The fate of growth points in the system of decorative education. Column in ComputerreOnline #66
By managing higher education, the state does not address the tasks important for the whole society. It satisfies the interests of specific groups, primarily officials.
F-f-f-u-u-u‑h! The training practice at the biostation where I spent the last month has ended. The farewell moment was as follows: the practice supervisor photographed two buses taking the students to the city to make sure they had indeed left! Most of the 130 students undergoing practice were on the buses; some arrived later in personal cars with their parents, and some took leave and left on their own. Many departed in tears—they did not want to go. Some left resentful: during the practice they were deprived of their usual comfort, their heads were filled with plants and animals nobody needed, and at the end they were even insulted, graded lower than those who worked with heart.
When graduates who finished our faculty 10‑20‑30‑40 years ago gather, the practice at the biostation is what they remember most. It is our pride; probably our biostation is the best in the country. Next year it will be 100 years old; in one of my columns I told something about its creation. In recent years the practice has changed; a certain idea of its current character can be obtained from this photo report.
Both successes and failures of this practice manifested especially vividly. On the one hand, based on its results I expect a couple of articles in scientific journals (students in the first author positions, teachers at the end) and at least a dozen solid student works of a slightly lower rank. On the other hand, some students dropped out of the collective work. Insulting graffiti about me appeared in the recreation areas of the masses; someone will probably complain about low grades and oppression from me to the administration (please‑please, a very useful procedure). But the main problem that worries me is not the dissatisfaction of idlers.
My concern is linked to the students who readily accepted the proposed rules of the game. They stayed up nights in the teaching laboratory, enthusiastically gave reports, and now are preparing their first scientific publications. The problem is that, for the most part, none of this is needed by anyone except themselves. Today they realize the values instilled in them by their families, are spurred on by teachers’ prompts, earn red diplomas, write articles. And what about tomorrow?
I am convinced that quality university education can be obtained only by engaging in research activity. But my view is the view of a person situated at a certain place in the education system. If the system is a single whole, the work of its parts must be defined by the goal‑setting of the entire system. And what is that?
Let me try to understand what goals the higher education system actually solves. Yes, I am talking about the situation in Ukraine. Russian readers may rejoice – in their country everything is, apparently, different.
Thus, the tasks: