East or West, home is best: conditions for promising young people discussed with USE hundred-point students

Asking the best ones

Schoolchildren have been gathered at the United Russia round table discussion to talk in an adult way about the future of Tatarstan's youth, about the development of the education system in the republic. The participants of the meeting were the school children who received record 100 points for the Unified State Exams.

The meeting was moderated by Alexander Terentyev, the deputy chief of staff of the president of the Republic of Tatarstan. According to him, the issues of the development of young talents need to be addressed comprehensively, including what the University of Talents, of which he is the chairman of the board, is engaged in. The speaker also noted that everything is not bad in Tatarstan in the Olympiad system, the Worldskills movement, and higher education, where this year the number of budget places has increased by 20% to almost 60,000 people.

But now Terentyev was primarily interested in feedback from schoolchildren. By the way, they were like best of the best with a perfectly delivered speech, understanding of how to develop further and what is needed for this. It is noteworthy that all the students studied at the N.I. Lobachevsky Lyceum of the Kazan Federal University.

For example, Zarrina Sattarova said that the lyceum gave her the basic knowledge to start and additional education in the online school played a role. According to her, the formed environment has all the resources for development, but not everyone knows how to use them. She called the Internet a very convenient area for education. The girl received one hundred points for the chemistry exam. However, the discipline was not in her priority — she wants to devote her life to medicine and is still deciding where to go — to the Kazan State Medical University in Kazan or to Sechenov University in Moscow.

Amir Gizzatullin received 100 points in computer science, he is the winner of many All-Russian olympiads. Kamil Notfullin and Bulat Gayazov have a similar situation with the olympiads. They all were engaged purposefully, spending their free time on it, organising themselves into interest groups.

Not only olympiads, but also projects

Kamil Notfullin shared his opinion on the support of young talents. For example, he pointed out one drawback — many universities take into account the success at the olympiads and the results of the Unified State Exams, but they do not look at the implemented projects and scientific research. As a result, even if they have a desire to do something of their own, children are forced to focus their attention on specialised competitions to enrol at university later.

“Project activity is closer to the real state of things, judging by the way things are going in modern IT companies. Olympiads, after all, are a separate type. This experience teaches us to think outside the box, useful algorithms," adds Amir Gizzatullin.

Alexander Terentyev recognised the idea of considering projects for admission to Tatarstan universities as interesting and promised to consider this option.

Another clarification of the graduates also concerned the rules of admission to universities.

“It seems to me that victories and prize-winning in regional olympiads are not very appreciated by universities. It is clear that when a person reaches the all-Russian level, they are in the top 30 of the country and it is worth enrolling them without exams, this is not a problem. But, for example, if they are winners of the regional stage, they are in the top 30 in the region, then they get 3 points for the Unified State Exam. It seems to me that this is not serious — a person is one of the best in the republic, and receives as much as the holder of a certificate with honours. This is also an achievement, but there are two or three thousand of them in Tatarstan," says Kamil Notfullin.

Following the words of the hundred-point students, the executive director of the University of Talents, Aydar Akmalov, made notes in his notebook. They decided to study the issue in more detail.

Tatarstan universities do not need hundred-point students?

This is not the end of the story with the olympiads. Amir Gizzatullin drew attention to that there is not enough pedagogical work on this topic in schools. Answering Terentyev's question, he said that as a result, students are not motivated, many go to olympiads to skip classes, not to develop.

Besides, as it turned out, the logic of contests is also opaque. At the regional stage, for example, according to experience, first they say that the winners need to score a certain number of points, then it turns out that the number must be different.

But the most interesting thing in the context of the work on localisation of young talents in Tatarstan concerns the policy of universities. As it turned out, none of the participants of the round table discussion after the announcement of the results of the Unified State Exams were invited by local universities. Several students were contacted by educational institutions in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but not because of 100 points, but because of their victories at the olympiads.

The fact that an invitation did not come from our universities, of course, upset me," stated Alexander Terentyev

In his opinion, the situation requires individual work.

East or West, home is best

The question of how to retain personnel in Tatarstan has been discussed for more than one year. But it seems that the republic has its own strategy, which allows the children to develop, so that they can develop the region later.

“A drain as a drain is bad. But there is a foreign term: from brain drain to brain game, which is associated with that smart guys realise themselves not only inside their native republic. Our task is to interest those who study in other regions and countries so that they return here and are employed with the knowledge they receive," said Timur Suleymanov, the first deputy minister for youth affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan. According to him, there is a programme of support for compatriots in Tatarstan for this purpose.

“There is no need to be afraid that the guys leave. The most important thing is to maintain good relations with them, because studying somewhere, they get new competencies. And it is good if this knowledge will then come to us in the form of students themselves. But if they become guides outside the republic and transmit the best practices and experience to us — this is also useful for us," added Alexander Terentyev, the deputy head of the Presidential Staff of the Republic of Tatarstan.