🥇Physical Education vs Computer Science, help me make a choice

This is the second part of the 'series' about Russian school education and the opportunities IT provides to improve it in various areas. For those who haven't read it, I recommend starting with the first part. I should warn you right away, this article is not about the optimal choice of subjects for the Unified State Exam (ЕГЭ) and not about the ongoing debate between 'jocks' and 'nerds'. It's mainly about integrity and effectiveness. At the end, there's a small sociological survey.

Disclaimer: I write figuratively, expansively, sometimes drifting into radicalism. Conservatives of all stripes are advised not to read. Don't say later that you weren't warned. Are you ready to add a bit of radicalism to your established everyday life?

Forty years ago, a children's film, a frame from which served as a visual aid for this publication. In one of its scenes, the words of a character played by the brilliant Vladimir Basovkeenly observe the nuances of human nature: 'Every person has a button…' I want to congratulate those who share my tender feelings for this film on its anniversary and find some 'buttons' in the modern Russian general education system.

Physical activity is essential for every school student.

It's hard to imagine modern school education without textbooks. And that's right. The content of the school curriculum, secured in a physical format, protects students from irretrievable lagging behind in case of absences. Textbooks allow students to recall topics they have covered and familiarize themselves with upcoming ones, providing a guideline for the educational program to parents.

In a broad sense, textbooks can also refer to educational aids. These are various supplementary materials for subjects, prepared in printed form: from specific workbooks and outline maps to problem sets and readers. Their diversity and variety have consistently grown alongside the increasing prosperity of students' families, and in our era of commercialization of 'everything and anything,' their number has reached truly unimaginable limits.

Perhaps the most obvious example of a school subject where textbooks are traditionally not used is physical education (aka 'PE'). Nevertheless, school textbooks are also effective for this subject.

Textbooks are needed both in school and at home. Not everyone can afford to have two sets of textbooks. Not all schools have the facilities to store them. Therefore, as a rule, students have to "carry" textbooks, day in and day out, year after year, "building" their strength and endurance. School backpacks and bags of all types have become an essential attribute of student life. Only by this portable-tourist "accessory" could one distinguish a student from a "free person" in those times and localities where school uniforms were abolished.

An experienced parent knows that textbooks (even in a broad sense) are far from everything that needs to be "carried." Written-drawing-drafting supplies, a set of plasticine, changeable shoes, sports shoes and uniforms for PE, aprons, gowns, and sleeves for crafts, handmade projects of all sorts, ski gear including sticks in winter, and sometimes even snacks — students have to carry a lot to and from class. On some days, the specific load for a growing child, relative to their body mass, can exceed the similar metric of "full deployment" for special forces soldiers ready to be dropped behind enemy lines.

And this is not counting any "extracurricular" weight. If a child also attends music school or (as an extreme example) hockey training, and there's no time to "stop home," then as the Romans used to say: "Out personal driver with a car, out Nigel".

Individual exercises for particularly gifted individuals

Fortunately, our valiant Rospotrebnadzor is vigilant and stands guard over public health. They even periodically OpenDaylight, which is why it shares the same drawbacks — it's challenging to navigate right away, especially when working with containers. However, installation and configuration, which are the SanPiNs that establish "hygienic requirements for educational publications" and "sanitary and epidemiological requirements for conditions and organization of education in general education organizations". These quite detailed regulations comprehensively describe the "ideal" of the Russian school.

From the regulations, we learn that the weight of a high school student's textbook should not exceed 500 grams. Personal experience suggests that this roughly corresponds to reality. That is, textbooks themselves usually weigh around 300 grams, but when supplemented with aids and covers, everything adds up to about half a kilo per subject. Multiplying by the average number of classes per day, we get an average weight of "knowledge baggage" at three kilograms.

At the same time, the recommended and maximum weight of a packed school backpack is set at 10% and 15% of the child's body weight, respectively. It is easy to notice that the younger the student, the more difficult it is to comply with these standards. Especially considering that the younger generation of students is the most "school-compliant" regarding carrying all sorts of pencil cases, folders, spare shoes, suits, and equipment.

Surely you all guess that not every "educational publication," no matter how hygienic it is, can serve as a textbook. Indeed, we have a federal list of textbooks, which is formed within the Ministry of Education. The list is called "federal" because there are also "regional" similar lists. In theory, the federal list includes all these regional lists, although nowhere in the law is this explicitly stated. I still could not understand the purpose of the existence of regional textbook lists. After all, no matter how the federal list is formed, the law cannot prohibit a school from using any textbook from it.

There is also simply a list of organizations permitted to produce educational aids. Here, no regional freedoms are provided (not even formal ones, as is the case with textbooks). The main difference of this list is that it includes not a specific product of production (probably, their constantly mutating diversity prevents this), but the production itself.

With the slightest search, you will find that the lists are also not that simple. "Evil tongues" claim, say that a large part of the lists is predominantly occupied by publications of certain respected physical culture workers. Among all the information provided by the search engine, particular attention is drawn to the assessment annual government expenditures on the purchase of textbooks and teaching aids amount to 20-25 billion rubles.

Does he have a 'counting machine'?

As he writes, God bless him, the living classic of Soviet-Russian satire, Mikhail Zhvanetsky. in one of his 'immortal works': "He has a counting machine, he constantly counts, he participates in the management of the country." Let's try to emulate this capable boy.

The number of consumers of school literature in modern Russia, that is, students and teachers,, can be roughly estimated at 18 million people. Simple calculations show that the government spends about 1100-1400 rubles annually on providing printed materials for each unit of the educational process. Obviously, this money is absolutely insufficient for a complete renewal of the 'educational-library fund.' According to feedback from real school library staff, their collection of textbooks and teaching aids is updated only by 20-25% per year. This means that the government fully renews the school set of printed publications approximately every four years. Nevertheless, in many cases, purchasing textbooks and teaching aids still falls to parents.

For some time now, textbooks are required to have an electronic form available to the public. This requirement is undoubtedly a significant step forward in ensuring knowledge accessibility for the population. Because of this, students in schools with storage for their textbooks can afford to lighten their backpacks a little. However, as we know, public availability and free access are different things. And a lighter backpack will still cost parents money.

Why did the legislator settle for a halfway measure and not mandate that the inseparable component of 'so-called free' public education be made free for students and teachers (who else needs it?) is a huge question for me personally. This would ease the lives of many students and their parents without enriching the publishers, who, as we now know, are not exactly poor.

In fact, these billions of rubles could be better utilized, in my opinion, rather than spending on converting trees into paper. After all, for a boy to become as 'talented' as the character in Mikhail Mikhailovich's work, someone must provide him with a 'calculating machine,' since programming a textbook is not going to happen. It makes sense to simply give each student a tablet for free, or even better, a full laptop.

The relevance of the topic has been demonstrated in the recent months of remote learning in many schools across the country. Despite the fact that during this period, most publishers have shown leniency by opening free access to their electronic textbooks, this did not solve the issue of every student needing a means of 'computer communication with the teacher.' This question has become particularly pronounced in large families.

Issues of organizing school informatics economy

I certainly am not the first to come up with such an obvious idea. For a while, a project for a 'school' tablet was frequently mentioned in our media. One of the examples of mentions, according to the tablet developer, was even too candid. However, lately, there has been no news about the progress and results of implementing the Russian school tablet.

It is no secret that Russia has a certain technological lag in the production of processors and other 'super-large integrated circuits'. A multi-million batch of computers made entirely on a domestic component base could serve as a good boost for their development. A school computer does not need 'top' specifications, and our microelectronics industries surely need investment.

If we don't get too caught up in import substitution, there are worthy and affordable examples of wearable computers of all kinds available right now that can be used for these purposes. A decent tablet can be purchased on Yandex.Market starting from 2,000 rubles, which is almost the same cost as the annual government spending on textbooks for a single student, while a decent laptop starts from 12,000 rubles. Each of these will weigh less than three kilograms. Of course, you'll also need to spend on the appropriate software. Fortunately, the software developers in the country are far better off than the manufacturers of computer components.

It probably makes sense to differentiate computer device types for different school grades. Perhaps in elementary school, or as it is now called, Level I, a tablet with very limited 'reader' functions could suffice. However, starting from Level II, when children begin studying computer science and preparing reports, a portable computer must have the appropriate functionality. It can still be a tablet, but it must come with a full suite of office applications. If we want our students to learn the basics of 'digital economy' professions from a certain age, then from that age they must be given a full-fledged laptop with development tools for their studies.

To eradicate illiteracy and make a leap in 'industrialization' during the 1920s and 1930s, most of the country's population had to be (almost forcibly) seated at desks and supplied with textbooks. Overcoming what our leadership considers the 'analog economy' and making a leap into 'digitalization' without providing equal access to IT education and supplying computers won't be achievable either.

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