"Education 2030", Moscow Electronic School, "Quantorium", digitalization, "death of formats" and "death of text", Google "breaks the spire of Moscow State University", death of books, death of schools and the teaching profession, children "to order" for transnational corporations, “Trajectories” instead of subjects, “competencies” instead of knowledge. This is a very likely future of the education system in Russia. A system where education as such will no longer exist. This is what transformers want, with colossal money and colossal influence in their hands. They are already among us, they are working, they are getting their way, and now they merge in a single center - in Sberbank.
It is Sberbank that has become home to many who have previously pushed “breakthrough” programs of additional and distance education, but stumbled over the “conservative” system. Now these people are very strong and very successful. We did not even notice how they, at the behest of Western analysts and corporations, have already chosen a new future for Russia based on the segregation of children and the substitution of knowledge. Who are these people, how did they go and go to their intended goal? What is their purpose, what is their philosophy? And why, in general, should we talk about the fate of Russia, and not just about the future of education?
How to describe in a nutshell what a school is? This is not only a place where a child receives knowledge. This is the place where he for the first time, even in miniature, sees a model of social relationships. He sees what it means to study diligently and what happens for truancy and unlearned lessons. He sees bullies in the classroom, begins to communicate with children of the opposite sex. He grows up, becomes more responsible. The teacher is watching everything, who at the very time is called a teacher.
Of course, there are no perfect schools. And talks about the problems of the Russian education system have been going on for years. Woe reformers of all stripes tried to rebuild it this way and that. But then came the digital age, and people of a new kind were on a horse. They know exactly how and what they want to change, they are already doing this, killing schools and universities.
Part one. Ideological inspirer
The first thing worth paying attention to is the content of the concepts and the ideological inspiration of the new system. When we are told about the school or the education of the future in general, we do not mean at all tablets instead of textbooks and not only giant panels instead of blackboards in classrooms. We are talking about rebuilding the entire system, as well as, attention, managing it.
My colleagues and I in Constantinople often touch upon the visionary habits of Sberbank head German Gref in education and other areas. For the uninitiated, his actions look illogical. It seems that education and its reform are not the business of the bank and not the prerogative of bankers. But if you dig deeper, then everything falls into place. Let's not forget that Sberbank is a large, pro-Western IT corporation that is internally modeled after the corporate model of the American financial sector.
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German Gref himself has been dreaming about the transformation of Russian education on Sberbank platforms for several years. I must say that these are large and serious platforms. For starters, let’s remember his comments on why education as it stands is untenable.
With regard to education, Gref is sure that "artificial intelligence is, in our opinion, a key, long-term technology and a driver of all other technologies, without exception." It is absolutely clear that all these “soft skills” and so on have nothing to do with education. But it must be the way, as Gref says, the system must be changed completely, the existing one must be burned down. And this work is already in full swing.
Gref's ideas are surprisingly consonant with the Education-2030 concept, which Nikita Mikhalkov has already spoken about several times in his Besogon. The concept itself is a topic for a separate large and detailed article. But let's take a look at some of the notable options.
Part two. Killing Education Plan
So, the concept or, as the authors themselves call it, foresight (a new technology through which the proposed changes are discussed) "Education 2030" was born in 2018 at the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) in the framework of the "Young Professionals" direction. By the way, German Oskarovich is a member of the ASI's supervisory board.
ASI can be safely considered a liberal and globalist structure. How else to explain the fact that various programs of the agency are rigidly oriented towards the West, towards the assessments of the World Bank, the IMF and transnational corporations. We often hear from ASI representatives that “Russia is lagging behind” and supposedly must transform. Probably to make it easier to integrate it into the global liberal system. To do this, you need to "play for a long time." We need not just some laws and momentary steps in the economy, it is necessary to change the education system so that it meets Western standards and is subject to the recommendations of the same World Bank. For the future generation of Russian people to be already loyal to Western values, because they have absorbed them since childhood.
Dmitry Peskov became the curator of the Education-2030 foresight - not the same as the president's press secretary, but a well-known IT expert and leader in liberal circles. A lot becomes clear if you look at the project roadmap at this link. Peskov is the author of the statement that Google, in fact, must break the spire of Moscow State University. Under such a resounding title, his words were interpreted in an interview with Executive.
Here are some quotes from Peskov the reformer:
“The format of barcamps (informal educational events - author's note) is working successfully, this is the education of the future. A person is intensely immersed in some kind of reality, he lives in it, forms, and this is much more effective than lectures, seminars and everything else; people have to enter the university in teams, and entrance exams are replaced by metagames."
Now let's talk about the concept itself. Its details are posted on the HSE website, so anyone can read them. What needs to happen in order for it to be as planned by the ASI?
- Gamification of education. The learning process is not controlled by humans, but by artificial intelligence (AI). Education itself for the ease of assimilation of the material should have a playful form. Play should become the new norm by teaching the student to work in a team, strive for leadership and competition among peers (there are always winners and losers in the game).
- Death of formats. It is assumed that the teacher must first "die" in the form we are accustomed to. Then the graduation diploma, the system of scientific journals and citation formats, as well as the modern copyright management system "die". The author's textbook "dies", and then the general education school and research university. Finally, the text (book, article) “dies” “as the dominant form of knowledge communication”.
- The landscape of the new education. First, objects are replaced by "trajectories" of development. Then the assessment system is abolished - they will be replaced by a “competency passport”. A "model of investment" in a new type of person with a system of financial and insurance instruments will appear. Objectification of the learning process with the help of neurointerfaces is introduced, virtual tutors and mentor networks are being developed. Finally, play as the dominant form of education and social life, AI as a mentor, a new pedagogy.
It is important that Education 2030 is an international project, not a Russian one. In the performance of domestic transformers, this is, in fact, a project of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on digital education translated from English.
At the end of August 2019, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin met with Andreas Schleicher, Head of the OECD Education and Skills Department. On it, the mayor of Moscow boasted of the Moscow Electronic School (MES) project, and Schleicher called the capital a leader in the implementation of innovations in the field of education and praised this project. Not surprising. In the concept of the "Digital School" on the website of the Mayor of Moscow we read:
Part three. First steps
Globalists from education came to the Far East in 2018. ASI began to embody the concept of a new education called the University of the National Technological Initiative (NTI) and promoted it through the campus of the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU). On Russky Island, an educational intensive "Island 10-22" was held, which was supposed to involve university students from all over the country in new educational processes.
Intensive learning was divided into trajectories for each individual student based on the direction of his study. Students were united in teams with a certain rating in the general grading system. So, to participate, it was necessary not only to register, but also to go through the "entrance game", which will assess the abilities of each student, and, according to the results, will be assigned to a particular team.
Sounds pretty good. A kind of individual approach to education. But can the whole country be transferred to such a system? Of course not. Therefore, the ASI and NTI assume that this system will only be for the elite. The moment of student segregation is clearly visible from the “islander rules”.
There was a rigid system on the island. A student, for example, could not attend classes not on his own "trajectory" - for this he was issued a red card. This lowered his entire team in the ranking, and he himself was deprived of the opportunity to sign up for lectures. It is noteworthy that the rules have changed. In their first version, according to the media, it was assumed that the student was completely removed from the island at his own expense. Conceptually, this means a transition from an elite education to a general one (transformers expel the unwanted from the flock of the elite). And he could get a red card if he studied the way he wanted, and not as the artificial intelligence ordered him. In the rules, this behavior was called disrespect for other islanders, creating a congested audience.
In fact, the concept provides for a “social credit” system. It is assumed that an order for a future specialist is placed by one or another corporation that invests money in its future "human capital". This attracts the concept of loyalty, which is supported by an almost lifelong dependence on the company.
It follows from this that the goal is to transfer the education system and its management from the hands of the state to private hands. It is about education for the elite, who will be taught from childhood that they are “young managers”. But if there is a caste of such managers (albeit slavishly dependent on mentor corporations), then there must be those whom they manage. Ordinary employees, ordinary citizens. And here we come to the other side of the question, since the concept provides for education for such "waste" without "competencies". Distance education, not live, without contact with teachers.
Part four. Major Players and Quantoriums
We find the embodiment of elitism and its opposite of education in the concept of educational centers "Quantorium". They are the brainchild of Marina Rakova, a 37-year-old native of the Altai Territory. She graduated from the Moscow State Technical University. Bauman, and then - the Altai Academy of Economics and Law. The first step in the career ladder for Rakova was ASI, which in 2014 supported her project "A new model of additional education for children." The project was dedicated to the construction of children's technology parks throughout the country.
"Quantorium" is just an alternative to school, built on "trajectories" or "tracks" instead of subjects and "competencies" instead of knowledge. In these technoparks, children unite into teams and work on the creation of some new IT solutions, make copters, compete with each other and prepare to become future leaders and managers. And again, in the very concept of "Quantoriums" there is a model of education for the elite. Here is what Rakova said:
A familiar concept, right? So, since 2014, Rakova has created more than 110 "Quantoriums" throughout the country, as well as 50 "Growth Points" in different regions of Russia and several dozen "IT cubes", where only IT specialists are trained.
This was until, in October 2018, she suddenly received the post of Deputy Minister of Education of Russia Olga Vasilyeva. The order was signed by the then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. As Deputy Minister, Rakova continued to create Quantoriums, was involved in the projects Digital School, Digital Educational Environment (DSP) (re-equipment of schools, including teaching staff), Digital Economy, Affordable Additional Education for Children and a number of others.
Having risen to this high position, Rakova received the main thing - funding and influence. In 2019, Rakova began to steer not something, but the national project "Education", for which almost 784.5 billion rubles were allocated.
Moreover, Rakova began to actively travel to international and Russian forums, where the digital future of education was discussed. There she was first noticed by German Gref. In 2019, they met, for example, at the finals of the Olympiad organized by NTI (we remember its ties with ASI) in the direction of "Artificial Intelligence". Both Gref and Rakova in the position of Deputy Minister of Education acted as speakers there.
Part five. Roads lead to Sberbank
What happened next? It's very simple: Marina Rakova has been working at Sberbank since March 2020. Gref looked at this girl and immediately made her vice president of the bank. Rakova headed the Sberbank's Digital Educational Platforms division, as well as projects related to the creation of school and university platforms. Rakova asked for her resignation from the ministry herself, having written a statement addressed to Mikhail Mishustin.
A source in Tsargrad in the Ministry of Education said that many reacted coolly to Rakova in the ministry. No one understood how she could become a deputy minister without having a pedagogical or scientific career in the past. In addition, Rakova has neither candidate nor doctor of science degree.
Is it any wonder that the projects of distance learning and additional education, so beloved by Rakova, turned out to be unsuccessful. According to the source, the first distance learning experience in high school failed miserably.
The fact is that during the pandemic, children practically did not study. Of course, this can be attributed to the technical unavailability of schools, to the lack of necessary conditions for many families (there is no reliable Internet, no equipped workplaces, there were cases when children in small settlements climbed on poles with smartphones to get an assignment from a teacher). But this is a technical point that can probably be corrected. But the idea itself still does not stand up to criticism.
Part six. conclusions
We have before us a large and very powerful system for transforming education according to Western patterns and in Western interests. And German Gref should lead this process. Not the state, not the ministry, but the banker. Just by right of the strong, because he can. Because it has huge financial, human and digital resources for this. The most important thing is that we are not talking only about changing the education system in Russia. We are talking about the education management system, which will be concentrated in the hands of Gref and on the platforms of Sberbank.
If you look at the entire ideology as a whole, it becomes clear that management will be carried out not in the interests of the state or every citizen, but on the pre-order of large transnational corporations. Of course, places in the new type of technology parks, which are planned to replace universities, will be distributed among the children of corporate representatives. The company will even be able to order a narrow specialist for specific parameters. The plans also include genetic studies of children's predisposition to certain areas of education. That is, the corporation will simply place an order for a specialist, offer a rigid contract for "human capital", the system will be controlled from Sberbank, and the role of the state will be reduced to choosing a location for a technopark and securing a regulatory framework. Here we say, of course,about full-time education under the control of AI and a human mentor.
The rest will remain the role of subordinates, who will be managed by a select few who have acquired knowledge of leadership in corporate technology parks. Obviously, this is exactly what distance education projects are needed for, because with such a system it will become ubiquitous, and full-time education - only for the elite and will be very expensive.
To understand that a system is being built for the elite, let's remember the rest who are developing digital education. In addition to Gref and Rakova, who joined him, these are Dmitry Peskov (not the president's press secretary), as well as Isak Frumin, head of the Institute of Education of the Higher School of Economics, who tried to reform Russian education back in Soviet times. Frumin is a great friend of HSE Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov, husband of the head of the Central Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina. Frumin is also friends with Alexei Kudrin.
Even in these words, there is a general concept. Corporations are the global mentors of the future; they will develop only those they need and only in the necessary quantity. They do not need “common human capital,” as Frumin called it.
Notice how this entire elite caste of transformers tells young people about the goals of their innovations. They are being drummed into the idea that they should abandon the templates and academic standards, authorities, traditional education. As an example, they cite statistics from the World Bank, the IMF, Western universities and corporations like Intel or Cisco.
Frumin did this in 2018 at a lecture “Human Capital 2.0” on Russky Island during the intensive, which was mentioned above. Frumin spoke about the need for "a new type of human capital to develop a country with bad institutions." Frumin said this in 2018, and Rakova back in 2014. German Gref, on the other hand, says this all the time, having lost all sorts of shores in principle.
Paradoxically, the very West that these people are guided by is heterogeneous. The old European academic school is against the digital transformation of education and against distance learning. Let's see what one of the most prominent scientists in Italy wrote about this, Professor Nuccio Ordine.
Probably not worth looking for an answer to the question of how to deal with it. Much is obvious. Probably none of the readers and viewers of Constantinople is radically opposed to improving education through technology. After all, we all use smartphones. But the boundless dreams of Gref and his new team are not just technical innovations that simplify the routine in the learning process. Not. We are talking about the formation of a new society, which will have to, with its own hands, not only destroy the oldest and most authoritative education system, but also finally consolidate the status of Russia as a colonial power ruled by the institutions of global capital.