Vladimir Putin instructed to balance the load on schoolchildren

President Putin instructed the government to take measures to create a “harmonious, balanced and effective” workload for schoolchildren. To achieve this, it is proposed to reduce the amount of homework and strengthen interdisciplinary connections. Experts interviewed by Kommersant agree that homework takes up a lot of children’s time, but add that “qualified teachers manage to harmoniously distribute the load.”

The President approved instructions based on the results of his message to the Federal Assembly on February 29. During Mr. Putin’s speech, the very replacement initiative in the field of education was a “second chance” for graduates – the opportunity to quickly retake the Unified State Exam. However, in addition to this, the president also reflected on the “content of education”: “The educational load for children should be reasonable and balanced. And of course, it’s clearly not good for things when they teach one thing in class and ask something else in exams.”

The instructions propose solving these problems by reducing the time spent on homework, strengthening interdisciplinary connections, synchronizing GIA questions with educational programs and reducing test work. The government must report on the formation of a “harmonious, balanced and effective” workload for schoolchildren by December 1. Kommersant sent questions to the Ministry of Education about the president’s instructions, but has not yet received a response.

The head of the literature department at the New Look school, Vadim Hardin, believes that “students, especially in the eighth and ninth grades, are often overloaded.” According to him, schoolchildren and parents periodically complain about the amount of homework, due to which there is not enough time for clubs and sections.

“The brain cannot absorb information all the time,” the expert is sure. “The student studied for six or seven lessons, the information entered the brain, but it takes time to assimilate it: walks, games, swimming pool, music.” Mr. Hardin notes that “the teacher needs a clear approach” to homework: “They should be assigned not because they are obliged to make an entry in the electronic journal, but for another purpose. It is important that homework differs from the usual numbers and exercises in the textbook.” In a conversation with Kommersant, the teacher formulated three principles for homework: “First, it should be interesting for the student – you cannot simply duplicate what was done in class. Secondly, it must be multi-level. Thirdly, it is very important that the child has the opportunity to choose from the proposed exercises – including the ability to refuse to complete the task for one reason or another. Homework is not a punitive tool, but a tool for training the student’s mastery and development.”

“As a rule, responsible guys are overloaded with homework. And lazy people, no matter how much you ask them, will not do anything,” says Tatyana Rassolova, a teacher of Russian language and literature from Velikiye Luki. According to her, the amount of homework is enshrined in educational standards: “At home, the student must work through a third of what was done in class. But qualified teachers manage to harmoniously distribute the workload in their subject even now.” The teacher is confident that it is necessary to achieve a balance in the workload for schoolchildren through an interdisciplinary approach to education – this will help reduce the number of hours or even exclude some subjects from the program.

“A good historian includes social studies blocks in his classes, and there is no need for a separate subject,” Mrs. Rassolova is sure. “And class teachers constantly give students safety instructions. Therefore, life safety blocks, which take up an entire hour a week, can be safely distributed between work, physical education and “Talking about important things.”

It should be noted that in February the Ministry of Education prepared new federal educational standards, which significantly reduced the time for teaching social studies. This caused a discussion in the pedagogical community about the need for the subject (“Kommersant” wrote about this on February 23). At the same time, adjustments are also being made to life safety, but, on the contrary, they are going to pay more attention to this discipline. From September 1, the subject will be called “Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Homeland”, and the block of initial military training will be strengthened in it.

The head of methodology and development of educational programs at Maximum Education, Artem Mushta, points out: the school curriculum now takes into account that in the 9th and 11th grades students need to prepare for the State Exam. “The emphasis is on topics that will be asked in the exam,” the expert comments. “But students can study in different programs – basic and specialized. And the second type of training often involves such a deep immersion in the subject that it sometimes interferes with general preparation for exams. Students from a specialized mathematics school can solve problems at the level of the second or third years of a technical university, but at the same time make mistakes in the basic tasks of the Unified State Exam.” Mr. Mushta agrees that the school curriculum should be broader, but considers “uniformity of approaches, balance of topics in the school curriculum and control over the number of assessment activities” as the right trend. “If we synchronize the school curriculum and final certification, this will solve many problems and can even out the workload on students,” he is confident.

Polina Yachmennikova