The State Duma adopted a law on the unification of general education programs

Starting next year, unified federal general education programs will be introduced in Russian schools – the corresponding law was adopted today in the second and third readings by State Duma deputies. The programs will be developed and approved by the Ministry of Education, they involve the unification of teaching aids and educational standards throughout Russia. The initiative will affect both public and private schools with their own educational methods.

“The law introduces a single standard for the quality of school education – both curricula and textbooks … Uniform basic programs in the Russian language, reading and the outside world will be approved for elementary schools. In secondary school, programs in the Russian language and literature, history, social studies, geography and life safety will become mandatory. The mandatory federal work program of education and the federal calendar plan for educational work will also be introduced,” the press release says. site State Duma.

In Russia, a gradual replacement of teaching aids will also be carried out, and the final certification will be carried out only on the basis of new programs. “We are returning a single educational space to our country,” commented the vice-speaker of the parliament, Pyotr Tolstoy, on the law.

A similar educational initiative was adopted in the US in 2010 in almost all states, it is best known as the Common Core. It also involves the introduction of uniform educational standards in American schools in a number of subjects, as well as the unification of textbooks and manuals. The initiative has been sharply criticized by politicians and the American academic community for the exclusion of many disciplines from the curriculum, in particular, the reduction in the number of liberal arts in the curriculum.

Andrey Sapozhnikov