Education Malta chairman Charles Zammit and myself were recently invited to attend for the Moscow Global Forum ‘City for Education’ organised in the Russian capital city. During this forum we had the opportunity to observe and learn more about one of the country’s major initiatives in the field of education – the Moscow Electronic School. The project, which was launched as a pilot project three years ago and involves all schools in Russia’s capital city, has the full support of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
I was very impressed with how this electronic school is facilitating the learning of all students and how it is serving as a bridge of communication between the education authorities, the educators and all the other stakeholders. It has been designed in such a way to help create a high-tech education environment. It aims to improve the quality of education and also tries to balance traditional school methods with modern digital technology.
During one of the meetings which we attended it was stated that at present over 1,000 schools in Moscow are making use of the new version of the electronic school records. Statistically this means that over a million people are making use of the Moscow Electronic School as more than 400,000 pupils and 550,000 parents are using the electronic records system and over 50,000 teachers are using the electronic register system.
The Moscow Electronic School provides an education profile for each pupil and also includes tools and a link to the city’s online education materials, the school attendance online system, lesson plans prepared by various teachers, and other resources. Those teachers who upload their resources and lessons are financially rewarded and benefit from other incentives. Apart from this, the electronic school records enable parents to observe their child’s progress, achievements and interests, and information about the curriculum the children are following in their respective schools.
The Moscow Electronic School also includes tools and sections that facilitate the integration with the city’s online education materials. This initiative also brought forward an investment in education overall, particularly IT infrastructure. In fact, over 19,000 interactive panels and over 45,000 Wi-Fi points have been installed at 1,360 schools. The latter have also received over 1,300 servers with teachers having the facility to use over 40,000 desktop computers.
The electronic record and mark book system can be accessed by the parents and other stakeholders not only through the official website but also through the Moscow Government Services mobile app. In fact, according to official information provided during the forum, about 1.5 million people are using this service, with an average of 750,000 users each week. The mobile app is used by over 34,000 teachers or by over 50 percent of the total number of educators.
Those teachers who upload their resources and lessons are financially rewarded and benefit from other incentives
The Moscow Electronic School also includes a digital library, which offers interactive content for teachers and students. Some educators and senior leaders commented that teachers can choose the best lesson plans or prepare their own lessons using the platform, they can also download unique content into the library. Teachers are active in creating the required content and adapting it to the education process.
Thanks to the direct involvement of educators, the library has about 27,000 interactive lesson scenarios, 388,000 units of individual content, 14,700 educational apps, 291 electronic textbooks, 640 teaching aids and 200 electronic editions of fiction books. It also contains test tasks in subjects, virtual laboratories, tests and test items as well as fiction books.
Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin confirmed the intention is to make the library of this innovative school available free of charge for teachers and parents from around the world. The Moscow education authorities are ready to share their experience in creating an e-school with foreign partners. In fact, during their speeches the Moscow Minister of Education Isaac Kalina and Sergey Cheremin, the Minister of the Moscow city government responsible for the Department for External and Economic Relations, confirmed that the Moscow Electronic School website was being visited by parents, students and educators in Germany, Great Britain, Austria and the US. This shows that the school is becoming a large global international project.
During the same visit we also had the chance to meet the senior leaders and teachers of one of the major primary and secondary institutions in Moscow. Here we could observe the impressive progress Russia is making in the field of education. We were told that in many schools in Moscow there are already specific Lego lessons and classes for children aged six or older. Lego Education is used till the last year of secondary schooling and especially during lessons of Mathematics, Russian and Science. Lego sessions are also offered as after-school activities.
There is no assessment at kindergarten level but certain activities like coding are introduced at this early stage. At primary and secondary level, educational tablets are also used for assessment but children bring their own device and these are used in various lessons and also for after-school activities, especially while taking part in activities related to 3D printing.
I observed a biology-science lesson for 15-year-olds during which the teacher was using the same high-tech equipment that is being used in hospitals. This formed part of a medical class project which involved 69 schools. The teacher explained to us that there were occasions during the scholastic year when the students were able to watch an operation being carried out live in the hospital.
Engineering as a subject is introduced when students are still 10 years old.
I also noted a nuclear microscope in a robotics lab. According to the head of school, this educational resource alone cost around €5 million. It was evident that a lot of money and planning has gone into the Moscow Electronic School. It reflects the progress Moscow and Russia in general are registering at present in the field of education.
Dr Kenneth Vella is headmaster of Mater Boni Consilii – St Joseph School, Paola, and chairman of the Quality Assurance Committee of the National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE). He is the international representative for the Mediterranean region of Learning Scoop Finland and also collaborates with Seppo Finland, ELE Finland OY and the Tampere University of Applied Sciences.