College admissions patterns may soon change

The head of Rosobrnadzor, Anzor Muzaev, said that the current model for the transition of ninth-graders to the 10th grade and admission to secondary vocational education institutions (SVE) “does not meet modern requirements,” so it should change in the near future. Mr. Muzaev did not specify exactly what changes would occur, he only noted that this should not affect current ninth-graders. Rosobrnadzor later noted that the Ministry of Education is competent to make decisions on changes.

Anzor Muzaev, at a meeting with parents of students, said that the current model of transition to the 10th grade and admission to secondary vocational education institutions “does not meet modern requirements,” so it should change in the near future. Mr. Muzaev did not provide details, but noted that the adjustments may affect “the number of exams and approaches.” The statement was made in response to a question from one of the parents whether it is necessary to reduce the number of mandatory exams for those remaining in grades 10–11 to two. Anzor Muzaev noted that this is definitely not planned.

Speaking about the system of admission to secondary vocational education institutions, the head of Rosobrnadzor noted that “all specialists already understand that the certificate competition does not work.”

Let us remind you that 9th grade graduates take four mandatory exams in the OGE format: Russian language, mathematics and two subjects of the student’s choice. To obtain a certificate of basic general education, you must successfully pass all of them. The result is assessed according to the classic five-point system, however, for each subject there are primary points, the number of which varies depending on the subject. These points are then converted into grades according to a special conversion scale. Graduates who have completed the task have two main options for further education: go to 10th grade and prepare for the Unified State Exam or go to secondary vocational education. At the same time, competition for budget places in secondary vocational education institutions is carried out based on the average score of the certificate; The subjects chosen for the OGE and the grades for them are unimportant.

According to the head of Rosobrnadzor, there are often cases when school authorities deliberately inflate the grades of ninth-graders so that they can go to college, and not go to the 10th grade “to spoil the statistics on the Unified State Exam.” “I heard a figure – the average college admission score is 4.7, it turns out that all excellent students go not to the 10th grade, but to secondary vocational education. That’s why there is no smell of objectivity here… The system has outlived its usefulness,” Mr. Muzaev concluded.

HSE professor, academician of the Russian Academy of Education Viktor Bolotov (headed Rosobrnadzor in 2004–2008) notes that even during the experiment to introduce the Unified State Exam, there were attempts to introduce corresponding exams after the 9th grade. “To assign grades to the certificate, we used the results of the OGE (then the exam was called the GIA.— “Kommersant”), they were also used for admission to college,” said Mr. Bolotov. “The problem was that the OGE in each region was conducted by the region itself, so the scores received in one region were not equivalent to the scores obtained in another.”

The expert believes that introducing a model of admission to colleges based on the results of the OGE would be a good idea, but for the system to work, two problems will have to be solved: “It is necessary that the results are equivalent in each region, and also that there is a single set of exams for all colleges, necessary for admission to one or another area of ​​training.”

Mathematics teacher, member of the council of the Teacher trade union Ivan Menshikov noted that the current system is truly outdated. “The Unified State Exam system has led to the fact that grades have become unimportant, as a result, teachers themselves sometimes began to take this instrument lightly – they give grades higher than they should,” said the teacher. “It turns out that our teachers are competent enough to assess the degree of preparedness a 9th grade graduate to college, since there is a competition for certificates, but to give such an assessment for a university is no longer worthy.”

According to Ivan Menshikov, the current model “has turned the teacher into a tool for preparing for exams, nothing more.”

“I don’t know about other subjects, but in mathematics the exam in the 9th grade is much easier,” he noted. “As a result, a student can overestimate his strength, having passed the OGE well, decide to go to high school and there face the impossibility of overcoming even the minimum threshold of the Unified State Examination in mathematics, not to mention the scores sufficient for admission to a university.”

State Duma deputy Yana Lantratova (SRZP) recalled that it is possible to enter college after the 11th grade, also through a certificate competition, for which the results of the Unified State Exam are not important. “This is a lot of stress for the guys, I receive a lot of complaints from both the parent community and children. The State Duma speaker said that the topic of canceling the Unified State Exam was included in the five most frequently asked questions from citizens before preparing for the “government hour.” Some children are so intimidated that they don’t even want to participate. And it’s easier for them to make their way to the university through college,” says Ms. Lantratova.

The founder of the Skyeng online school and IT college, Georgy Solovyov, however, believes that colleges today are chosen not only by weak students. “SPO is aimed primarily at quickly mastering the profession. And the increase in demand is associated with the desire of schoolchildren to start earning money faster. To do this, it is necessary to master specialties in demand on the labor market as quickly as possible, followed by additional training on the job. The state also sees this as a prospect for quickly obtaining the personnel needed by the economy,” notes Mr. Solovyov.

The expert sees public-private partnership as one of the options for changing the model of admission to secondary vocational education institutions.

He notes that such initiatives already exist in the regions: “As part of the entrance campaign to the Skyeng IT College, an Olympiad is being held in Cheboksary, where students take an entrance test in English and programming. Based on the results of this Olympiad, the size of the grant from our company is determined in the amount of 50 to 100% discount on training. This approach allows you to select those applicants who are interested in mastering the profession and plan to work in this field. The introduction of a similar model of entrance exams in other colleges would allow us to weed out applicants who enter on the principle of “at least somewhere,” freeing up places for more motivated students.”

The press service of Rosobrnadzor told Kommersant that decisions on all conceptual changes in the process of transition to the 10th and 11th grades will be made by the Ministry of Education. Mr. Muzaev spoke at the conference about the main trends that are heard in communication with the expert community. Separately, the department drew attention to the remark of the head of Rosobrnadzor that current ninth-graders should not be affected by serious changes.

The Ministry of Education did not respond to Kommersant’s request by the time of publication.

Polina Yachmennikova