction of the regions, is a new trend in education. With the increase in the draft age to 21, the trajectory of the post-secondary choice is changing. There are now two paths: nine classes plus secondary vocational education (VET, which is chosen by about 60% of graduates) or 11 classes plus universities.
The main foundation of both educational and upbringing work at school are spiritual and moral values. And together with the historical and cultural standard, they set the matrix for textbooks. The Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation is gradually moving to the formula “one item – one set.” In accordance with recent changes in the Federal Law “On Education”, the state acts both as a customer of textbooks and as a copyright holder at the same time. The “main subject” for education and political socialization remains the subject of “History”. In the “General History” block, we will have to move away from Eurocentricity.
Well, the initial military training is returning to the life safety course. In this context, the public’s emotions are evoked by the statement that participants and veterans of the SVO can be involved in teaching it in schools. But only after appropriate professional pedagogical training …
Literally, Kravtsov said this: “I believe that, among other things, those who today are fulfilling their civic duty as part of a special military operation can then teach at school, but after undergoing a certain retraining.” Recall that in December 2022, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation approved federal educational programs (FOEP) for Russian schools. As part of the OBZH lesson, elements of initial military training can be introduced.
And this situation is very similar to the one that was in the Soviet school in 1943. If we analyze the public speeches of the then People’s Commissar for Public Education Vladimir Potemkin, then the tasks were almost the same: “Improving the composition of military leaders in the school and increasing their special and general educational qualifications.” At that time, a military instructor conducted NVP classes in every school. School leaders, when organizing these lessons at school, complained “about the abstractness and bookishness of these classes.”
“The entire system of military physical training must be built on a practical basis,” People’s Commissar Potemkin convinced the public at a meeting of the All-Russian Conference on Public Education in 1943, “taking them out of the classroom into natural conditions, providing them with the necessary military technical equipment.” But the problem was that the teachers had no military training. And they could not do what Potemkin demanded a priori. And the military, who returned from the front, did not have the proper education to work with young people. The matter was then corrected by introducing correspondence education. Moreover, at the same time as the NVP, subjects were introduced in high school: logic, psychology and pedagogy …
With regard to the rejection of Eurocentrism and the construction of our own education system (so far in higher education), declared today, historical analogies also suggest themselves. Before the revolution, our school was based on the Prussian system of education and training. The educational environment had to discipline: desks lined up in several even rows; the bell, a symbol of order, measured the school day, allowing students to go out for recess and returning them back. Another innovation of the Prussian system was the schedule, which suggested that several different disciplines awaited the student during the day.
During the First World War, in the pedagogical journals “Russian School”, “Bulletin of Education”, “Pedagogical Collection”, the “German education system” established in Russia was subjected to the sharpest criticism. In the short period of management of the Ministry of Public Education by Minister Ignatiev, under the sign of liberation from alien influences, an attempt was made in 1915 to reform. But… it didn’t happen. Ignatiev’s reforms were curtailed. And soon the October Revolution came to pass, and a new ideology with new orders came to schools.
This is such a turn in educational policy to what has already taken place in previous historical periods, we are experiencing today.