Ninth graders were allowed to take two subjects on the OGE. What you need to know

In the third reading, the State Duma adopted a law on conducting an experiment, according to which in three regions of Russia, after the ninth grade, schoolchildren will be able to take two compulsory exams instead of four. This will be enough for admission to colleges in these regions of the federation. The experiment is aimed at making it easier to obtain working specialties. What the new law will change is in the Izvestia article.

What is the current certification system in Russia?

• School education in Russia ends with obtaining a certificate. It can be of two types — about basic general education and about secondary general education. The first one is awarded to a student at the end of nine grades of study and entitles them to enter college in order to receive secondary vocational education. The second one can be obtained after the 11th grade, it is necessary for admission to university and higher education.

• In both cases, to obtain a certificate, you need to pass the State Final Certification (GIA), which has several forms. At the end of the ninth grade, it takes place in the form of the Main State Exam (OGE), which is sometimes mistakenly called the GIA. After 11th grade, in order to receive a certificate, you must also pass the Unified State Exam (USE). There is also a State final exam, which is a variation of the OGE and the Unified State Exam for children with disabilities, students with disabilities serving sentences in places of deprivation of liberty and pupils of special schools and boarding schools.

• The new law applies only to obtaining a certificate of basic general education and passing the OGE. Now, in order to pass the GIA after the ninth grade, you need to take two compulsory OGE in Russian and mathematics, as well as two more subjects to choose from. Passing means that the student receives the minimum number of points determined for each subject. For example, to avoid a "two" in Russian, you need to write an OGE of at least 15 points.

• Additionally, to receive a certificate after the ninth grade, you must get grades of at least "three" in all subjects from the secondary school curriculum. The last annual grade is taken into account, even if the subject ended long before the ninth grade (for example, music or drawing). If you passed the exam, then the average grade between the OGE result and the annual mark will be included in the certificate.

What does the new law change?

• The law adopted by the State Duma introduces an experiment on the territory of three subjects of the federation — in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Lipetsk region. After the second reading, the list also included Kemerovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, Saratov and Tyumen regions, Kamchatka and Krasnodar Territories, North Ossetia and Yamalo-Nenets Okrug, but during the review the Ministry of Education noted that they were not yet suitable for the pilot project. The experiment will last until December 31, 2025, meaning it will affect only one senior year.

• In these regions, only two compulsory OGE will be allowed to take — in Russian and mathematics — for those who do not intend to move on to the 10th grade. This will be enough to obtain a general education certificate and enroll in college, and such graduates will have a preferential right to admission and study at the expense of the regional budget. Regions will also be able to lower the threshold for passing these two exams. To enter the tenth grade, you still need to successfully pass two additional OGE.

• To study in certain professions and specialties that require certain creative abilities, physical and psychological qualities, it is still necessary to pass entrance tests. At the same time, the regions participating in the experiment are given the right to establish a list of professions for which they can study without taking into account the results of final exams at all. But for admission to college, a certificate will still be necessary.

• Due to the law, the date of submitting an application for the selection of subjects for the OGE will change in 12 regions. If you usually need to choose before March 1, now the deadline will be shifted to two months after the law comes into force.

What is the experiment for?

• The authors of the bill noted that the experiment would expand opportunities for secondary vocational education. According to its results, it is expected that the number of students entering colleges for working professions will increase. Every year, about 100,000 schoolchildren do not continue their studies after the ninth grade, as they do not have enough free budget places or they do not have the opportunity to move to another region.

• It was decided to conduct an experiment in certain regions due to the fact that there is now an imbalance in the system of secondary vocational education — in some regions the number of students is decreasing, while in others the competition for budget places is artificially increasing. As a result, some businesses lack new employees, and some have to meet excessive requirements to get an education.

• The new law is designed to solve the problem of shortage of personnel among working professions, and give schoolchildren a chance to get a profession that will become in demand after graduation from college. Given that the regions participating in the experiment will be able to regulate this process, the allocation of yesterday's students will be more effective for the economy.

• The fact that the experiment will be conducted only once will allow us to immediately evaluate its results and identify possible shortcomings, so that in a year it can be repeated with better results and, possibly, extended to more regions where the secondary vocational education system is also not built fruitfully enough.