The return of the “Red Plague”: schools can become nomadic

Nomadic schools may appear in the Russian Federation, such an initiative came from the Federation Council. What it is and to whom it is intended, we found out together with experts.

The initiative was announced at the Congress of the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic in Moscow by a member of the Federation Council and the head of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, Grigory Ledkov, who believes that by studying in an educational institution that roams along with the nomadic people, “by the age of 10, boys can become real reindeer herders, fishermen, and girls will master folk crafts. These will be prepared children who will never lose the outline of their traditional life, will not tear themselves away from their roots.”

According to statistics, more than 20 thousand people constantly roam the territory of the Russian Federation, mainly representatives of small indigenous peoples living in different regions of the North and Siberia – Nenets, Dolgans, Evenks, Chukchi and others. About 9,000 of their children are currently studying in special boarding schools, where students are collected by helicopter, all-terrain vehicle or boat and taken away from the family immediately for 9 months of the school year. In Yamal, for example, there are 28 such boarding schools, they are located in stationary settlements, subject to the federal education system.

– There is a very specific contingent, – an elementary school teacher from central Russia, who went to a similar school to earn money, admits on condition of anonymity. – Nomads, seeing the “school” helicopter, hide their children. Almost with dogs you have to look for them. And those who are found and brought by force, it is unusual for them to break away from the conditions in which they were born. In boarding schools, in general, the environment is not the most pleasant for students of the “primary”, and even more so in such schools.

Still: if dad and mom, brothers and sisters, grandparents, as well as relatives, family friends and neighbors are constantly moving from place to place accompanied by deer, breaking plagues each time in a new place, experiencing the polar day and night and admiring the northern radiance, it’s a shame at this time to hang around in a government institution away from relatives. This is what the author of the project, Ledkov, had in mind when he said that initially the idea of ​​nomadic education originated with the nomads themselves, who did not want to send their children to boarding schools. So far, we are only talking about primary classes, and some experience has already been gained: last summer, activist teachers organized several nomadic classes in the tundra and themselves roamed with their students and their parents. The reindeer herders and their children were delighted.

“I heard that this is a good income,” says a high school teacher from Moscow. – But it is suitable mainly for students of a pedagogical university on vacation, since until now even those who have not yet graduated have been accepted with pleasure. They are interested in seeing with their own eyes the life of the peoples of the North. And at my age, students no longer roam.

Experts – ethnographers who stand up for the preservation of the culture of the northern peoples – by a majority vote for a nomadic school and against boarding schools, at least for students from 1st to 4th grade.

“Up to 10-12 years old is just the age when a child develops his background,” says child psychologist Ivan Pronin, who worked with children of reindeer herders. – If the offspring of a nomadic people spends this time outside their culture, it is very likely that he will tear himself away from it. Will lose the habit of nomadic life, skills and hardening.

In the pedagogical environment, the attitude towards nomadic educational institutions is ambiguous: the idea seems to be not bad, but the technical side is confusing – where can one find enough teachers who are willing to roam the tundra? How to conduct final assessments, how to organize the learning process on a polar night, in severe frosts below minus 40, etc.?

“In the nomadic format, the education of children, as well as the connection of nomads with the outside world, depend on the generator,” says Andrey Vedeneev, whose dissertation is devoted to the life of tundra dwellers. – The generator went out – and immediately primitive life by the fire, no telephone, no Internet.

But the idea itself is far from new: the Red Chum project is over 90 years old. For the first time, the elimination of illiteracy of the peoples of the North was attended to after the revolution of 1917, having founded the so-called Red Plagues: teachers were settled in them, it was also considered a school, and at the same time a reading room, a first-aid post and a “plague of culture”. Not only children, but also their illiterate parents studied in the Red Plagues, where one could get emergency medical care, find out the news published in the newspapers, and discuss them with the teacher and fellow tribesmen. Each Red Plague relied on its own reindeer team, thanks to which the “plague school” followed its students. The Red Plague system existed until 1975, and now, perhaps, a renaissance awaits it.