Who I ran over: driving schools will evaluate in a new way

The State Duma considered in the first reading a draft law on the rating of driving schools. The Interior Ministry plans to evaluate driving schools, including by the number of accidents committed by their graduates and people killed in such accidents. Quality assessment criteria should be as transparent, correct and comprehensive as possible, experts and representatives of driving schools say. The details are in the Izvestia article.

Rate driving schools

The State Duma has approved in the first reading a draft law submitted by the Government of the Russian Federation on assessing the quality of driving schools. The document has been published in the legislative support system of the lower house of Parliament. According to the amendments to the Law on Road Safety, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will develop a "list of indicators, criteria and frequency of effectiveness assessment" for driving schools. It is assumed that the data of this rating will be published in the public domain.

"Information on performance indicators of organizations engaged in educational activities is supposed to be posted on the Internet in order to provide citizens with open access to them and form their opinion on the quality of training in a specific educational organization providing professional training for drivers of vehicles," the explanatory note to the document says.

According to Igor Zubov, Deputy Interior Minister, the ministry may add information about graduates of driving schools who died in an accident to this rating.

"We only want to do one thing — to make the system transparent. So that a person who wants to get a license can look somewhere where he is going, to whom, what percentage is in this school at all, who passed the first time, how many accidents were committed by graduates of this school within two years, how many of them died," he said during the discussion of the bill. in Parliament, RIA Novosti.

At the end of February this year, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced plans to create a driving school rating. He noted that it will be based, among other things, on data on the number of accidents involving graduates of these educational institutions.

"The quality of such educational institutions will be assessed according to certain indicators, including the results of students' exams, as well as emergency situations faced by graduates of a particular school," Mikhail Mishustin emphasized.

The day before, the government commission on Road Safety recommended that the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Rosobrnadzor check all Russian driving schools and develop proposals to strengthen quality control over their work. This decision is due to an increase in the number of deaths in road accidents caused by novice drivers.

Criterion to criterion is different

Nowadays, in most cases, when choosing a driving school, people are guided by "word of mouth" — the advice and recommendations of friends and acquaintances, Tatyana Shutyleva, president of the Interregional Association of Driving Schools, told Izvestia. In her opinion, the appearance of such a rating may become an additional factor that those who are going to get a driver's license will pay attention to. However, its effectiveness and relevance will greatly depend on the criteria by which the educational institution will be evaluated, she stressed.

— At the moment, there is only a framework bill adopted in the first reading, for the implementation of which it will be necessary to develop and adopt other normative acts regulating the criteria for these assessments and the procedure for conducting them. This should be the most transparent and comprehensive approach possible," Tatiana Shutyleva told Izvestia.

According to her, an estimate of the number of accidents committed by graduates of driving schools, without taking into account the total number of graduates of this educational institution, would be incorrect. This was proved by an experiment conducted in a number of regions several years ago to create a similar rating based on accident criteria for graduates of driving schools, she noted.

— It turned out that large educational institutions with a solid material and technical base and experienced teachers, who graduate 1,500-2,000 people per year, were at the very bottom of this rating, while small driving schools, which graduate 200-300 people per year, were at the top. The effect of "big numbers" worked: obviously, the more people left the walls of a driving school, the higher the quantitative indicator of those who had an accident," she stressed.

In addition, when assessing the accident rate of graduates of driving schools, it is necessary to take into account the causal relationship between the accident itself and the quality of education of its participants, said the president of the Interregional Association of Driving Schools.

Igor Morzharetto, a member of the presidium of the Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, also believes that when determining accident rates for graduates of driving schools, an in-depth analysis of the causes of accidents is necessary.

— It's one thing if the accident was caused by learning disabilities, lack of necessary knowledge and skills that should have been given at a driving school as part of an appropriate educational program. And it's a completely different matter if an intoxicated driver has an accident by driving into the oncoming lane and running a red light," Igor Morzharetto told Izvestia.

The criteria that will form the basis of the rating of driving schools should be comprehensive and take into account all the features and nuances, member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the All-Russian Society of Motorists Valery Soldunov believes. Otherwise, his indicators will be incorrect, he believes.

— Within the framework of the Civic Chamber, round tables and discussions on this issue are regularly held with the involvement of all interested parties: representatives of ministries and departments, driving schools, public organizations and experts. This allows us to form a consolidated opinion, which should form the basis for the evaluation criteria of educational institutions that train drivers, and the formation of this rating, " he told Izvestia.

Without an alternative

The proposed rating of driving schools can become an additional factor in choosing an educational institution where they will teach traffic rules and give driving skills, says Maxim Kadakov, editor-in-chief of Za Rulem magazine. However, it will be relevant only for large cities with a large number of driving schools, he believes.

— If five, seven, or ten driving schools are located near the place of residence and work of a person who wants to get a license, it is likely that he will choose the one that has higher performance in this rating. And then, to a large extent, other factors will influence his choice, for example, the schedule of the educational institution or the proposed schedule of classes in theory and driving. But if there is only one driving school in any district center, then residents of the nearest villages and villages will go to study in it, regardless of what place it occupies in the rating, Maxim Kadakov is sure.