https://sputniknews.in/20260729/russia-is-starting-reform-of-education-no-resemblance-to-india-well-almost-none-11815636.html
Russia Is Starting Reform Of Education: No Resemblance To India. Well, Almost None
Russia Is Starting Reform Of Education: No Resemblance To India. Well, Almost None
Sputnik India
It is most certainly a coincidence, that the start of Russia’s reform of education happened at the same time when India has got herself a political crisis over... 29.07.2026, Sputnik India
2026-07-29T14:55+0530
2026-07-29T14:55+0530
2026-07-29T14:56+0530
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Similarities are next to none. But, still… The basic problem to be solved in both nations is still education. Political implications are secondary in both cases. And, again in both cases, the main issue is the future of the two nations in tomorrow’s world.The Russian reform is starting with two basic points. First, the whole education system borrowed in 1990-s from the US, or UK, or from the West in general, will be gradually dismantled beginning from September 1. And, second, since education starts with teachers, their status in the society will be raised, according to the Presidential decree, signed last week.To be more precise, teachers will get perks and privileges like free tickets to shows and exhibitions, and also legal defense in conflicts with headmasters or parents, plus training and skills upgrade all the time.While students will have to forget about that already familiar system of four years for a bachelor degree, maybe followed by magistrate. Education will have to be longer and better, as it used to be.And about the only issue in Russian education that will have to wait a bit before complete scrapping, is the nationwide uniform state exams with its inevitable examination paper leaks and other scandals. Although there is no doubt about future demise of that system, too.To think of it, Russia was lucky not to get itself mass protests over that subject and no Cockroach Russian Party to foment trouble. Maybe it’s because the debate about the whole education system has been slowly boiling for maybe 30 years, and that softened the process.The whole story is very educative for a nation that had high hopes and illusions about “joining the modern world” with its “superior” experience and values. To think of it, nobody in the good old USSR of the 1970-s or 1980-s had any doubts that getting a diploma of an elite university in America or England meant far better education than one could obtain in “obsolete” and “backward” Soviet Russia. So imagine the growing frustration of the public, very gradually discovering that those who got educated by a “modernized” system in 1990-s proved to be much worse off than their predecessors, who studied in the USSR.That reality is all too visible today at any kind of Russian TV contest shows, where the gray hair always win. To put it simply, the older folks seem to know everything about everything, while the younger ones are way behind.And only recently the Russian public began to notice all these laments of European or American patriots about terrible quality of education in their schools and universities, and about visible demise of educational standards, with kids being no more able to read, write and count decently.And, finally, the Russian headhunters began to vent their frustration in the media, saying that, these days, it’s next to impossible to find younger staff with the same level of knowledge as of their seniors.And, of course, the Unified State Exams after secondary school in Russia, consisting of stupid questions to be answered by ticking the right box, became an object of hatred and ridicule. Not to mention the constant dramas about leaking of these papers here and there. No need to mention that here we have, again, a borrowed education technology.It took us long years to form a kind of a national consensus about the general need to get our education back to the Soviet times. And only later the clever people began to analyze the problem seriously.It all began with realization that the Soviet education was not that Soviet, if you really dig its roots. A thin Marxist veneer was concealing the fact that the really leftist experiments in Russian education ended in late 1930-s, when Kremlin simply got the nation back to good old Imperial system of the previous age. The result was stunning, since the people educated in the 1930-s formed a powerful generation that made that Golden Age of USSR, the 1960-s. Each new generation after that knew more than the previous ones, until the system got broken in 1990-s.But what went wrong with education in the West exactly when Russia decided to accept it? Funny it may seem, the answers to that help you understand what went wrong with the West in general, and what to do to promote your nation in the age that is already upon us.Here every thinker has own answers. My favorite is a brilliant American scientist and writer of the previous century, Carl Sagan, and first of all his last book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Especially illuminating was Sagan’s idea about “dumbing down of American”, that only began to be widely discussed long after his death, already in 2010-s.Thanks to that book and that discussion (that’s still going on for all I know), we not only followed Sagan’s idea that, yes, there were and are bad woke people who deliberately started to lower the education level of people in the West and in Russia, that happened to follow the West exactly at that moment. We also learned the philosophy of good and proper education, as in what it is for.Carl Sagan and his followers were the last fighters for the European Age of Enlightenment, which has not yet been officially cancelled, for all I know. Knowledge, for that age, was what made people human, and education was shaping characters and upkeeping values that make us a civilization. While the woke ideas of those dumbing America down were more simple. Education was a commodity to purchase so as to be able to get and perform a job, and nothing much else.And that dichotomy formed the core of the Russian national debate, that raged, to repeat, for about three decades. The folks who made us change educational system tried to tell us that this is a commodity we buy, while an educator is obliged to provide that service, since we pay our money for that, directly or indirectly, via national taxation.And that’s how a teacher became a miserable creature, often harassed by kids and their parents. While when I was in my school and universities, teachers were gods, formidable and respected. The above-mentioned presidential decree just signed, essentially, starts the Russian educational reform from its base, namely, from restoration of teacher’s venerable status. The rest will have to follow.That reform will go on slowly, with local and national experiments to stage. Unfortunately, we’ll only see the first results in 10-15 years. But it is a monumental process, the success of which will show us which nations and civilizations will win the world of tomorrow.Dmitry Kosyrev is a Russian writer, author of spy novels and short stories. He also did columns for the Pioneer and Firstpost.com
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Russia Is Starting Reform Of Education: No Resemblance To India. Well, Almost None
14:55 29.07.2026 (Updated: 14:56 29.07.2026) It is most certainly a coincidence, that the start of Russia’s reform of education happened at the same time when India has got herself a political crisis over the same subject.
Similarities are next to none. But, still… The basic problem to be solved in both nations is still education. Political implications are secondary in both cases. And, again in both cases, the main issue is the future of the two nations in tomorrow’s world.
The Russian reform is starting with two basic points. First, the whole education system borrowed in 1990-s from the US, or UK, or from the West in general, will be gradually dismantled beginning from September 1. And, second, since education starts with teachers, their status in the society will be raised, according to the Presidential decree, signed last week.
To be more precise, teachers will get perks and privileges like free tickets to shows and exhibitions, and also legal defense in conflicts with headmasters or parents, plus training and skills upgrade all the time.
While students will have to forget about that already familiar system of four years for a bachelor degree, maybe followed by magistrate. Education will have to be longer and better, as it used to be.
And about the only issue in Russian education that will have to wait a bit before complete scrapping, is the nationwide uniform state exams with its inevitable examination paper leaks and other scandals. Although there is no doubt about future demise of that system, too.
To think of it, Russia was lucky not to get itself mass protests over that subject and no Cockroach Russian Party to foment trouble. Maybe it’s because the debate about the whole education system has been slowly boiling for maybe 30 years, and that softened the process.
The whole story is very educative for a nation that had high hopes and illusions about “joining the modern world” with its “superior” experience and values. To think of it, nobody in the good old USSR of the 1970-s or 1980-s had any doubts that getting a diploma of an elite university in America or England meant far better education than one could obtain in “obsolete” and “backward” Soviet Russia. So imagine the growing frustration of the public, very gradually discovering that those who got educated by a “modernized” system in 1990-s proved to be much worse off than their predecessors, who studied in the USSR.
That reality is all too visible today at any kind of Russian TV contest shows, where the gray hair always win. To put it simply, the older folks seem to know everything about everything, while the younger ones are way behind.
And only recently the Russian public began to notice all these laments of European or American patriots about terrible quality of education in their schools and universities, and about visible demise of educational standards, with kids being no more able to read, write and count decently.
And, finally, the Russian headhunters began to vent their frustration in the media, saying that, these days, it’s next to impossible to find younger staff with the same level of knowledge as of their seniors.
And, of course, the Unified State Exams after secondary school in Russia, consisting of stupid questions to be answered by ticking the right box, became an object of hatred and ridicule. Not to mention the constant dramas about leaking of these papers here and there. No need to mention that here we have, again, a borrowed education technology.
It took us long years to form a kind of a national consensus about the general need to get our education back to the Soviet times. And only later the clever people began to analyze the problem seriously.
It all began with realization that the Soviet education was not that Soviet, if you really dig its roots. A thin Marxist veneer was concealing the fact that the really leftist experiments in Russian education ended in late 1930-s, when Kremlin simply got the nation back to good old Imperial system of the previous age. The result was stunning, since the people educated in the 1930-s formed a powerful generation that made that Golden Age of USSR, the 1960-s. Each new generation after that knew more than the previous ones, until the system got broken in 1990-s.
But what went wrong with education in the West exactly when Russia decided to accept it? Funny it may seem, the answers to that help you understand what went wrong with the West in general, and what to do to promote your nation in the age that is already upon us.
Here every thinker has own answers. My favorite is a brilliant American scientist and writer of the previous century, Carl Sagan, and first of all his last book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Especially illuminating was Sagan’s idea about “
dumbing down of American”, that only began to be widely discussed long after his death, already in 2010-s.
Thanks to that book and that discussion (that’s still going on for all I know), we not only followed Sagan’s idea that, yes, there were and are bad woke people who deliberately started to lower the education level of people in the West and in Russia, that happened to follow the West exactly at that moment. We also learned the philosophy of good and proper education, as in what it is for.
Carl Sagan and his followers were the last fighters for the European Age of Enlightenment, which has not yet been officially cancelled, for all I know. Knowledge, for that age, was what made people human, and education was shaping characters and upkeeping values that make us a civilization. While the woke ideas of those dumbing America down were more simple. Education was a commodity to purchase so as to be able to get and perform a job, and nothing much else.
And that dichotomy formed the core of the Russian national debate, that raged, to repeat, for about three decades. The folks who made us change educational system tried to tell us that this is a commodity we buy, while an educator is obliged to provide that service, since we pay our money for that, directly or indirectly, via national taxation.
And that’s how a teacher became a miserable creature, often harassed by kids and their parents. While when I was in my school and universities, teachers were gods, formidable and respected. The above-mentioned presidential decree just signed, essentially, starts the Russian educational reform from its base, namely, from restoration of teacher’s venerable status. The rest will have to follow.
That reform will go on slowly, with local and national experiments to stage. Unfortunately, we’ll only see the first results in 10-15 years. But it is a monumental process, the success of which will show us which nations and civilizations will win the world of tomorrow.
Dmitry Kosyrev is a Russian writer, author of spy novels and short stories. He also did columns for the Pioneer and Firstpost.com
