The 11th Research-to-Education festival entitled Week of Pedagogical Training started at Saratov State University on March 25. School principals, teachers, classroom teachers, and university teaching staff gathered at the university site. This year, the topic of the festival is Russian School Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.
The Week started with a meeting of the university management with the principals of schools in Saratov Region. 75 school principals from different parts of Saratov Region came to the university. The meeting began with a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk.
Head of Priority Projects and Programmes, SSU Elena Yelina addressed the audience with an introductory speech, which outlined a set of issues for discussion.
SSU Rector Alexei Chumachenko noted the acute shortage of personnel in the school education system and commented on the ways to solve this problem are discussed and undertaken today. ‘By the order of the Chair of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, a regional programme to support teachers is developed. The university, in its turn, is broadened its own strategies for modernising teacher education. An important step in solving the personnel issue will be the establishment of Pedagogical Institute at SSU. Due to the new structural unit, the subject training of specialists will be combined with the fundamental traditions of the Saratov pedagogical school.’
The meeting with the directors was conducted by Vice-rector for Academic Affairs, SSU, Igo Malinskii and Head of Priority Projects and Programmes Elena Yelina. The key topic of the meeting was the 2024 admission campaign. Igor Malinskii introduced colleagues to the documents and control admission figures, focusing on conducting targeted enrolment for pedagogical courses.
For 2024-2025, as part of the enlarged group of courses in education and pedagogical sciences, 593 state-funded places have been established at the university (384 for full-time courses, 209 for part-time courses). Of these, the target admission quota is 178 places.
Federal Law No. 124-FZ dated April 14, 2023, On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation”, which is to become effective on May 1 of this year, provides for a new type of contracts on targeted training. The customers of targeted training will post proposals on a contract or agreements on targeted training on the Work in Russia unified digital platform in employment and labour relations. Citizens who will apply for training or are already taking college or university courses will be able to accept and agree on the proposal. It is allowed to conclude a contract on targeted training with only one customer of targeted training.
Elena Yelina in her speech noted the modern methods in the training of teaching staff as part of the Teachers in the Educational Paradigm project of the Priority 2030 federal programme.
Since 2021, Saratov State University has been successfully conducting the Virtual Pedagogical Classroom, which has become the starting point of immersion in the teaching profession for hundreds of graduates from the region. This year, along with the residents of remote areas of the region, schoolchildren from Luhansk have joined the project.
According to Elena Yelina, the great advantage of the Pedagogical Classroom is the electronic platform that allows more participants to join the classes. She invited the principals where pedagogical classrooms have been formed to become part of a large-scale university project. In addition, school students can try their hand at the regional pedagogical olympiad entitled the Step into the Teaching Profession. Last year, about 200 students took part there, 25 people became winners and received 4 bonus points for admission to the pedagogical courses at SSU.
Head of the Office for Education Sergei Udalov added to the topic of targeted enrolment for pedagogical courses. He spoke about the opportunity of transferring pedagogical internships implemented for senior students into the category of dispersed ones, who can be combined with theoretical training and stretched over the entire academic year.
In the course of a lively discussion, the event members discussed the issues of training and methodological support for teachers, practical training, and employment of graduates, securing places for target groups, as well as attracting and replacing personnel in schools of the region.
