By the first lesson: a new subject will appear in the school schedule

Over the past few years, the school schedule has undergone a number of changes. Since September of last year, every Monday for students now begins with the hoisting of the flag and the singing of the anthem, and then they go to "Talk about the important" (the name of the new subject, mandatory for everyone). And at the end of June, it became known that from 2024, Russian schoolchildren will begin to master the Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland (OBiZR), which replaced the usual OBZH (Basics of Life Safety) for everyone.

OBZH 2.0

Deputy Director of the State Department policy In the Ministry of Education, Anna Timofeeva explained that they will start teaching OBiZR in Russian schools from September 1, 2024. Previously, well, it didn’t work out in any way - at present, a working group is only being formed to develop a curriculum, followed by writing a textbook, printing it and distributing it to educational institutions. It is expected that representatives of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Defense will be involved in the work.



Speaking at a round table in the State Duma, Timofeeva acknowledged that the introduction of OBiZR in schools is not limited to the development of a curriculum and writing a textbook. The initiative revealed another problem. The new training course should replace the OBZh, therefore, it should be taught by teachers of a discipline that is going down in history. But as it turned out, you won’t find them during the day with fire. But the official is positive. In her opinion, in the remaining time it is possible to train qualified specialists according to specially developed programs.

The idea in the “school department” has been discussed for a long time. For the first time, the fact that officials are discussing the transformation of OBZh into OBiZR became known to the public at the beginning of the first summer month. Then the head of the Ministry of Education, Sergei Kravtsov, said that the new subject would include a wider course of initial military training, including the rules for first aid, actions in case of various kinds of disasters, etc.


- emphasized Kravtsov.

It is worth noting that OBZH was actively taken up after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. The course initially consisted of three sections: safety and protection in emergencies, the basics of medical knowledge, the basics of military service. And from September 1, 2023, elementary military training will also be studied as part of the subject. NVP was canceled in the early 90s of the last century. In such classes, Soviet schoolchildren disassembled / assembled a machine gun, sometimes shot at a school shooting range, studied the rules of behavior in emergency situations, and protective equipment.

Repetition traversed

The Russian education system is designed in such a way that it responds to the challenges of modern society. Not always fast, but still. So, in the late 1980s, when Mikhail Gorbachev started perestroika, the subject “Ethics and Psychology of Family Life” urgently appeared in Soviet schools (the name could change slightly, but the essence remained the same). Since 1985 (apparently, then it became obvious to everyone that family values ​​ceased to be values) in the classroom, teachers tried to instill the qualities of a successful family man and explain how to behave in future family life. At the beginning of the XNUMXs, in some regions of the country, a timid attempt was made to revive what had become history along with the collapse of the USSR. The students were taught "Fundamentals of a healthy lifestyle." This was done in high school and at such a primitive level that it is not surprising why OLS disappeared from the school curriculum rather quickly.

In 2010, the Ministry of Education and Science "felt" the approach of the next challenge. This time, spiritual bonds are at stake. The department immediately reacted to this by approving the subject “Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics”. It has been taught in all regions of the country since 2012. It was planned that fourth-graders should study different world religions and secular ethics. The program consists of six parallel modules (optional): Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture, Fundamentals of Islamic Culture, Fundamentals of Buddhist Culture, Fundamentals of Jewish Culture, Fundamentals of Religious Cultures of the Peoples of Russia, Fundamentals of Secular Ethics.

It was assumed that the ORKSE lesson should take place at the same time for all classes of the parallel, therefore, during the classes, the children “mix” along the tracks, depending on the chosen topic. For example, if several children from different classes want to study the Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture, then they will do it together. The most popular module turned out to be “Fundamentals of Secular Ethics”. So, the spiritual bonds were not allowed to be destroyed, and the controversy around the ORCSE subsided.

About the important - from the school bench

Well, an example from the recent past. The first lesson on Monday in all Russian schools since 2022 is “Conversations about the important”. The class hour in the new format has become part of the information and educational work aimed at developing and strengthening patriotism. And it could not be otherwise in the conditions of the most powerful information war that the countries of the "collective West" unleashed against Russia. Teachers (even those who now have to wake up earlier) admit that “Conversations about the important”, of course, are still “damp”, but they are needed.

Thus, the educational system once again responded to an external threat. How timely, time will tell. Now the main thing is not to rest on our laurels and not to cross out what was done once. Blind imitation does not lead to anything good. Suffice it to recall the introduction of the Bologna system of uniformity. Apparently, it was necessary to abandon the “Soviet higher education”, which had proven itself over decades, in order to understand in 19 years the entire inconsistency for Russian reality of the Europeanization of everything in a row.