Reform in the system of secondary education in Russia.

The reformation of secondary (General) education began with the introduction of the Unified state Examination (use). The exam is exams in specific subjects that must be taken by all graduates of complete secondary school. The unity of these exams is in two of their features:

1. a) their results are simultaneously taken into account in the school certificate and admission to Universities,
2. b) when carrying out these examinations in all territory of Russia the same tasks and the uniform scale of the assessment allowing to compare all pupils on level of preparation are applied.

These are free final examinations which are held in may-June of each year by means of Federal KIMS (control and measuring materials) and which results are considered both in final certificates, and in the certificates sent by entrants to the Higher education institutions counting results of unified state examination. For graduates of previous years and residents of non-experimental regions provided so-called "July session", which is held on the materials of the exam in high schools in the second half of July.

The exam is introduced for many reasons and has several purposes.

Firstly, it will help to ensure equal conditions for admission to higher EDUCATION institutions and passing final exams at school, since these exams throughout Russia use the same type of tasks and a single scale of assessment, which allows comparing all students in terms of training.

In addition, the exam will be conducted in conditions that ensure the reliability of the results. The results will be checked on computers (answers to tasks of type "a" (choice of options) and type "B" (short free answers)), answers to tasks of type "C" (expanded free answers) will be checked by independent experts. This will reduce the so-called "target tutoring" (for admission to a particular University) and bribery. Another goal is to try to improve the quality of education in Russia through more objective control and higher motivation for its successful completion. Students need to be well prepared for the exams, so that they pass them successfully, so that their results can be compared, and learning to perform such exams is a new task for our teachers.

Finally, an important consideration is to relieve graduates - entrants by reducing the number of exams, instead of final exams and entrance exams, they will take the State exams, their results will be taken into account both in the school certificate, and when entering Universities.

Despite all the positive aspects of the new system, the Russian Government understands that there are also negative ones. In particular, there are concerns that schools, instead of teaching students, will begin to "train" them to solve tests, which will lead to a decrease in the level of training of graduates. It was therefore decided to conduct an experiment in some regions of Russia, which was completed in the 2003/2004 academic year, in order to finally decide on the usefulness or uselessness of the new system. The experiment, despite the relatively large number of blatant shortcomings on the part of the organizers, was recognized as a success. Regions, for the most part, also supported the examination (except the capital - Moscow applicants very bad competition from immigrants). However, in March 2004 M. Kasyanov's Government was dismissed. The new Minister of education and science Andrey Fursenko did not become the same ardent supporter of unified state examination as his predecessor Vladimir Filippov. In addition, the errors of the experiment were evident. Thus, introduction of unified state examination in all territory of the Russian Federation is postponed till 2006-2008.

The next stage of the reform is the introduction of twelve-year secondary education. This is due to the new educational standards, which are to reduce the number of school hours due to the deteriorating health of students every year, as well as equalization to foreign experience. Unfortunately, today half of high school graduates have health problems. The reform also involves the introduction of a specialized high school, which will be free, that is, it will be financed by the state. Specialized school is aimed at giving students more knowledge. Therefore, education is now being restructured, after which the first ten years will be taught a mandatory amount of knowledge in all subjects, and in the 11th and 12th grades students will receive in-depth knowledge in the subjects they need, which should improve the quality of school education. However, this proposal has shortcomings. Opponents of the reform say that a child of 5-6 years is not yet ready mentally and physically to go to school. According to the developer of one of the projects of reforming school education Anatoly Pinsky, currently arrange a mandatory "zero class" is not possible either in kindergarten or at school. In kindergarten-because unlike school, attendance of preschool institutions is not mandatory. The current school will not be able to create a class for preschool children: their stay in any educational institution is possible only if there are conditions for a day's sleep and special conditions for feeding students. But neither the one nor the other requirement of hygienists of the Russian school are not consistent.

There are also many complaints about the school curriculum and the system of knowledge assessment. In fact, at the moment only three-point system is used. "Deuces" and "units" are practically not put by teachers in schools, at the same time the same "four" can be put for absolutely different in essence and the content of answers. A variety of options are offered to solve this problem - from the introduction of the 20-point system, as it is done, for example, in France and in Ukraine, to the introduction of the 100-point system of assessments. There is no final decision yet. As for the school curriculum, for example, the introduction of the subject "fundamentals of Orthodox religions"has been raised for several years. There were many disputes about this. After all, Russia is a multi - ethnic country, and its inhabitants practice a variety of religions. Hence, the study of Orthodoxy will infringe on the rights of those who profess, for example, Islam. As a result, in November 2004 Russian Minister of education and science A. Fursenko confirmed that the course "fundamentals of Orthodox religions" will not be studied separately in schools, but will be a part of the course on the history of religions. The subject will be secular and (so far) optional. However, in the future, from the Minister's point of view, it should be studied on an ongoing basis.

Also very important work is to be done on the implementation of a new mechanism for financing General education schools in connection with the transfer (on the basis of Federal Law No. 123 of 7 July 2003) of salaries and educational expenses of schools from the municipal level to the level of the Russian Federation. At the Federal level, the task is to improve the methodology developed by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation for calculating the standards of school funding. It should be emphasized that the Federal methodology gives only a formula calculation of the standard of financing, but does not determine the size of the standard, even the minimum. To take appropriate specific standards of financing will have on the level of subjects of Federation and at local level. At the same time, the Ministry is developing a new system of remuneration of teachers, in exchange for the current one, which is too rigidly connected with the teaching (classroom-arched) workload of the teacher. The new system will allow not only to maintain the level of teacher's salary, when in the conditions of a sharp decrease in the number of pupils in the school the corresponding teaching load is reduced, but also will allow to activate and economically stimulate extra-curricular work of the teacher.