– Engel Navapovich, from Kazan you returned to your native Aktanysh district to your previous job. How did you feel about this return? – Although I worked in Kazan for five years, I returned to my native region with joy, since I had not parted with him all this time. I went every week, and these trips recharged me for the whole week. In Aktanysh, my mother, thank God, is alive and well, she is 94 years old. Thanks to our President Rustam Nurgalievich, I had the opportunity to stay in Kazan, but I asked to be returned back to my native region. His decision was positive, for which I am very grateful to him. – It is planned that a modern ski complex will appear in Aktanysh. Is it already known where exactly it will be built? Is the project ready and who is financing the facility? – The idea of the complex appeared a long time ago, from the time when I worked as the head of the district. It was proposed by Rustam Nurgalievich himself, who was still prime minister at that time. “This mountain of yours is on the north side. There is a helipad there, and right there is the Maidan for Sabantuy. Maybe you can make such a complex?” – he expressed the thought then. Projects are at the completion stage. Of course, this is not from budget funds. Three oil companies operate in our territory. We hope that in the future we will implement them. Aktanysh is a beautiful corner of nature, a native Tatar region. We see tourism as one of the areas that will be a priority for Aktanysh in the future. And, of course, we hope that such a complex will attract tourists. – You held several republican events in Aktanysh. Why? Because they themselves worked at the republican level? Or do you want to make Aktanysh the center of cultural, sports, Tatar life? - More like the second one. Even before Kazan, I held many events in our area together with the World Congress of Tatars. Congress of heads of Tatar villages, Congress of Tatar entrepreneurs, last year - the interregional competition of Alfia Avzalova and the All-Russian festival of harmonists. Today, Aktanysh district is the only Tatar district where Tatar identity has been preserved. In our district, children from the first and second grades are taught in the Tatar language. Of course, parents have the right, and we can open Russian classes at their request. But at the moment the fact remains this: 98 percent of the residents of our area are Tatars. And we want to preserve our district in the form of a kind of center where truly Tatar life takes place. In our region, even before I left for Kazan, with the help of the republic’s leadership, two large projects were implemented. They make me especially proud. The first is the state song and dance ensemble “Agidel”. We have only two such state ensembles in our republic, one of them in Kazan, the second in Aktanysh. The second project is a humanitarian Tatar gymnasium, it is the only one in the republic. Children from many regions of Russia study in our gymnasium; in this Tatar environment, they master the Tatar language perfectly. Thus, the project of multilingual schools, which was started by our first president Mintimer Sharipovich Shaimiev, has been implemented here for several years. The goal of our gymnasium is the same - graduates must be fluent in three languages: Tatar, Russian and English. This is one of the main directions that we adhere to. We have very beautiful nature. Four rivers flow through the territory of the Aktanysh district - Belaya, Kama, Syun and Ik, our district is located between these rivers. In agriculture, we still have collective farms, of course, in a modified form, but they work and are responsible for preserving and shaping the social face of the village. From this point of view, we are trying to ensure that our villages are beautiful, well-groomed, clean, as Tatar villages and Tatar farms should be. The regional center - the village of Aktanysh - was rebuilt very beautifully, according to the project. We strive to make Aktanysh a comprehensively exemplary Tatar region. Of course, this also applies to labor. The best field workers are awarded the title “Aktanysh grain grower”. Where there is bread, there is the Tatar wrestling koresh. The Musa Jalil estate tournament in Tatar wrestling was held here this year. We believe that it is Aktanysh who in the future should join the ranks of our prominent writers, poets, people of art and creativity. And we work, taking on this responsibility. Therefore, we are talking about creating a region that is exemplary in work, with comfortable living conditions for people and preserving Tatar identity. – What other plans do you have in the field of national education in Aktanysh? – I always work with the conviction that the future of any country, republic, region is determined by human capital. Not raw materials, not machine tools, but human capital. We had to study the experience of many countries. Let's take Singapore - there is not an ounce of raw materials there, and it is an oil-refining country. If we look at a person’s standard of living, we will see that it is based on the education system. We used to say that the main education comes from the family. But if a child does not receive a good level of knowledge in kindergarten, then at school he will no longer master this knowledge. If he doesn’t get it in secondary and basic school, then at the university it is already difficult to prepare this student for a person of a high professional level. I compare school to millstones. If you put low-quality grains in them, then you should not expect that the flour will be of high quality. Therefore, each system at its own level must provide quality education: kindergarten, secondary school, primary school and, of course, higher education institutions. This is the only way we will be able to get people trained to meet the requirements of life. That's why we created this system in our area. Who determines the quality of upbringing and education at the district level? Of course, from the head of the education department. And a lot depends on the methodological center. We systematically work with the principals and teachers. And, of course, with kindergartens, secondary and basic schools. We also have a resource center. They work as an extension of each other. – What do you think, the situation that has arisen in recent years with the teaching of the Tatar language, and this result - were these expected events or were they unexpected for you? – In the 90s, a lot changed here, many innovations were introduced. By the end of the Soviet era, there was only one school left in Kazan teaching the Tatar language. In the 90s, Tatar schools opened like mushrooms after rain, a lot. After this there was some stagnation. It must be said that there were unfinished aspects in the field of teaching the Tatar language. Because in our curriculum a certain number of hours were allocated to the Tatar language, and no work was done to reduce these hours. A methodology for teaching the Tatar language to develop communication skills in children was not developed; most importantly, teachers were not trained. Therefore, we began to conduct all our activities in this direction. We were able to develop and implement many new projects that served to increase the prestige of the Tatar language. I am very happy that today the President of Tatarstan Rustam Nurgalievich Minnikhanov and the first President of the republic Mintimer Sharipovich Shaimiev are working to create Tatar schools. If I had not implemented in Aktanysh what I spoke about earlier, and being the Minister of Education myself, it would have been wrong. I am doing everything in my power in this direction. And I think that this experience needs to be extended to other regions of the republic. – In what case would we be able to defend the previous education system? – I don’t want to return to those scandalous events, to be honest. You, journalists, actively participated in these discussions and know very well yourself. The Republic of Tatarstan has two state languages – Russian and Tatar. And if the Tatar language is the state language, how could we refuse the compulsory study of the native Tatar language in schools? I have always stuck to my principles, and I still do today. I implement my thoughts, ideas, and projects in my native region. – It has been said many times that the method of teaching the Tatar language is incorrect. Do you agree with this? – Children learning the Tatar language should be divided into three categories. The first is children living in Tatar areas, such as Aktanysh. Muslyumovsky, Sarmanovsky, Aznakaevsky, Arsky - here in the villages the Tatar language has been preserved, children speak their native language well. I think it is from this category of children that we can expect the future generation of writers, poets, and creative intelligentsia of the Tatar people. With such children it is necessary to conduct an in-depth study of the Tatar language. The second category is children from Tatar families where the native language has been forgotten and the child has poor command of the Tatar language. These children must be taught in a separate program. And the third category is Russian children. I am convinced that not a single parent in Tatarstan is against their child knowing more languages. We are parents ourselves, so we are only happy. The child must find himself in life. He will know more languages - and it will be more useful for him. Especially in Tatarstan, none of the parents are against knowing the Tatar language, which is the state language in the republic. The mistake was that we taught Russian-speaking children the basics of grammar, when we should have given them conversational skills so that the child knew the language at the level necessary to communicate with peers. For this purpose, we have created textbooks and teaching aids “Salam”. They began to train teachers who would work using this method. The work continues now, and it will bear fruit in the future. – What do you think, now that Tatar is studied at will, what ways of preserving the language can be effective? – I believe that our President Rustam Minnikhanov gave a huge impetus to the work on preserving the language. Do you notice, and I notice: people have a desire to learn the Tatar language. This is felt not only at the school level, but also in life, on the street, at various meetings. And this started recently, even during the years of my work in Kazan it did not happen to this extent. Our President set it this way, and it penetrates into all areas. Now Mintimer Sharipovich is working to create strong elite schools. From the history of our people we see that our madrassas were famous throughout the district, the same Izh-Bobi madrassah in the Agryz region - they knew about it in European countries. They once told me: why can’t this happen now in Aktanysh? I set myself the goal of creating a humanitarian Tatar gymnasium in Aktanysh, which will provide the Tatar world with a strong elite. – The Tatar public considers you a person who fundamentally defended the teaching of the Tatar language. You were called almost a national hero, poems were dedicated to you. How did you feel about this support? - Of course, these were difficult times for me. You come from the prosecutor's office, the press scolds you. And at this moment, receiving the support of people who are on your side - I can say that in those difficult times they gave me the strength to live. If it weren't for them around, I could easily go into depression. – Engel Navapovich, during your years as Minister of Education, you were involved in many important projects and changes in the system. What work of yours could you remember with particular pride now? What didn't you manage to do? – Yes, we had many new projects. But for them to produce results, there must be a management system. The Minister of Education is a manager; he must manage the education system. When I came to the ministry, the methodological center belonged to the ministry, and the education departments belonged to the municipalities. We managed to consider this issue in the Security Council. Rustam Nurgalievich supported us. And we can say that we have created a management system. On the one hand, the Ministry of Education was responsible for the quality of education. On the other hand, the heads of education departments in the districts, schools - all were considered heads of districts. It can't be like that. I couldn't even ask how work was going. And the President transferred these powers to the ministry. That is, we, together with the heads of districts, appointed heads of education departments. We also created a system of basic schools. There are more than 2,000 schools in the republic, we have built more than 700 basic schools. And in these schools we guaranteed the quality of education. That is, they were able to create a system that allows for the dismissal and appointment of directors, appointment after preparation, etc. This gives its results. And, of course, today the biggest problem in the education system is the preparedness of the teaching staff and directors. I must say, quite a lot of projects were implemented. A teacher training program has been developed. Not everyone can work as a teacher. It has to come from the family. Therefore, we started this project: we selected those whose parents were teachers, who showed themselves in school, passing through several stages of selection, gave them a grant and enrolled them in an educational institution. These students receive a 15 thousand ruble scholarship and after training they go to work in their home region. There was a project to certify teachers graduating from a pedagogical university. In addition to the diploma and exams, they passed a test to determine their readiness to work at school. There were also negative reviews, but we gave those who received the certificate a “Our New Teacher” grant. We recommended them to basic schools. This was also a big job to improve the quality of education. This year, the WorldSkills World Championship for blue-collar professions is taking place in Kazan. I remember how we first went to Rustam Nurgalievich and told him about this worldwide movement, and invited us to join him too. We held the first Russian championship here. And now you see, we have reached this level. The first championship in 2014 was a great incentive for secondary specialized educational institutions. Previously, they were associated with the Ministry of Social Protection of the Republic of Tatarstan. We considered that this was wrong, and 72 secondary specialized educational institutions were returned to the Ministry of Education. Of course, with the help of the President. After getting acquainted with their material and technical base, we came to the conclusion that they should not be left in this situation. A new project has emerged together with resource centers and production workers. With their direct participation, such powerful resource centers began to appear. Now, as far as I know, there are more than thirty. This is a requirement of modern life. Masters with golden hands are needed now. If the manufacturing sector does not start training personnel now, it has no future. So this championship was a big incentive. And, of course, kindergartens. Firstly, in kindergartens we must reveal the talents of children and psychologically prepare them for primary school. And, secondly, the child must be taught Russian, Tatar, and English. We set this task. Why do our current school graduates not fully meet the requirements of the competition? Because they can't communicate in English. There is so much communication in the world. If our graduating students speak English fluently and master IT technologies, then they will have a secure future. We are now setting the same goal in Aktanysh. This issue has not yet been resolved at the republican level. Our students travel to foreign countries. If we want to see the competitiveness of our graduating students, they must also know Turkish, Arabic and Chinese. Therefore, we started working in this direction. And, of course, on national education. At the time of my appointment, there was no longer a department of national education left in the ministry. It was restored. I tried to travel around the regions of Russia and helped the Tatars in the regions with benefits. We began work on preparing methods for teaching the Tatar language, teachers, and teaching aids. But much has not yet been done. It was not possible to complete the work on creating a system for teaching the Tatar language. There is a lot of work. The Olympics have begun. The Olympics Center was opened. The Duslyk camp was created. Today we need targeted training for children. If our students have an insufficient level of knowledge, we must invite teachers from St. Petersburg and Moscow. Now the number of participants in the Olympiads has increased. We were once in fourth place, but now we are equal to St. Petersburg. Moscow, St. Petersburg, then us. – Your children speak Tatar. Do you think your grandchildren will know Tatar? – How can they not know their native language? My eldest daughter lives in England. It's been 12 years since I left. I have three grandchildren. All three speak Tatar. It still depends on the family. Because mom only speaks Tatar to them. Their father is Arab, they communicate with him in Arabic, and with each other in English. I'm proud of them. It’s still the beginning, the push comes from the family. Of course, the role of the school is also very important. And kindergarten. But ignorance of the native language, allowing the native language to be forgotten is a family problem. While I was a minister, I could not say that. Now I'm no longer afraid to say it. Therefore, of course, it depends on the parents. As you put it in the family, so it will be. There are families where the parents are Tatars, and the children do not know Tatar. This is a scary situation. The child’s level of thinking is still in his native language. And then, of course, you need to perfectly know the language of our state - Russian and the language of world communication - English. If a child does not know them, then he has no future. And if he knows Chinese or Turkish, it’s even better. Such a child will not disappear anywhere.
The “language crisis” in Tatarstan associated with the voluntary study of the Tatar language seems to have come to an end. The head of the Republic's Ministry of Education, Engel Fattakhov, left his post. The ex-minister was called a lobbyist for maintaining compulsory teaching of the Tatar language. However, there are other versions of this personnel decision.
President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov from the post of Minister of Education and Science Engel Fattakhov “in connection with the transition to another job.” Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Volga Federal District Mikhail Babich admitted: the head of the Ministry of Education of Tatarstan was fired, including in connection with the issue of Russian and Tatar languages in the schools of the republic. At the same time, as the plenipotentiary noted, Fattakhov’s resignation “is connected not only and not so much with language issues.”
“As for the resignation, information was announced that the prosecutor’s office had identified about 3,680 violations in the work of educational institutions. Perhaps such a large number of violations played a role,” Artem Prokofiev, a member of the State Council - Parliament of Tatarstan, a member of the specialized committee on education, culture, science and national issues, told the newspaper VZGLYAD.
“It is not known for certain whether all these violations are related to the language issue, but information about the number of violations was brought to us,” said the Tatarstan parliamentarian.
“The defusing of the language crisis is already underway”
On November 5, the Tatarstan prosecutor's office recognized that the compulsory study of the Tatar language in schools is in accordance with federal legislation. A little more than a day before this decision, the head of the Ministry of Education, Engel Fattakhov, signed a new curriculum.
According to the newspaper VZGLYAD, although the document stated that it was advisory in nature, these recommendations contained requirements to continue to study Tatar without fail. Teaching Russian should be on a voluntary basis. Recommendation letter immediately appeared on social networks.
The Tatarstan prosecutor's office stated that the Minister of Education went (more precisely, repeatedly went) beyond the limits of his competence. In fact, Fattakhov was accused of invading the sphere of federal legal regulation. In this regard, prosecutors prepared a complaint to the Prime Minister of Tatarstan Alexei Pesoshin, demanding that the manuals be immediately withdrawn and that officials who violated federal laws be brought to disciplinary liability.
Let us note that, following the prosecutor’s office of the republic, deputies of the State Council of Tatarstan on November 29 unanimously supported the voluntary study of Tatar as the state language of the republic for two hours a week.
Previously, President Vladimir Putin demanded that the right to study one’s native language be respected. Thus, in July, at a meeting of the Council on Interethnic Relations, the head of state instructed the Prosecutor General’s Office and Rosobrnadzor to “compulsorily teach non-native languages and state languages of the republics against the will of the children’s parents as their legal representatives.” At the same time, the head of state added that the languages of the peoples of Russia are an integral part of their original culture. “Learning these languages is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. The right is voluntary,” Putin emphasized.
In response to this comment, Kazan offers Russian lessons, but at the same time maintains mandatory Tatar lessons.
“It seems to me that the detente of the language crisis in Tatarstan is already happening. This is due to the decision of the Tatarstan authorities, who agreed with the policy of the federal center that learning the Tatar language should not be compulsory for everyone. And Fattakhov’s removal is a recognition of this fact,” former State Duma deputy, director of the Institute of Political Research Sergei Markov told the VZGLYAD newspaper.
“It is not yet very clear to us which of the two versions of his displacement is more realistic. According to the first version, Fattakhov was unable to ensure recognition of the compulsory nature of learning the Tatar language for everyone, and did not do this energetically enough. According to another, he, on the contrary, worked too hard on this issue and acted so energetically that he irritated the federal center and quarreled the leadership of the republic with the federal center. Time will tell which of the two versions is correct; it’s hard to say now,” the expert explained.
“But the fact that a person whose position was opposite to that of the federal center left his position will definitely contribute to defusing the language crisis in the republic,” Markov emphasized.
Was there a crisis?
Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Nationalities Affairs, deputy from Tatarstan Ildar Gilmutdinov, in turn, believes that Engel Fattakhov’s resignation is not related to discussions about the format of teaching languages in the republic. “This is not so,” the deputy emphasized in a conversation with the newspaper VZGLYAD. – Fattakhov, as the head of the executive power structure, carried out the decisions that were made by the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan - on the study of the Tatar language in equal amounts with the Russian language. The Minister of Education implemented these measures.”
The problem, according to the parliamentarian, was “the absence of standards that should have been established at the level of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.” The republics and regions “as best they could, as they understood,” and made up for the absence of such federal norms, “which, in my opinion, should not have been done,” the deputy emphasizes. “It was necessary to regulate these processes if we want to talk about a single educational space. It was necessary to create educational standards, programs taking into account two languages, four languages, or even fourteen (in the case of Dagestan),” notes Gilmutdinov.
The deputy is convinced: to talk about any crisis or confrontation on the issue of studying the Tatar language means to misunderstand the essence of the problem. Which, as Gilmutdinov once again notes, is rooted in the discrepancy between the educational policies of the center and the regions.
“Fattakhov’s attitude towards the educational process was the most serious”
From the point of view of State Council deputy Artem Prokofiev, the problem still had to be looked for not in Moscow, but in Kazan - or more precisely, in the policies of a number of representatives of the executive branch of Tatarstan. “We must also understand that the situation that has developed in this area was not laid down by Fattakhov, but by his predecessor, Minister of Education Albert Gilmutdinov (head of the Ministry of Education and Science of Tatarstan in 2009–2012 - VZGLYAD),” Prokofiev believes. “Then new federal state educational standards were introduced - and no work was done to harmonize the work procedure in the regions. That is, the new minister worked according to the scheme that de facto already existed in the region, and the problem was founded not under Fattakhov, but under Gilmutdinov,” Prokofiev sums up.
According to the interlocutor,
There is no language crisis in Tatarstan at the moment.
On the other hand, as political scientist, ex-chairman of the World Forum of Tatar Youth Ruslan Aisin noted in an interview with the newspaper VZGLYAD, “the topic of language and education is a difficult one, and Fattakhov was not an expert on this topic.” “He is a manager, and the manager is quite effective, this is clearly visible in the area he led,” the interlocutor noted. “But he was given a task, the task was very difficult, and since the summer this task has become extremely politicized. As a result, he became a bargaining chip in this complex game.”
Text: Alexey Nechaev,
Marina Baltacheva
It seems that the end point has been reached regarding the voluntary nature of learning the Tatar language. The head of the Republic's Ministry of Education, Engel Fattakhov, left his post. The ex-minister was called a lobbyist for maintaining compulsory teaching of the Tatar language. However, there are other versions of this personnel decision.
Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov dismissed Engel Fattakhov, Minister of Education and Science, “due to his transfer to another job.” The Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Volga Federal District, Mikhail Babich, admitted: the head of the Ministry of Education of Tatarstan was fired, including in connection with the issue of teaching Russian and Tatar languages in the schools of the republic. At the same time, as the plenipotentiary noted, Fattakhov’s resignation “is connected not only and not so much with language issues.”
“As for the resignation, information was announced that the prosecutor’s office had identified about 3,680 violations in the work of educational institutions. Perhaps such a large number of violations played a role,” Artem Prokofiev, a member of the State Council - Parliament of Tatarstan, a member of the specialized committee on education, culture, science and national issues, told the newspaper VZGLYAD.
“It is not known for certain whether all these violations are related to the language issue, but information about the number of violations was brought to us,” said the Tatarstan parliamentarian.
“The defusing of the language crisis is already underway”
On November 5, the Tatarstan prosecutor's office admitted that the compulsory study of the Tatar language in schools is contrary to federal law. A little more than a day before this decision, the head of the Ministry of Education, Engel Fattakhov, signed a new curriculum.
As the newspaper VZGLYAD noted, although the document stated that it was advisory in nature, these recommendations contained requirements It is still mandatory to study Tatar. Teaching Russian should be on a voluntary basis. A letter of recommendations immediately appeared on social networks.
The Tatarstan prosecutor's office stated that the Minister of Education went (more precisely, repeatedly went) beyond the limits of his competence. In fact, Fattakhov was accused of invading the sphere of federal legal regulation. In this regard, prosecutors prepared a complaint to the Prime Minister of Tatarstan Alexei Pesoshin, demanding that the manuals be immediately withdrawn and that officials who violated federal laws be brought to disciplinary liability.
Let us note that, following the prosecutor’s office of the republic, deputies of the State Council of Tatarstan on November 29 unanimously voted for the voluntary study of Tatar as the state language of the republic for two hours a week.
Previously, President Vladimir Putin demanded that the right to study one’s native language be respected. Thus, in July, at a meeting of the Council on Interethnic Relations, the head of state instructed the Prosecutor General’s Office and Rosobrnadzor “to check the facts of forced teaching of non-native languages and state languages of the republics against the will of the children’s parents as their legal representatives.” At the same time, the head of state added that the languages of the peoples of Russia are an integral part of their original culture. “Learning these languages is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. The right is voluntary,” Putin emphasized.
Responding to this remark, Kazan promised to increase the hours of Russian lessons, but at the same time maintain compulsory Tatar lessons.
“It seems to me that the detente of the language crisis in Tatarstan is already happening. This is due to the decision of the Tatarstan authorities, who agreed with the policy of the federal center that learning the Tatar language should not be compulsory for everyone. And Fattakhov’s removal is a recognition of this fact,” former State Duma deputy, director of the Institute of Political Research Sergei Markov told the newspaper VZGLYAD.
“It is not yet very clear to us which of the two versions of his displacement is more realistic. According to the first version, Fattakhov was unable to ensure recognition of the compulsory nature of learning the Tatar language for everyone, and did not do this energetically enough. According to another, he, on the contrary, worked too hard on this issue and acted so energetically that he irritated the federal center and quarreled the leadership of the republic with the federal center. Time will tell which of the two versions is correct; it’s hard to say now,” the expert explained.
“But the fact that a person whose position was opposite to that of the federal center left his position will definitely contribute to defusing the language crisis in the republic,” Markov emphasized.
Was there a crisis?
Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Nationalities Affairs, deputy from Tatarstan Ildar Gilmutdinov, in turn, believes that Engel Fattakhov’s resignation is not related to discussions about the format of teaching languages in the republic. “This is not so,” the deputy emphasized in a conversation with the newspaper VZGLYAD. – Fattakhov, as the head of the executive power structure, carried out the decisions that were made by the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan - on the study of the Tatar language in equal amounts with the Russian language. The Minister of Education implemented these measures.”
The problem, according to the parliamentarian, was “the absence of standards that should have been established at the level of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.” The republics and regions “as best they could, as they understood,” and made up for the absence of such federal norms, “which, in my opinion, should not have been done,” the deputy emphasizes. “It was necessary to regulate these processes if we want to talk about a single educational space. It was necessary to create educational standards, programs taking into account two languages, four languages, or even fourteen (in the case of Dagestan),” notes Gilmutdinov.
The deputy is convinced: to talk about any crisis or confrontation on the issue of studying the Tatar language means to misunderstand the essence of the problem. Which, as Gilmutdinov once again notes, is rooted in the discrepancy between the educational policies of the center and the regions.
“Fattakhov’s attitude towards the educational process was the most serious”
From the point of view of State Council deputy Artem Prokofiev, the problem still had to be looked for not in Moscow, but in Kazan - or more precisely, in the policies of a number of representatives of the executive branch of Tatarstan. “We must also understand that the situation that has developed in this area was not laid down by Fattakhov, but by his predecessor, Minister of Education Albert Gilmutdinov (head of the Ministry of Education and Science of Tatarstan in 2009–2012 - VZGLYAD),” Prokofiev believes. “Then new federal state educational standards were introduced - and no work was done to harmonize the work procedure in the regions. That is, the new minister worked according to the scheme that de facto already existed in the region, and the problem was founded not under Fattakhov, but under Gilmutdinov,” Prokofiev sums up.
According to the interlocutor,
There is no language crisis in Tatarstan at the moment.
On the other hand, as political scientist, ex-chairman of the World Forum of Tatar Youth Ruslan Aisin noted in an interview with the newspaper VZGLYAD, “the topic of language and education is a difficult one, and Fattakhov was not an expert on this topic.” “He is a manager, and the manager is quite effective, this is clearly visible in the area he led,” the interlocutor noted. “But he was given a task, the task was very difficult, and since the summer this task has become extremely politicized. As a result, he became a bargaining chip in this complex game.”
The head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, today dismissed Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Education and Science Engel Fattakhov.
The decree states that Fattakhov was relieved of his position “due to his transfer to another job.” In his place, former Minister of Youth and Sports, deputy of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan Rafis Burganov was appointed acting.
The resignation of the Minister of Education took place against the backdrop of a language scandal. The prosecutor's office found violations in the republic's education system. The Tatar language, contrary to federal legislation, was compulsory for all students to study. The number of Russian language hours did not reach federal standards. The prosecutor's office ordered that the violations be eliminated, and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation sent a sample training plan to Tatarstan. At the end of November, at a session of the State Council of Tatarstan, the prosecutor of the republic, Ildus Nafikov, told deputies that schoolchildren in the region would stop studying the Tatar language on a compulsory basis. " Voluntarily, based on the written consent of parents, within up to two hours a week at the expense of the part formed by the participants in educational relations", Nafikov said.
The ensuing public discussion was accompanied by speeches and statements of a provocative nature. For example, on October 14 in Kazan, the founding meeting of the “Coordination Council of the Peoples of the Volga Region and the Urals,” in whose resolution the Russian authorities were named “the main culprits for the catastrophic state of the languages of the national republics,” proposed to urgently convene the Congress of the Peoples of Russia and not vote for the current president of Russia.
Engel Fattakhov is an ardent supporter and prominent lobbyist for compulsory learning of the Tatar language. He was often called a “Tatar nationalist” and “Russophobe”. He initiated the division of the subject “Tatar language” into the Tatar language and Tatar literature with a sharp increase in their total volume in secondary schools - 5-6 hours a week. The introduction of a unified republican testing (ERT) in the Tatar language in 9th grade in 2014 caused sharp dissatisfaction among the Russian-speaking population. Final control also appeared after primary school.
When Vladimir Putin, at an off-site meeting of the Council on Interethnic Relations in Yoshkar-Ola (August 2017), firmly stated the inadmissibility of forcing schoolchildren to learn a non-native language and reducing the hours of teaching Russian, Fattakhov responded as follows: " We're fine. ...In my opinion, the Russian President did not mean Tatarstan"He consistently resisted any changes in this area: " The concept of teaching the Tatar language and literature was approved. This is a strategic document that sets the vector of development". Fattakhov ignored the disagreement of the Russian-speaking part of the population of the republic.
At the end of October 2017, the prosecutor’s office sent a statement to the President of the Republic of Tatarstan about Fattakhov’s inadequacy for his position.
Engel Navapovich Fattakhov was born on June 12, 1961 in the village of Chishma, Aktanysh region of the TASSR. He graduated from the Kazan Agricultural Institute in 1983 with a degree in mechanical engineer. He was the 2nd secretary of the Aktanysh district committee of the Komsomol and the secretary of the party committee of the collective farm named after. 40 years of Victory, worked as 1st deputy head of the Aktanysh district administration, in 1998-2012 - head of the Aktanysh district. In 2012, he was appointed Minister of Education and Science of Tatarstan. Since September 2013, he also became Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan. The appointment of a rural princeling as Minister of Education caused mixed reactions. Everything is explained simply. The personnel decision was lobbied by the ex-president of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev, because the Aktanysh region is his small homeland.
For national separatists, the odious Fattakhov became a national hero. Social networks published memes “Be like Engel,” emphasizing that the minister is fighting for the status of the Tatar language. Today, on the day of his resignation, it was launched a whole flash mob
Career in the balance: 10 things that the Minister of Education and Science of Tatarstan remembered during his 5 years of work
As soon as the issue of studying the Tatar language reached the federal level and took on the nature of a scandal, rumors intensified about the imminent resignation of the Minister of Education and Science of Tatarstan Engel Fattakhov. He recently celebrated his 5th anniversary in this post, and BUSINESS Online decided, after talking with insiders, to tell what came out of the personnel experiment that elevated the head of one of the rural areas to a ministerial post.
“THE MINISTER’S LEAVING HAS BEEN JOKED FOR 5 YEARS”
October 2017 marked 5 years since joining Engel Fattakhov for the post of Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan. And ironically, this month became one of the most difficult in the official’s career.
First of all, Fattakhov’s arrival at the Ministry of Education and Science in October 2012 became a special sign. Why was the head of the Aktanysh district, educated as a mechanical engineer, who spent almost his entire career “close to the ground” appointed to a fundamentally important position?
Introducing the new minister, then Prime Minister of the Republic of Tajikistan Ildar Khalikov: “Engel Navapovich grew up in a teacher’s family, his father worked in the education system for 45 years. Aktanysh, with his arrival, quickly became a leader in all directions, including in the field of education.”
According to a popular legend, when the president gave instructions to find a new minister to replace the one who was leaving for the rector of KNRTU-KAI Alberta Gilmutdinova, he set the task of finding among the heads of districts someone who has at least some experience in education. And Fattakhov really has it: after graduate school, from November 1992 to May 1993, he taught at the department of agricultural machines of the Kazan Agricultural Institute.
But rather in this case we can talk about some kind of personnel experiment. “Recently, this has often been our practice - not people from the education sector are appointed to leadership positions, but well-proven business managers,” then “BUSINESS Online” trends the head of one of the Kazan Rono.
In Tatarstan, the heads of districts are considered such a golden personnel reserve, people who can manage anything. “At all levels they say that leadership positions should be occupied by professionals, but in the end what happens is completely different,” complains a teacher with 50 years of experience in school, head of the trade union of workers of educational organizations of the Republic of Tatarstan, in a conversation with BUSINESS Online Yuri Prokhorov, but immediately notes that, as a representative of the professional community, his relationship with the Minister of Education is “decent.” “We must give him his due: he always seeks advice, is frank, always seeks to find out our opinion,” says the chairman of the trade union. This is confirmed by the director of one of the Kazan schools: “The fact that he does not have a specialized education, sometimes, on the contrary, looks like an advantage, because he listens twice as carefully and asks a lot of questions.”
I remember “The Doomed City” by the Strugatskys, where the subjects were thrown from one position to another: today - a garbage collector, tomorrow - an investigator. Was the experiment successful? The fact remains: Fattakhov today remains in the post of Minister of Education of the Republic of Tatarstan longer than his three predecessors.
№2. « HE DID EVERYTHING TO MAKE THE TATAR HATED"
Fattakhov was clearly dissatisfied with the situation of the second state language of Tatarstan, but to correct the situation he chose the simplest and most understandable methods - more hours, more control Photo: prav.tatarstan.ru
The language issue became especially important for the former head of the Fattakhov district. He was clearly dissatisfied with the situation of the second state language of Tatarstan, but to correct the situation he chose the simplest and most understandable methods - more hours, more control. This policy is partly associated with the name of the nominee Fattakhov Ildar Mukhametova, who took over as deputy minister in 2014. A relatively young graduate of the tatfak had previously headed boarding lyceum No. 2 (formerly the Tatar-Turkish lyceum).
“It’s wrong to pin all the blame on Fattakhov—Russian-speaking people have always had questions about learning Tatar,” says our source in the leadership of the educational sector of the Republic of Tatarstan. “But before, we tried to calmly not lead to conflict, and with its advent, pressure began in this area.”
It was the new minister who initiated the division of the subject into the Tatar language and Tatar literature with a sharp increase in their total volume in secondary schools - 5-6 hours a week.
The educational and methodological base remained the same. The textbooks were written by Tatars who had a perfect command of the language and graduated from national schools, but they did not come up with methods for teaching language and literature for Russians, the expert claims: “Our Tatars do not have the knowledge that was required of Russian children. All Russian speakers ran to their Tatar neighbors for help, but they, even with knowledge of the spoken language, often could not help.”
Despite groans from the seats, Fattakhov introduced a unified republican testing (ERT) in Tatar in 2014. And this was the last straw for the parents - they literally flooded Moscow with complaints. Before this, schools conducted final tests for Russian speakers, and offered several options for passing the exam for those who know the language. The children perceived the new certification as a full-fledged exam, because the rules are similar to the Unified State Exam. For example, a representative of the ministry, the head of the EPT point, his assistant, organizers, attendants on the floors and at the entrance, medical workers and police officers, as well as accompanying students must be present at the exam. To complete the task - 2.5 hours. In addition, last year in 15 pilot districts of the Republic of Tatarstan, in addition to testing, the “Speaking” section was introduced in the exam. Final control also appeared after primary school. The results of the EPT did not seem to affect anything, and those who wanted to avoid testing on the day of it “fell ill” en masse (without subsequent retakes), but the psychological effect turned out to be powerful.
Tatar schools also came under pressure. Fattakhov demanded that textbooks be ordered only in Tatar (hence the prosecutor’s office’s claims about the use of educational materials not approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation). “It was impossible,” says one of our interlocutors. “There were neither teachers ready to work in such conditions, nor the appropriate infrastructure. As a result, an outflow of both students and staff began in Tatar schools. We destroyed national education with our own hands, because our schools have per capita funding and with the reduction of students, the allocation of funds decreased.”
At a recent session of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, the minister admitted flaws in the teaching of the Tatar language and presented a program to correct the situation. But time is lost Photo: BUSINESS Online
A striking example of such “targeting” is the conflict with parents in Azino, where school No. 180 was opened. It had been waiting for years; parents, forced to take their children to other areas, inundated the republican authorities with complaints: when will you finally build it? But it turned out that multilingual school No. 180 would be a gymnasium with teaching in Tatar. “We have been given the task of opening as many Tatar classes as possible,” the director did not hide Ildar Sayakhov. As a result, the scandal turned out to be such that they did not implement the plan, because it was not clear what to do with the Russian-speaking children.
“With his zeal, Fattakhov simply set up the republic,” says our interlocutor from the education sector. — It is clear that the issue must be resolved somehow, the Tatar language must be preserved. Few people are against this. But he did everything to make the Tatar people hate him. My relatives are Tatars, and they scandalously transferred my daughter from a Tatar group to a Russian one for one simple reason - because of the ridiculous teaching, they couldn’t cope with her studies. The Tatars cannot cope with teaching their children the Tatar language at school!”
But Fattakhov also had some interesting approaches, experts point out. For example, bilingual kindergartens have appeared. It is significant that the parents did not organize “riots” over this. In addition, at a recent session of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, the minister not only admitted flaws in the teaching of the Tatar language, but also presented a program to correct the situation: new textbooks, according to him, have been developed since last year, teachers are being trained at KFU using “modernized programs.” Like, all you have to do is be patient. But time is running out.
However, it is strange to blame Fattakhov alone for 25 years of failed language policy. He only destroyed the hypocritical consensus “we pretend to teach” in the most painful way.
No. 3. TEAM OUTCOME
“The fact that he forced his subordinates to speak Tatar is not true. Maybe this happened, but only at the very beginning. However, he himself spoke Tatar, not paying attention to whether he was understood or not.” Photo: mon.tatarstan.ru
Fattakhov failed to form a real team, a club of like-minded people in 5 years. One of the reasons is, again, the “district” management style, according to our interlocutors. But if in the region the head is the king and god, then in the capital rude treatment raised questions and rejection, especially in the seemingly citadel of education and culture.
From the very beginning, Fattakhov put his team under strict conditions: meetings at 7:00, or even earlier, became the norm, and the minister did not seem to think about the presence of patronymics among his subordinates. “He treated his subordinates like this: hey, Rosa, hey, Tamara! - recalled one of the participants in such meetings. - Like on a collective farm... But managing the education system with its hundreds of thousands of parents, children, people with different mentalities is much more difficult than agriculture. You won’t be able to command, everything will just start to fall apart.”
The result is a stream of layoffs. During Fattakhov’s leadership, 8 deputies were replaced in the ministry, including Svetlana Giniatullina,Ravil Khamitov,Aidar Kayumov,Enge Nigmetzyanova. In 2014, he joined the Office of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Danil Mustafin, who previously was the first deputy minister of education of Tatarstan for 10 years. Now, according to our information, he is on the short list of candidates for the post of minister.
Also, 4 assistants, 6 heads of department managers, and more than 50 heads of departments, including district ones, resigned. The purge affected almost all regions of the Republic of Tatarstan: among the “survivors” only a few heads of education departments remained - Kazan, Bugulma, Kukmor. “Today he has people working under him who don’t even know the school,” points out one of the interlocutors.
For example, recently Fattakhov’s deputy Pavel Frolova- a graduate of the Kazan Agricultural Academy, who worked for a long time in the economic analysis department of the expert department of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan. Meanwhile, people in the ministry’s structures have worked for years, gaining invaluable experience, emphasizes one of our interlocutors. “The education system is inherently conservative,” he emphasizes. — Therefore, changes in it are slow, and any evolution overcomes the resistance of groups. But a slow process is not for Fattakhov’s lightning-fast management decisions and command style.”
By the way, there was also a “language issue” at the ministry. It was rumored that Fattakhov was forcing everyone to speak Tatar. Our source, who is well acquainted with Engel Navapovich, partially confirms this: “The fact that he forced his subordinates to speak Tatar is not true. Maybe this happened, but only at the very beginning. However, he himself spoke Tatar, not paying attention to whether he was understood or not.”
No. 4. WHY ARE EVEN UNCOMMUNIBLE TEACHERS REVOLTING?
Photo: mon.tatarstan.ru
Fattakhov was disliked not only by his subordinates in the ministry, but also by ordinary teachers. There were reasons for this. And the main thing was not even the notorious Unified State Exam for teachers (by the way, this year the test was scheduled for October 31, but due to recent events it was postponed indefinitely). The stumbling block was changes in the teacher certification system. It became possible to receive or confirm the first and highest categories (and these are, as a rule, the most experienced and, accordingly, older teachers) only by arriving in Kazan. “The ministry showed its distrust of the districts,” our interlocutor believes, pointing out, however, that they were not without sin - postscripts were not uncommon there.
In 2015–2016 alone, 10.5 thousand teachers, or 14.7% of the total number of industry workers, were certified to confirm their suitability for their positions. But the implementation of teacher checks turned out to be unsuccessful. In order to get to Kazan in the morning, some had to leave their districts at night. The teachers, many of whom, to put it mildly, were not yet girls, stayed in Kazan for days. Many people have nowhere to go here; there is no money for hotels. Women slept right in the corridors of the Republican Center for Monitoring the Quality of Education. “The organization was zero. In the corridors of the ministry and the Unified State Examination Center, teachers were waiting for their turn, some could not stand it, they were crying,” a witness to the trial describes the situation. Imagine the state of a person who is told: you have been deprived of a category (according to some estimates, up to 30% of the entire teaching staff in the Republic of Tatarstan have been deprived of such categories), bonuses, your salary is the same as that of yesterday’s teacher graduate. They claim that cutting categories mercilessly was the minister’s instructions.
Prokhorov, noting that the procedure for certifying teachers, including passing the certification commission in Kazan, was approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia and the professional organization monitors its implementation, states that the procedure does raise many questions: “We dealt with this a lot, they said that teachers should not sit somewhere on the floor and wait until 11 at night for your turn. Last year, our proposals were taken into account - the certification commission finally began to travel to regional centers, for example.”
This episode is just an illustration of the system. The same attitude was evident in the Unified State Exam for teachers introduced in 2015. That's right - the teacher must know the subject. But everything was organized in such a way that the teachers felt humiliated. Last year, she even appeared to Vasilyeva with a demand to ban the Unified State Exam for teachers, which was subsequently signed by about 3 thousand people. “Here and I had a lot of arguments,” notes Prokhorov. The trade union insisted that the Unified State Exam could not be done, since teachers already take similar tests within the framework of the certification commission. First, they agreed to exempt workers with the highest category and those who are undergoing certification this year from the Unified State Examination, then they proposed not to check the first category either. Fattakhov was indignant at first (who would take the test then?), but eventually agreed.
However, these concessions did not change the general opinion about the minister's style. “Khan mentality and bai approach,” says one of the teachers. - And in addition there are double standards. On the one hand, there is a requirement to prepare schools for the school year, on the other hand, there is a ban on asking parents for money for repairs. As a result, on the one hand, there is a chronic lack of funding and strict requirements of order (the same school security), on the other hand, a harsh response to extortions, up to the dismissal of directors (and then what is the purpose of maintaining this security?). After all the innovations, up to 15 percent of teachers left of their own free will. The directors are offended because the minister did not protect them. With his arrival, school staff, one might say, felt their lack of rights.”
However, Prokhorov does not confirm the data on such a significant reduction in teachers, noting that the number of negative reviews of the ministry’s activities from education workers did not increase during Fattakhov’s leadership. That is, supposedly before it was little better.
No. 5. GRANTS AND PROTECTION AGAINST “OUT OF COURSE WORK”
Fattakhov initiated new grants for teachers in Tatarstan: “Teacher-Expert”, “Teacher-Mentor”, “Our Best Teacher” Photo: mon.tatarstan.ru
Among the minister’s innovations, however, there were also those that teachers rated positively. It was Fattakhov who initiated new grants for teachers in Tatarstan: “Teacher-Expert”, “Teacher-Mentor”, “Our Best Teacher”. In 2015–2016, 108 expert teachers and 102 mentor teachers received support in this form. Among the new forms of support were grants for national education, one of the latest was “Osta Mogallim”. Although small (6 thousand rubles), the bonus was still important for teachers. But, as Prokhorov notes, the functions for these teachers were not defined: “6 thousand rubles a month - for what? Because he is the best teacher? Expert teachers, for example, could work for a month on the Unified State Examination, and a mentor teacher should mentor young people. We were given a grant - and that’s all.”
But an even greater positive response was caused by Fattakhov’s attempt to free teachers from all kinds of extracurricular “corvee labor.” In February 2016, he visited officials, including the chief of staff of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Asgat Safarov, with a request not to burden teachers with non-core work. The minister stated that in many regions of the republic, teachers are assigned to walk around apartments in order to monitor payments for housing and communal services, collect information about the payment of taxes by parents of students, “they are used as extras at various non-core municipal events.” It is difficult to say whether this practice has been eliminated, but the fact that it existed until 2016 is documented.
One of Fattakhov’s hobbies is all kinds of ratings that create the illusion of control Photo: mon.tatarstan.ru
One of Fattakhov’s hobbies, which creates the illusion of control, is all kinds of ratings. There is nothing bad in the idea itself: ratings are guidelines. But here’s the implementation... Based on the rating results, the districts were divided into zones - green, yellow, red. The result is the same postscripts and window dressing, our source claims. In order not to “blush”, the schools themselves, the district departments of the ministry, and the heads are trying. “It used to be that the birthplace of postscripts was agriculture,” jokes the interlocutor of BUSINESS Online. “But under Engel Navapovich this practice permeated our system.”
Meanwhile, green and yellow zone institutions have been encouraged through a series of training workshops. Advanced training is a necessity, agrees one of the BUSINESS Online interlocutors, but even here there was an excess: “Imagine: a school organizes a seminar, they are waiting for colleagues from dozens of schools in neighboring areas and curators from Kazan. What the hell is the learning process?! Everyone is rushing around - preparing for a week, rehearsing skits, staging open lessons, tuning a lot of students. The day of the seminar itself, then the debriefing, was completely “knocked out” of studying. When should you work?
“I always proved to him that the educational process is not like planting potatoes in the spring and digging them up in August,” says Prokhorov. “Teaching work is not calculated even for a year. A whole generation must pass. And then they rank teachers.” In his opinion, the rating does not take into account the most important thing - the teacher’s relationship with students. “We put teachers in the red zone, not paying attention to where this school is located, what kind of contingent it teaches,” states Prokhorov. “We need to help them, not destroy them.” There were distortions with the ratings.”
Evil tongues claim that the personal factor also interfered with the rating. For example, Bugulma, Naberezhnye Chelny and Mamadysh simultaneously fell into the green zone. “His son works in Mamadysh ( Ilnar Fattakhov heads the executive committee – approx. edit.), that’s why the district is in first place in the ranking,” says one of our interlocutors. “In fact, there are no outstanding results there.” The community also found sad irony in the fact that in the latest ranking, the educational institutions of the Sabinsky district turned out to be the strongest among rural schools - in the Top 5 they took first, second, fourth and fifth places.
Another disadvantage of the rating system is that it takes into account coverage of the native language. The mistake is fundamental: it is impossible to compare urban and rural populations using this parameter. The majority of townspeople know Tatar to a much lesser extent. How can you put, say, Zelenodolsk and Bogatye Saby on the same board? But perhaps this was done intentionally, in order to again increase the importance of studying the second state.
No. 7. BASIC SCHOOLS - WHAT ARE THEY?
Yuri Prokhorov (right): “Of course, school No. 131 will be the best - they admit students to the 7th grade on a competitive basis. The same principle applies to the Lobachevsky Lyceum at KFU. These ratings provide nothing but hassle and personnel shuffling.” Photo: mon.tatarstan.ru
According to our source, Fattakhov simply tortured everyone so that there would be more basic schools in the republic: in 2015, 550 out of 1,900 educational institutions received this status. But few people understand what is meant by this concept. The official formulation states: a basic school is a school that implements general education programs, has modern pedagogical, organizational, methodological, information and technological potential and a developed educational and material base.
In theory, the reform was explained by the fact that in some areas there are more than half of small schools. In such an educational institution it is impossible to provide a decent education, so it is necessary to create strong basic schools and attach small ones to them. The goal of the initiative is to equalize the quality of education throughout Tatarstan, because if a child lives in an area with a small school, he may receive a poor education.
However, the innovation also affected the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. For example, in July, 13 schools in Kazan will be consolidated into 7 educational centers - strong gymnasiums will be combined with weaker schools. The idea is that this will improve the quality of education. But is that really true? Teachers are afraid of averaging: yes, bad schools by indicators They will become better, but the good ones will also become worse. As they say, the best is the enemy of the good. The level of education does not increase simply by shuffling. In addition, each school has its own regime, rules - its own microclimate, on which the entire education system has been based for centuries.
“I said: Engel Navapovich, why do you need these 500 schools? What is the essence of the basic one? - recalls Prokhorov, who believes that the school that can provide methodological assistance to lagging educational organizations should be called basic. To do this, methodologists must find out why the school is not working and what its problem is. And if this does not happen, then the rankings will always contain the same schools for which conditions have been created - the best teachers, the best students have been recruited, the infrastructure has been created. “Of course, school No. 131 will be the best - they admit students to the 7th grade on a competitive basis. The same principle applies to the Lobachevsky Lyceum at KFU. These ratings give nothing but hassle and shuffling of personnel,” Prokhorov is indignant.
A source in the field of education adds: the Minister of Education of Tatarstan was so fixated on basic schools that even on Teacher’s Day he congratulated only those institutions that were among them.
No. 8. "NIT IS MANDATORY FOR EVERYONE TO GO TO 10TH AND 11TH CLASS AFTER 9TH GRADE.”
Photo: mon.tatarstan.ru
With the arrival of Fattakhov, educational institutions of secondary vocational education (SVE), previously supervised by the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, were transferred under the control of the Ministry of Education and Science. In fact, taking them to a new level was one of the key tasks of the new minister.
For this purpose, 25 so-called resource centers have been created in the republic. The amount of funding from the budget of the Republic of Tatarstan from 2014 to 2016 amounted to more than 2.3 billion rubles (repairs - 2039.3 million, purchase of equipment - 337 million). In 2017, it was planned to allocate 750 million for these purposes.
But, as with basic schools, few people understand what it is. “Resource centers are not Fattakhov’s invention, we spied this ideology somewhere,” says our interlocutor from the open source field. “However, no one still understands why these centers were created.”
According to our source, the ideology of the resource centers was to reduce the number of vocational education institutions, concentrate training of specialists and money, while purchasing modern equipment. “And the money really accumulated - some educational institutions were closed, some technical schools were merged with others,” states the source. - But is this right? You can, of course, like KFU, select everyone for yourself, but, it seems to me, in this case mobility and controllability are lost.”
In addition, in theory, each resource center should have an anchor employer who trains personnel for itself. But this system never fully worked. “We have invested so much money to create resource centers. What was all this for then? You are not an abstract structure, you must work in the interests of the economy of our region,” Minnikhanov admonished the Minister of Education in November 2016.
Of course, there were also advantages from the innovations: serious renovations were made to the premises of resource centers and a number of technical schools. But, as the source states, the attitude towards people has not changed. As for the salary, judge for yourself: teachers and industrial training masters at the end of 2016 received an average of 22.8 thousand rubles. According to our interlocutor, in order to get a normal salary in the secondary vocational education program, you need to take an extra load. “But if you work for one wage, then there is nothing to eat, and if you work for two, there is no time to eat,” he grins. “And we must take into account that in vocational education there are mainly female groups, very specific ones: many are divorced, unmarried... Many people have difficult fates.”
As often happens with us, we tried to increase the demand for free software using administrative methods. “Recently, issues of improving the quality of education were discussed at meetings of the Security Council and the Cabinet of Ministers, it was decided that not everyone has to go to the 10th and 11th grade and then to universities after the 9th grade,” the minister in the summer of 2015 . The department pursued this policy in connection with the growing needs for workers: according to forecast data from the Ministry of Labor of the Republic, by 2023 the region may require more than 64 thousand people with secondary vocational education, and 67 thousand are studying in secondary vocational education, some of whom will go to universities . The ongoing transformation of some schools from secondary to basic (without grades 10-11) also provides another advantage: due to the rejection of unsuitable material, the average Unified State Exam score increases. However, when complaints began to flow from parents that their children were deliberately not being accepted into the 10th grade, the ministry strongly condemned the excesses.
No. 9. HIGHER EDUCATION IS STILL UNDER THE CONTROL OF TATARSTAN
Perhaps the only segment of education where Fattakhov’s hand could not reach is universities
Photo: BUSINESS Online
Perhaps the only segment of education where Fattakhov’s hand could not reach was universities. “Universities are focused on the Russian ministry,” one of the KFU professors told BUSINESS Online. — Probably, the university management has relations with the Ministry of Education and Science of Tatarstan, but at the department level no republican projects are supported. And we remember the Russian ministry only in connection with all sorts of bureaucratic issues, and the Ministry of Education and Science of the republic has nothing to do with us in current practice, thank God.”
In the field of higher education, Fattakhov was noted, perhaps, only for his intense polemics with the rector of KFU Ilshat Gafurov regarding the training of teachers, especially the Tatar language. The struggle was over the distribution of funds for personnel retraining. The rector of KFU, which received only 37% of the money, complained to Minnikhanov. “Ilshat Rafkatovich accused us of a corruption component and said that we should give all 100 million to the KFU,” Fattakhov recalled the insult.
As a result, the bickering resulted in a real squabble with a discussion about whose children study where. The Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan then explained that one of Fattakhov’s three daughters, after KSMU, entered one of the UK universities on a master’s program in 2007, when he was still the head of the district. She got married there and stayed to live. The other two daughters studied in Russia. As a result, in the message of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, the re-establishment of the pedagogical university was announced, that is, indirectly its transfer to KFU was recognized as a mistake.
Meanwhile, the bulldogs' squabbling under the carpet continues. There is reason to believe that the confrontation between the two giants also took place with the suspension in early July of Rosobrnadzor of admission to the Elabuga and then to the Naberezhnye Chelny branch of KFU. Then Gafurov did not rule out a targeted “attack” on KFU: they say, everything is possible in our time. According to the source, Rosobrnadzor worked clumsily here: 1.5 months after the inspection, at the height of the admissions campaign, it was possible to introduce a ban on admission to the two largest branches only taking into account the friendly relations between the leadership of Rosobrnadzor and Fattakhov.
No. 10. WHERE HAS CHILDREN'S TECHNICAL CREATIVITY GO?
For five years now, Minnikhanov has been emphasizing at various meetings the need to develop children's technical creativity. But, according to experts, the state still does not support such circles, sponsors cannot be found either, everything rests on enthusiasts and their connections with enterprises. “If 5 years ago 200–250 people took part in republican aircraft modeling competitions, now it’s 20–30,” the head of the aircraft modeling club at Kazan school No. 35, an international master of sports in aircraft modeling, nine-time USSR champion, winner of four world records Alexander Smolentsev. - Previously, there was a center in every district, now almost everything is gone - thanks to the “care” of the Ministry of Education: we, technical circles, are expensive for them... The number of employed children is falling. Why? The state has withdrawn itself, everything falls on the shoulders of the parents, and not all of them can handle it. My club is free, but parents need to buy tools, materials, and equipment. If the child is interested, it will cost a pretty penny.”
Help for the Ministry of Defense, it would seem, came from the federals. On behalf of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin At the expense of the budget of the Russian Federation, regional budgets and extra-budgetary sources, a network of children's technology parks "Quantorium" is being created in the country. A kind of innovative model of additional education for children. Tatarstan was allocated 47 million rubles to create three such centers - in Naberezhnye Chelny, Nizhnekamsk and Almetyevsk. One of the conditions is co-financing of the life of technology parks by industrial enterprises. And here it turned out that industrialists invest in such creativity. For example, in Nizhnekamsk they told Fattakhov that they did not understand why this was needed - simply put, they did not believe that their investments would be repaid by trained personnel, as was supposed to be the case. In the end, industrial generals, for example, the general director of TANECO Leonid Alekhin, an abundance of incomprehensible terminology, which justifies the need to create a “Quantorium”. “Give us money - that’s all!” - was laconic in response to these reproaches of Fattakhov.
Maybe it's all about the stinginess of industrial generals? But there is a feeling that the project was started to report on the achievement of target indicators of socio-economic development. Smolentsev shares the same opinion: “Fashion brands are being promoted in Tatarstan - robotics and IT technology. This area became especially active when the President of Russia said that the future belongs to IT technologies. Everything traditional has been nullified or they do not pay attention to it - all forces are thrown into new trends, in which large amounts of money are invested, and traditional things such as classical technical creativity, what the guys did with their own hands, to put it mildly, are deprived of attention. In Kazan, over 10 years, 16 aircraft modeling centers have closed, and one and a half have opened. Today in Kazan there are at best 9 such circles left. Kazan is an industrially saturated city... Saturated not with robots, but, for example, with the aviation industry. We have a place to study in this direction and realize ourselves at enterprises.”
According to the expert, there is a need for children's technical centers that train children regardless of what next fetish we have on the agenda - clusters, robotics or the digital economy. A centralized approach and network programs do not work in such things.
Whether Fattakhov will remain in his post or not is an open question. The last word belongs to Minnikhanov. The fact that Engel Navapovich is accused does not really distinguish him from the ranks of high-ranking officials of Tatarstan. On the contrary, his leadership style is rather dominant.
