"Companies have started an acute struggle for future engineers"
One of the most striking details of the Unified State Exam-2026 is an increase by a quarter in the number of graduates who decided to take physics. The reason is the hunt of large and successful companies for future engineers. The same explains the choice of 60% of ninth graders in favor of secondary vocational education: staff hunger forces employers to attract potential employees more actively even at the training stage. In an interview with Izvestia at the SPIEF, the head of Rosobrnadzor, Anzor Muzaev, told about what other trends have appeared in school education, why the Unified State Exam will change with the development of artificial intelligence and what is behind the result of 100 points on the Unified State Exam.
"Thanks to the Unified State Exam, we have removed the corruption factor"
— Last Monday, the main period of the Unified State Exam began. Are there any special features or differences from previous years this year?
— There are no major changes, except for one thing. Starting this year, the exam will start no earlier than June 1. The schedule was designed so that we could conduct the examination campaign within the time frame that we were allocated, taking into account the reserve days, and the next stage was the admission campaign to higher education.
— What will it do?
— The logic is for schools to calmly make last calls. There are two main holidays at school: Knowledge Day — September 1st, and the last bell. And graduation, of course. And because the exam started early, sometimes everything went wrong. It was necessary to prepare the exam points. Six thousand schools were deprived of the opportunity to calmly hold the last bell. There are no other changes.
— It is not the first year that some deputies, public figures, and politicians have proposed to cancel the Unified State Exam. Why are they doing this? And have you personally communicated with such people?
— I respect all points of view, we live in a free society. The main thing is to hear each other and take criticism well. We work very closely with the parliamentary corps. Two years ago, we had extensive public discussions about what to change, what to add, and what to improve in the USE procedure. And then we received really sensible proposals from many deputies, which we implemented. But if a person declares, you just need to cancel the Unified State Exam, and offers nothing in return...
— They propose to return to the usual final exams and university entrance exams.
— Is the society ready for this? Every year in the fall, someone comes up with such an initiative. It has been 25 years since the Unified State Exam was introduced. I don't even want to comment on what motivates the opponents of the Unified State Exam. You have to ask them that. I did not participate in the transition to the Unified State Exam — I was quite young and held completely different positions. But since 2013, I have been involved at the federal level in improving the Unified State Exam and overseeing its implementation. In my opinion, a great thing has been done. First of all, we have removed the corruption factor.
— Probably, many people just don't remember how it was before?
— Yes, the new generation doesn't know about it at all, and the older ones are trying to pretend that it never happened. In the 90s and early 2000s, higher education institutions were almost only accepted by phone or through some kind of corruption schemes.
— There was also a hidden form of corruption when they hired a tutor who teaches at a university.
— Yes, the tutor is a teacher at the university. And he knew for sure that he would be among the three or four teachers taking the exams. And the society knew everything, and this situation was very annoying at the time. And then, at the highest level, we thought about a model that would make obtaining school certificates and university admission transparent and honest.
"Only the name has been preserved from the original model of the Unified State Exam"
— Has the Unified State Exam outlived all its initial mistakes?
— It is still not perfect, because we live in a rapidly changing century. Everything is changing. Technology, lifestyle, view of society, on a particular problem. Such tectonic shifts are underway! And here, just sitting on the same model, not changing anything, not improving is stupid. We see the aggressive entry of artificial intelligence into our lives. It's a challenge. It will be strange to look at this and not change anything in the exam now or in the coming years. Well, if we take the first model of the Unified State Exam and the current one, then only the name and the overall approach have been preserved from the original one. Everything that could be changed inside each object has been done over the years.
— Speaking of changes. Not so long ago, graduates had the opportunity to retake the elective exam in the same year, without waiting for the next one if they were not satisfied with the result. However, when retaking, it is the last result that is taken into account, even if it turned out to be worse. Is the possibility of leaving a graduate with the best of two results being considered?
— To be honest, there was a discussion: whether to leave a good result or a bad one. My personal opinion and the opinion of my colleagues is that the one who didn't retake had only one attempt, and he lost. That is, the rights of this part of the children will be infringed.
Second. We devalue the possibility of retaking altogether. Last year, if I'm not mistaken, about 170,000 people came to retake. And about 70% of the guys improved their results. We took a general cross—section and analyzed who improved the result and who worsened it. And what's the picture? Those guys who initially did not score the threshold points showed poor knowledge and did not improve the result. And there was a case when a guy passed 91 points, came to retake and scored 98.
The retake is for strong and confident guys who realized that they were burned out, worried, had a fever, but they did not go to the medical center, did not apply for documents, fearing that they would not be allowed on the reserve day. There are many different cases.
"Previously, it was difficult for businesses to get into universities. And now it's an intervention."
— It is believed that if a subject becomes mandatory for passing the Unified State Exam, then academic performance on it automatically increases. Physics is now mandatory for all engineering majors. What do the WRC show? Do children know physics better or not?
— I was in the Amur region just now and visited one of the schools in Svobodny, where SIBUR works quite closely with education, not only at school, but also with kindergarten. Companies that need engineers have started a fierce struggle for human capital. It is human capital that is the basis for the prosperity of any state. High—quality human capital is an educated population.
In the past, it was difficult to attract businesses not only to schools and kindergartens, but also to universities. There were unique projects, but one-time ones. And now it's just a large-scale intervention. It's not a good word, but there's no other way to describe it. Especially where there are large enterprises and there is a shortage of qualified personnel, businesses have gone to educational institutions, and this is great.
When they work together with the school, kindergarten, the child understands who he will become, where his future lies. Early career guidance is underway. And in this process, he begins to realize why physics is needed. Because he went to a modern factory, talked to a live engineer, saw the sterile workshops and realized that he dreamed of working there. And the child is already learning not from under the stick of his parents, but with the desire to get into this particular enterprise.
What do we see in physics? Indeed, our average scores and the number of graduates who want to take it are growing. This year is an absolute record: 24% more graduates chose physics than last year. Tremendous growth!
— Everything is fine with physics. Again, the most popular elective subjects this year are core mathematics, computer science, and social studies. What does this mean? That the humanities are not in demand? And what should they do?
— No one has reduced the number of humanitarian places in the country's universities. Humanitarian education has not been canceled and is not going to be. We must understand that our classical universities have a lot of humanitarian fields, and this is the foundation.
Humanities scholars also have a very large field of activity. These professions were already attractive, but there was an imbalance when engineers, unfortunately, could not get a job because there was no offer. Now this imbalance is being leveled.
"In some regions, the average college enrollment score is 4.7"
— Is Rosobrnadzor monitoring the fate of 400-ballers? Are they as successful in the future?
— This year, I think we have come up with a good thing on our website when 100-point students who are already studying at universities give recommendations to graduates before the exam. They advise you how to prepare, how not to worry in vain, and so on. And I recognize some 100-point and 400-point students because we have a tradition.: We meet and communicate with them.
We have lists of 100-point winners from previous years, among them are the winners of presidential prizes in the field of science. And this is not an accident, because earning 100 points is very hard work. There are no guesses on the Unified State Exam. You can't earn 100 points on the Unified State Exam by clicking something.
— This year, a very important stage for schoolchildren was not only the Unified State Exam, but also the OGE, which for many years was considered a fairly simple exam. There are new recommendations for transferring points, and now it has become more difficult to move to the 10th grade. Even fractions of a point can play a fatal role. Why such strictures? Why aren't very strong students given a chance to study for 11 years? After all, many people are just starting their studies in the tenth grade.
— Five or six years ago, many regions treated the exam in the ninth grades like this: well, the exam and the exam, as long as you get a certificate. It wasn't so important whether they went to tenth grade or went to college. Now the regions have begun to realize that the economy needs qualified, educated personnel, including college graduates.
There used to be a stereotype about colleges, but now they are often more high-tech than some faculties in individual universities. And large companies and enterprises have entered these colleges, they invest their capital there and take almost all graduates to work with them. College graduates have completely different opportunities now. It is often much better in some industries than the opportunities offered by university graduates.
— 60% of ninth grade graduates go to secondary vocational institutions. So it's a conscious choice?
— Three weeks ago, I was in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, visited the college and talked with students. And one of the first—year students there is an excellent student from one of the best gymnasiums in the city. And the reaction to the question: "Why did you come to college, you're an excellent student?" was surprise. He said: "I want to get a profession and quickly enter the labor market, become independent and earn money. I like it here, and the level of education here is very high."
And in some regions, there is a college certificate competition — only excellent students come there. Imagine, the average enrollment score is 4.7!
— Are these some kind of creative colleges?
— No, mainly engineering areas. In cities where there are jobs and high salaries, the competition for colleges has increased dramatically.
— Rosobrnadzor planned to create an international assessment of the quality of national education systems of the BRICS and EAEU countries. Has anything been done yet?
— No, work is underway. The main contractor here is the Ministry of Education. We are part of a working group. Creating an international assessment of the quality of national education systems is a very difficult process, because each country chooses its own standard of education. And it's quite difficult and long to make a model that would suit everyone. The work doesn't stop, it goes on.
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