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The Moscow Times (Saturday, February 5, 2000)

Students to Learn Less, Think More

By Yulia Solovyova
Staff Writer

For decades, entrance exams have been a rite of passage for university-
bound students, who memorize mountains of information for detailed
tests on the specific subject they want to study, whether literature,
mathematics, physics.

All that would be swept away under an Education Ministry plan to make
wide-ranging changes in the educational system. The plan, which needs
approval in the State Duma, would shift the traditional emphasis from
testing memorized knowledge to analytical and problem-solving skills.

While it's being pushed by a new, energetic education minister, the
plan has opponents who say it risks shortchanging students by giving up
traditional strengths of Soviet and Russian schools.

Key features of the plan include:

-Cutting out 20 percent of the school curriculum and spreading it over
12 years instead of 10. The reason: Too much material means kids don't
really learn it well. During the last two years, students will get a
chance to specialize.

-Ending specific, content-focused entrance exams in favor of
standardized tests emphasizing analytical skills over memorized
knowledge.

-Reducing the amount of math and science and increasing the time spent
on humanities.

-Textbooks will be rewritten to eliminate remaining ideological baggage
and historical distortions from the Soviet period.

After 10 years in school, where they study a heavy load of applied
sciences and do a good deal of memorizing, university-bound Russian
students have had to pass admission exams written by an Education
Ministry commission for the different areas of study. Students often
hire private tutors to meet specific requirements of their school of
choice.

The Education Ministry believes it is planning to change rather than
water down the curriculum. One-third of high school students don't
grasp the applied sciences curriculum and that's what they are going to
cut, the ministry says in its draft plan. They think since there will
be an opportunity to specialize during the last two years, students
will catch up.

Valery Pomogaibin, dean of the psychology department at the private
Modern University for the Humanities, agrees.

"Educational content should be reduced and maximized," he said. "We are
fooling ourselves when we are trying to teach our kids all this
chemistry and physics, knowing they'll surely forget it as soon as they
graduate, and when we give them good marks at the exam."

David Patton, head of the American Council for International Education
in Moscow, said, "You can't do it all. ... A balance is not a bad idea
to produce a more well-rounded student."

A Russian equivalent of the American Standard Aptitude Test, aimed at
evaluating the student's analytical thinking rather than accumulated
knowledge, would replace admissions exams.

One thing that will not change under any circumstances: Education
offered by the state will remain free of charge for all students.

Behind the reform is Education Minister Vladimir Filippov, the former
rector of Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship University.

Filippov, 48, believes the change is based on the current demographic
and economic situation. According to the ministry's calculations, the
number of young people in Russian high schools will decrease by one-
third in the next three years. By 2009, the number of state-paid
university seats will exceed the number of high school graduates by
400,000.

Despite Finance Ministry objections to the cost, Filippov insists the
number of seats should not be cut, giving more people a chance to go to
college after school. He proposes increasing the share of the education
spending from the current 3.5 percent to 6 percent of the federal
budget over 15 years.

"There is a term 'mass higher education' in the civilized world,"
Filippov was quoted as saying by the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper
last month. "Let's upgrade society's level of education, since we have
an opportunity, instead of throwing our kids out in the streets."

Not all are convinced. A polemic between Russian and U.S. educators
broke out last December on David Johnson's Russia e-mail list. It was
triggered by a piece written by Andrew Miller, an American teaching in
St. Petersburg.

"The curriculum of most Russian universities is still prescribed by
bureaucrats in Moscow. Students study most subjects using books written
before Gorbachev. If you imagine that Russian kids are now hip to the
lame political rap laid down by these texts and discount it, you
obviously haven't talked with many," Miller wrote about his experience
at St. Petersburg's prestigious Herzen State Teachers' College.

Russian professors launched a counteroffensive at the American system
of education, calling Miller's remarks "Neanderthal attacks" and "just
another example of American cultural imperialism."

"No system is perfect, but I can testify that overall Russian students
are brighter, more intelligent and better educated; not only compared
to students but to some American professors, too," wrote Alexander
Domrin, who teaches at the Institute of Legislation and Comparative
Law.

Patton, of the American Council for International Education, who
supports the changes, adds that Russian education remains very strong
in several core areas, especially its classical foundation and applied
sciences.

The 1995 Third International Math and Science Study, an international
assessment of student achievement, indicated that overall Russian
students generally do a little better than their American counterparts.

In 1995, when the test was last conducted, seventh- and eighth-grade
Russians performed "slightly above average," according to Michael
Martin, codirector of the study. Russia was in the top third of the 39
participating countries, doing about as well as the United States in
science and better in math.

But, by the end of high school, Russian students did quite well in math
and physics, ranking second in advanced mathematics after France and
finishing third in physics, while the Americans came in last.



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