Tribuna’s guest is the deputy chairwoman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Construction, senator of the Saratov Region, Lyudmila Bokova. See part 1 Lyudmila Bokova: “PABSEC enables us to learn about each other and find common grounds”
- As a teacher you have always stood for an active introduction of modern technologies in the learning process and raised questions of informative safety in schools. In your opinion, what will be the school of the future, from the point of view of the introduction of modern technologies?
- We can fantasize endlessly. All I know is that two main people will always remain in a school – a teacher and a pupil. School is based on this, the process of knowledge transfer is based on it. Information technologies are a tool, they are the means, which, for example, help to acquire knowledge, accelerate this process, visualize it, provide opportunities for development, maybe, fresh ideas about the world, including in terms of development of information technologies. I think that any virtual simulator, today it will allow to look at the layout, not just at the layout structure of the cell, but allows you to see it as a living process. And, of course, the process of learning with information technology becomes more exciting, more interesting, more viable, and that means visualized.
In order not to overload the educational process itself, live communication with information technologies is needed, it is necessary to proceed in terms of feasibility. Probably any parent knows what an electronic diary is, a teacher knows what an electronic journal is. It really shows payment for services in the canteen, safe passage through the school. My dream is that this informatization to step at a higher level.
- Now there is a lot of talk about the appropriateness of the Unites State Exam. Do you think it is necessary to continue this reform, or is the state exam in the form it is now fully justified?
- Well, we have been in this process more that 10 years. Certainly, at the very beginning of this process we had some difficulties in respect of the preparation of test materials, as well as some services, copying off and the level of knowledge of children. Today it is a competitive selection process for admission to institutions of higher education.
It ‘’filters’’ our children once instead of two times at the moment of entering the university. Of course, there is a right of choice: how to pass exams and in what format to do this.
How is the USE perfect? Certainly, the question is debatable. How does it provide an opportunity to assess a child comprehensively? We also cannot objectivity say how it reflects a specific university. So, we need to look for certain parameters that really allow motivated students to enter universities. In this case all these problems won’t be so urgent. Today I see an attempt to make the Unified State Examination a solution to all the problems that exist in our education system.
- We met with a problem a few years ago: we know what it means to receive 100 points in Moscow, St. Petersburg, or any other major city. But it is another situation in some village, which is far from a city.
- Everyone wants to enter a university and study by means of a budgetary place. This exam is the only tool that allows this to be done. It does not matter what tools and techniques we use for this. If there are workarounds in order to achieve this goal, they will be used by our society. Unfortunately, we have no good or objective information now about the actual professions in our country. Maybe today’s availability of receiving a higher education in our country is too high. We have a large number of universities, virtually at every corner. We should have more intense competition, a more stringent vector in this regard. And in higher education we have received motivated people. Thank God, an attempt has been made today in order to create the attractive working professions that are in demand now. These people are really important for the economy. Centers for these kinds of professions have been created. After some period of time that we will be able to eliminate the disadvantages that exist in the Unified State Examination. I hope that my child won’t be faced with this then.
- Within the program Tribune we have a rubric called 'From Kamchatka Territory to the Kaliningrad Region, which is dedicated to the development of domestic tourism. As the senator from the Saratov Region, can you tell our listeners about good and interesting sights in the Saratov Region for Russian tourists?
- Our main heritage is the Volga River. A large number of health centers are located on its banks. It is remarkable that in such hot seasons the Volga creates a favorable and comfortable climate. The tourist atlas of the Saratov Region has recently been presented, which shows tourist destinations that they can visit and find completely different hobbies, starting from rural tourism to some extreme kinds of sports. Therefore, we use the 'gifts' of nature in our region. We also have the initiative of people who do everything in order to create good so that tourists could visit and enjoy our places.
The nature of the Volga is very varied and even exotic. If you don’t visit these places you won’t feel the real beauty of Central Russia. The city of Uvek has been presented there recently. It is one of early major cities of the Golden Orda. It is a very interesting, entertaining, informative for people who love and are interested in the historical ages which have been represented on our territory.
As a person who was engaged in archaeological excavations previously, I can certainly say that we have a huge number of peculiar sites. It is surprising that traces of the Black Sea culture have been found in the Saratov Region. It means that people travelled, visited other places, maybe even learned something. Today it is a special value for us: travelling, exploring and learning.
