New school competencies named: countering cyber threats and intolerance of childlessness

The program of the new school subject “Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland” (OBZD) will include competencies in countering cyber threats. This was announced by the head of the Ministry of Education. The day before, the educational department told what topics the updated labor lessons would consist of. Labor and general occupational safety will start in schools on September 1. Meanwhile, the State Duma is actively discussing family studies, another new subject that will most likely also appear in schools in 2024.

Not so long ago, there was uncertainty about exactly when OZR would appear in schools: a subject consisting of the former life safety course and basic military training (CVT). Still, developing a new subject is not an easy task: you need a program, textbooks, methodology, and teaching staff. This is not to mention the fact that schools also need to prepare: purchase teaching aids, posters and models, bring in gas masks… It was also reported that the occupational safety and health course is being compiled through the efforts of several departments: the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Health, etc.

The Minister of Education of the Russian Federation Sergei Kravtsov put an end to the discrepancies, saying: “From September 1, in all schools, from 8th to 11th grade, the subject “Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland” will be taught for an hour a week. And he even conducted a demonstration lesson on occupational safety and health at school No. 703 in St. Petersburg.

Kravtsov said that the content of the survey will be comprehensive. “It (the course) covers, among other things, issues of information security, issues of countering cyber threats, various fakes, information warfare, first aid, actions in various man-made disasters, as well as everyday issues,” the minister said. The head of the department also noted that the ability to behave in emergency situations will be very useful in life, and this will be “knowledge acquired as part of the study of a new subject.”

The Ministry of Education clarifies that the survey will take place once a week, but “in addition, training sessions and practical skills training will be conducted.” SVO participants will undergo retraining to teach OBZR. The program “strengthened the module related to basic military training.” Educational standards for occupational safety and health “are planned to be adopted before March 1, 2024.”

In general, the program is ready, textbooks are being developed, classrooms are being staffed – this is less official.

There is much less clarity so far with family science. The school subject project is actively supported and interpreted by the Russian Orthodox Church. “MK” wrote that “family studies” already exists as an elective or as an extracurricular activity in schools in the Samara and Arkhangelsk regions, in Yekaterinburg and other regions.

The other day, a meeting of the working group dedicated to family science was held in the State Duma. Deputies from relevant committees reported that it was the turn of the educational department – it was time to prepare a program for a new subject.

The Duma members also involved the Ministry of Health in the discussion of school family studies. After all, the authors of the course have a difficult task – they need to somehow tell schoolchildren about reproduction and the health of the reproductive system. After all, the main thing that family science is designed to instill in middle and high school students is “intolerance of childlessness.” And to popularize large families.

Representatives of the medical community recalled how in the “terrible 90s,” when the threat of AIDS loomed over the country and STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) were rampant, doctors “came to teenagers with great enthusiasm.” “But the physiologisms familiar (to doctors) did not receive support in society. Therefore, teachers should still read family science, and doctors “will be on hand.”

Presumably, this is how the State Duma remembered the experiment with the introduction of the “Fundamentals of Secular Ethics and Family Life” course into schools. It was read mainly by biology teachers. Talking “about this”, the lion’s share of Soviet-trained female teachers blushed. And she invited the students to read the necessary pages of the textbook themselves.

Although, perhaps, somewhere full-fledged lessons on “ethics and family” were still held. It’s not for nothing that deputy Tatyana Larionova from the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children recalled how doctors “came to class with condoms.” What parents of schoolchildren “of course could not allow.” Today it is clear, according to the deputy, that “the cry “give me a contraceptive” was unnecessary.” And the most important thing in this chapter of family science is “the formation of positive reproductive attitudes.”

However, despite the organizational and ethical difficulties, the parliament noted that family science lessons are included in the government-approved plan for the Year of the Family. For now as an elective. But it will be nice if a new subject is included in the school schedule in April.