Russian schools offered to teach modern programming languages

Left IT specialists will be replaced by “profile” programmers

The curriculum and curriculum in schools must be changed towards the expansion of informatics. And in computer science – to add the study of modern programming languages. Pavel Krupnik, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, addressed the Ministry of Education with such an initiative. And it has already been supported in the State Duma. According to parliamentarians, teaching “machine languages” to schoolchildren will ensure an influx of IT specialists into the domestic economy.

Deputy Krupnik drew attention to the fact that against the backdrop of a discussion about the need to train personnel for the domestic IT industry, programmers are still being trained only in colleges and universities. “The introduction of such innovations will also have a positive effect on the teaching staff, who will receive new competencies,” Krupnik believes.

The initiative was supported by Yana Lantratova, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education. In her opinion, the idea is relevant from the point of view of import substitution. But you should not teach programming to everyone. “There are children who simply can’t understand a programming language,” Lantratova said, referring to the “incapable of logic” humanities. The deputy from Righteous Russia believes that programming at school should be taught only as a core subject.

“This should be done by children who have the appropriate abilities and desire to engage in programming,” the deputy noted. “And before changing anything, you first need to discuss this proposal with the parent and pedagogical community.”

“The idea of ​​programming at school is not new,” comments Maria Bushueva, an expert in the field of education and the Unified State Examination. – In 2021, Mishustin signed a decree that there would be a similar programming training program for all grades 8-11. It was detailed there: 4 modules of 30-something hours. And programming languages ​​were listed.

Yes, indeed, the “two-year program of modern programming” included the study of JavaScript, HTML/CSS, SQL, Python, Java, Bash/Shell/PowerShell, C#, PHP, C++, TypeScript and more in schools. The student had to choose the language himself. And after passing the exam, get a digital certificate confirming qualifications. However, a year later, the program is not heard. Even in the most advanced lyceums they study, at best, one Python. And then not in all senior classes, but in the profile class “IT and logic”.

But the idea of ​​preparing programmers from school was discussed by the professional community of IT people. There are no sharply negative opinions. Programmers believe that “140 hours is four hours a week, a full-fledged annual course.” Like, for the level of a “junior” programmer, it’s quite enough. But who will teach these languages ​​is not entirely clear. Not a single normal programmer will go to work for a teacher’s salary, colleagues say.

The 2021 project proposed dividing the programming course into online and offline formats. “In real life” classes were planned not at school, but on the basis of regional educational digital centers. But the remote part was taken over by specialized universities.