Question of the Day: how will the school year start?

The beginning of the school year is approaching, parents and children are getting ready for September 1 with might and main. But many are concerned about the question: how will the beginning of the school year go this year? Should we wait for the festive lines or due to the epidemiological situation this year we will miss such a significant event? Let’s figure it out together!

How will the school year start?

The new academic year will be organized in accordance with the requirements of Rospotrebnadzor. Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Russia Anna Popova signed a resolution approving the sanitary and epidemiological rules for the work of educational organizations for children and youth in the context of the coronavirus, which will be valid until January 1, 2021.

These include measuring the temperature of teachers, students, support staff, maintaining a social distance of 1.5 meters and the maximum separation of children in classes. Activities are recommended to be held either outdoors or indoors, assigned to one class, with the exception of the gym, chemistry, physics, fine arts classrooms in schools.

What about the lines?

In 2020, school lines in their usual form have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. This year, the festive lines will be held in a slightly different format. Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov spoke about this, speaking at the international conference «First results of the pandemic: challenges and new opportunities for the global education system.»

“We traditionally hold lineups on September 1, for obvious reasons, we will hold them in a slightly different format,” said Kravtsov. “Pupils and teachers will come to schools, the educational process will begin, but with certain requirements in order to prevent outbreaks of the disease or the spread of infection, in order to maximize the safety and health of our students and teachers.” He did not elaborate on the details of the events.

On September 1, schools will conduct diagnostics of schoolchildren’s knowledge. “We will not give grades, but simply look at the level of knowledge. If there are gaps, then we have developed a program that will help close the gaps and even out educational results,” Kravtsov said.

Will the «digital environment» replace traditional lessons?

The information disseminated in a number of communities on social networks and other sources about the alleged transfer of education from school to online is unreliable and has no basis.

The Digital Educational Environment project will significantly expand students’ access to quality educational programs, while these solutions do not imply a departure from traditional classes in schools.

The digital educational environment is an element of all developed world education systems, including high-speed Internet in schools, providing educational organizations with appropriate equipment, as well as a wide range of services that expand the interactivity of the learning process, but do not replace live communication with the teacher in the classroom.

DSP creates conditions in the traditional classroom system using e-learning opportunities, distance learning technologies, with the ability to use electronic information and educational resources.

“We are not talking about replacing one type of education — full-time — with another, distance learning, but about the possibility of using some elements of digital programs in the full-time educational process — for example, materials from the Russian e-school, which has collected the best methods and lessons from the country’s best teachers, — said Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov, “I emphasize once again that we expect to start the academic year traditionally in September and all schoolchildren will sit down at their desks again.”

Expanded capabilities of the digital educational environment are planned to be tested in 14 regions (Altai Territory, Astrakhan Region, Kaliningrad Region, Kaluga Region, Kemerovo Region-Kuzbass, Moscow Region, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Novgorod Region, Novosibirsk Region, Perm Territory, Sakhalin Region, Tyumen Region, Chelyabinsk oblast, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), who have taken the initiative to participate and are already conducting relevant preparatory work.

Such an expansion of the possibilities of an ordinary school for remote regions of Russia is especially relevant. Distance learning, which all Russian schools switched to at the end of the last academic year due to the epidemic, highlighted areas that require significant improvement in technical and material equipment. This project is aimed at leveling the situation.

The full completion of the federal project «Digital Educational Environment» by 2024 will make it possible, if necessary, to use modern digital educational technologies in addition to traditional ones throughout the country. For example, during bursts of seasonal morbidity for groups of students who stayed at home due to illness. Or for children undergoing long-term treatment in hospitals. Classes at school and live communication with the teacher are an invariable part of the national educational system and it is unshakable.