The correspondent of "KP" took part in the creation of a new domestic search system for gifted children
Last week, the best minds of Russia gathered at the Sirius educational center to come up with: how to make the country have an order of magnitude more talented people?
“The problem is that the existing selection system through physics and mathematics olympiads, special schools and other tools gives us 50 thousand gifted students,” explained Dmitry Peskov, director of the Young Professionals area of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI), at the opening of the forum. - Previously, this was enough, because within the framework of the old model it was enough to grow 5-7 large national companies that created the basis of the country's economy. Today, before our eyes, the world is changing dramatically. New gigantic high-tech markets are emerging associated with the development of artificial intelligence, the creation of unmanned vehicles, the processing of big data … Plus, old markets are being transformed. Let's take the simplest example from the fashion industry: there used to be 15-20 fashion houses in the world. Today, with the advent of digital platforms, you can sell your understanding of beauty everywhere - in China, India, Brazil and the United States, even if you have only 3-4 people in your company and it is located somewhere in the Russian outback. Consequently, the weather in the economy will not be done by 5-7 leaders, but by a huge number of medium and small companies. Therefore, we need a lot more talents - not 50, but at least 500 thousand. If we do not want to find ourselves on the outskirts, our task is to increase by 10 times the number of children who are gifted in 10 years …Therefore, we need a lot more talents - not 50, but at least 500 thousand. If we do not want to find ourselves on the outskirts, our task is to increase by 10 times the number of children who are gifted in 10 years …Therefore, we need a lot more talents - not 50, but at least 500 thousand. If we do not want to find ourselves on the outskirts, our task is to increase by 10 times the number of children who are gifted in 10 years …
GIFT MATHEMATICS
To solve this problem by the method of brainstorming, one and a half hundred participants of the conference "Path to Success: Support Programs for Gifted Children …" were divided into several working groups. The KP correspondent, as a volunteer and free ballast, took part in the 2-day work of the team, which, under the leadership of St. Petersburg State University professor Elena Kazakova, developed new methods for selecting talented children.
It would seem, why reinvent the wheel? What's wrong with the good old selection methods? We just need to increase the number of Olympiads 10 times and we will get 10 times more talented winners. The idea is as simple as a Columbian egg!
However, experts quickly came to the conclusion that the scaling effect does not work in this case, because we run into … a finite number of schoolchildren. Here is a simple and simple mathematics of this question. Today, about 500 thousand schoolchildren participate in subject Olympiads. 50 thousand become winners and prize-winners - they are immediately taken apart in physics-mat-schools and special training centers. Consequently, 10 percent of the best pass through this filter. So, in order to get 500 thousand geniuses, we need to pass 5 million schoolchildren through this sieve. But the statistics say: there are only 14 million schoolchildren of all ages in Russia - from grades 1 to 11. And this includes inveterate losers and dunce, of whom even Ushinsky and Pestalozzi would not have made Nobel laureates.
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OLYMPIADS IS "EVIL" …
To find a way out of this impasse, the experts were forced to encroach on the sacred - the Olympiad selection system! It turned out that in the present form, subject Olympiads bring more "evil" than "good". Firstly, 450 thousand losers, who received the stigma of second-class schoolchildren, and 50 thousand winners, who sometimes lose motivation, also acquire negative experiences. Secondly, in the course of the Olympiad selection, many very talented children are lost, who do not come into view simply because there are no conditions in the region for receiving a good education …
- What will the new network for finding gifted children look like? - I asked Professor Elena Kazakova when the brainstorming session was over.
- We do not need Olympiads, where the organizers are interested in the winners, but mass educational programs where all children receive development, - explains Elena Ivanovna. - The Olympiads should become for a child simply an entrance to the community of peers and adults who are interested in knowledge. Then we have to take the step from subject school to project activity. Today it is not abstract knowledge that is valued, but high performance in working on practical research problems that are changing the world for the better. And the third point, we must understand that the time of brilliant loners has passed. We need to develop the ability to work in a team. In addition to children, this team usually includes several adults: businessmen, scientists, teachers, and they solve the problem together.
The conference was followed by real steps. So, according to Dmitry Peskov, a representative of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (this is one of the organizers of the forum in Sirius), since 2017, his department has stopped supporting projects of the very Olympiad educational funnels, when only 1 child out of 100 is recognized as a talent that is supported, and the remaining 99 students are left behind. From now on, money and effort will be invested in the creation of educational technologies that can bridge this gap. This is fairer, more effective and responds to the new challenges of the modern world.
AUTHORITATIVELY
Sirius's task is to wake up the regions
New technologies for working with gifted children will be developed on the basis of the Sirius educational center, which was specially created for this. Mikhail Sluch, Deputy Head of the Talent and Success Foundation (this is the creator of Sirius), told Komsomolskaya Pravda about the peculiarities of the national hunt for bright heads.
- Mikhail Ilyich, in our history we have already had a similar center for gifted children. This refers to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, whose graduates created Russian culture. Why shouldn't this scheme - when the best children and the best teachers are brought together in a closed institution - be replicated today? Why, in the case of Sirius, was the shift method chosen, when children are invited for a few weeks, and then they return home?
- Much has changed a lot over these hundred and fifty years. If we go back 50 years, then - conditionally - we will get the date of formation of SUNTS - specialized educational and scientific centers, such as the Kolmogorov boarding school at Moscow State University. Here we see the Tsarskoye Selo lyceums of the Soviet type, but with a physical and mathematical bias. The same scheme is associated with finding and pulling children out of their homes and placing them in a closed school with an elite education. But pulling children out of the family is not an easy thing, sometimes traumatic for the child's psyche. Often, not only children, but also many adults are not ready for it. It is clear that for its time, when it was possible to create suitable conditions in rare university centers, to gather suitable personnel, to ensure interaction between schoolchildren and scientists, this was the best model. But time goes forward and the question constantly arises:is it possible in another way? And when the Internet appeared, the conditions for the availability of good education changed dramatically.
- Students spend 24 days with you. Are these three weeks enough to turn a child's life around, put it on a new track?
- Let's think mathematically: 3 weeks, 6 hours a day (the minimum volume of a specialized program in Sirius) is almost 120 hours. If these hours are organized competently, and strong teachers take on the task, then the children would receive approximately the same amount of knowledge at their school if they listened to a 3-hour course every week for a year. Experience shows that during this time it is possible to make serious progress. You are right, this is not a substitute for serious regular education. But, together with remote support after the shift, this is an acceptable alternative to the call "All in SUNC!"
- Should the result from the Sirius project be tangible and concrete, for example, expressed in the number of Nobel laureates? Or is it difficult to put into figures?
- Of course, the results are primarily of a qualitative nature. But one can and should think about quantitative measures. For me, the first level indicator will be the results of the performance of our national teams at the international subject Olympiads. Since teams in mathematics, physics, etc. train here, the question arises, how do they perform? It is clear that the national team is only a few children and age for age does not apply. But nonetheless.
A more universal indicator is regional alignment. If we selected children according to a tough rating, then we would have only schoolchildren from Moscow, St. Petersburg and several large cities. The reason for this is not that Moscow is smarter and the provinces are dumber. It’s just that a serious educational infrastructure has been formed in megalopolises. There is where to study, there is someone to teach, here the doors of leading universities and academic centers are open for schoolchildren. At the same time, there are enough regions on the map of Russia that, from the point of view of the search and development of talents, are white spots. Why is this happening? Not all teachers, according to their level and desire, are able to work with Olympiad children. Some people say, “Talented children? And we don't have them. They are found somewhere in the distant lands, in Moscow … And in general, gifted children are not my profile. My vocation is "ordinary" children, the Unified State Exam of 70 points … ".
We conduct courses for teachers at Sirius, and I see that some teachers sit in open classes and do not understand the tasks that are being solved by grade 7-8 Olympiads. Therefore, it is an extremely important task to put work in the regions so that they produce stable, and not isolated results.
FROM THE DOSSIER
The Sirius educational center was opened on the basis of the Sochi Olympic facilities in 2015. 600 children aged 10 to 17 from all regions of Russia come here every month. It implements programs in three areas: science, sports and art. Training in the center is free. The best scientists, teachers and coaches of the country work with talented children. Children receive an invitation to Sirius based on the results demonstrated in subject Olympiads, sports competitions, creative and scientific competitions.