Does our Education Need a Facelift or a Complete Overhaul?

Abstract

The author demonstrates via a set of examples that the key decisions in the Russian education system are not taken on the basis of a clearly defined concept, but are conditioned by the requirements of the current situation. Accordingly, what is called “education reform” was not in fact such, since neither the initial parameters nor the expected result was defined when introducing certain innovations. At present, there is a discussion of a return to certain principles of the national education system – universal schooling, fundamentality, the traditions of teaching science and mathematics. At the same time, such serious problems as teacher overload; economics and clientelism; unproven, but accelerated transition to distance learning; widespread introduction of technologies that facilitate the learning process; the replacement of the normal school learning process by tutoring due to the USE; serious methodological and pedagogical difficulties associated with “infodemia,” and others, remain unaddressed. What is needed is not sporadic reflective measures, but a real overhaul of the education system.