Merging kindergartens with schools. Merging schools as a tool to get rid of good teachers. Reasons for merging schools and preschool organizations
LENSKAYA: THE MERGER OF SCHOOLS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AND SLOW
Schools and kindergartens are currently being restructured in many regions of Russia, large complexes are being formed in place of individual educational institutions. How do the tasks of the school principal change in these conditions? What needs to be done so that the merger of schools takes place without harm to students? This will be discussed at the Twelfth Annual Conference “Trends in Education Development Leadership in School and Preschool Education: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”, which will be held at the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences (MVSES) on February 19-20. On the eve of the forum, questions from RIA Novosti correspondent Anna Kurskaya were answered by Elena Lenskaya, Dean of the Faculty of Management in Education and Head of the Development Department of MHSES.
- Elena Anatolyevna, how have the functions and role of the school principal changed in recent years, with the adoption of the Law on Education, new educational standards?
- Indeed, a lot has changed. The new law defines the possibilities and degrees of freedom of the school principal, which until now our principals are not very accustomed to using. Now they have much more space for negotiations and cooperation with parents and with everyone who is interested in the success of their schools. But in order for the new benefits to begin to work, all directors need to have a good understanding of what the new legislation is and what opportunities it contains.
Does this happen in practice?
Now in many regions, starting with Moscow, there is a restructuring of the school and educational networks in general, large educational complexes are being created. Unfortunately, this does not always happen deliberately. And directors do not always know what levers they can use to make the transformations truly meaningful, how to plan the development of their educational complex in such a way that the benefits for children are understandable and transparent. And if the payoff isn't clear, directors don't always know how to challenge the complex and resist economic pressure.
What are the negative aspects of the ongoing restructuring?
There are many pitfalls there. Teachers have fears that the network of preschool education may suffer from it, because when schools and kindergartens merge, very often kindergartens begin to serve the school, put children at their desks, and the inherent value of childhood, which is aimed at the new standard of preschool education, disappears.
The threat for additional education lies in the fact that, having become part of the educational complex, circles and studios can begin to serve only this complex, which was not the case before. The whole charm of additional education organizations was precisely that they determined the circle of their clients themselves, and anyone could be included in their number. All of these threats may or may not come true with good leadership and good leadership. This, in particular, we will discuss at the conference.
Is it possible, when analyzing the ongoing changes, to rely on foreign experience?
Indeed, the processes that are taking place in Russia are taking place all over the world. Therefore, we invited specialists from those countries in which such transformations have already taken place to the conference. But it is important to note that abroad the pace of change, even if it was about optimizing the school network, is fundamentally different. Before the schools have a meaningful plan for such a merger, it does not happen.
However, foreign experts say that even in their countries the rate of school merger was too high. I'm afraid our pace is simply unprecedented. And other processes in our education system in practice are very different both from our plans and from foreign experience.
Under what conditions would a preschool institution benefit from joining a kindergarten to a school?
The most important thing is that the plan for the development of the complex precede the merger, and not arise as a result, when the merger has already taken place, and we must urgently figure out what to do with all this.
Still, planning the association should be people who take responsibility for the further success of the children who will study in this complex. Unfortunately, in Moscow, sometimes several schools were united, quite spaced across the territory, and in the new complex there were schools of stages. In principle, this is not bad. But families with several children found themselves in a difficult situation when one child goes to one building, another to another, a third to a third.
It would be worthwhile to think at least this moment before making decisions about the merger. But in practice, these decisions were often made hastily, under administrative pressure. The school needs to learn to defend the interests of students.
How can I do that?
Schools have governing councils, and they could influence educational policy not only on paper. Unfortunately, we like to create "manual" management boards that do what the director says. Very often, parents are simply afraid to raise their voice, because it seems to them that by doing so they put their child at risk. But in the current situation, their role should, in my opinion, grow significantly.
Merging schools should only take place when representatives of all the governing boards of the merging institutions agree to such a decision, sign and say: “Yes, we believe that this will be better for our children.” Of course, it is necessary to choose there not convenient parents, but competent parents. They also have to learn something.
What is a competent parent?
For example, in England, as a rule, parents who have teaching or economic experience become members of the governing council, that is, specialists, and not just people who have free time, as is often the case with us. But being on a board of directors also involves a greater degree of social responsibility, and we haven't fully learned that yet. In England, the governing board is also financially responsible for its actions.
Today it is often said that the school principal needs the skills of a manager rather than a teacher. Are directors specifically trained in these skills today?
This is one of the topics that we, representatives of universities that already train school principals in managerial competencies, are going to discuss at the conference. But there is one problem here.
Indeed, a person with good managerial training can successfully manage an educational complex. But at the same time, studies show that the most successful leaders are people with leadership qualities who, unlike "pure managers", have a vision of the necessary future and approximately understand how to get there, that is, they set development tasks for themselves and their team. The manager, as a rule, successfully implements the tasks set by someone else.
What will happen to leadership competence, and how to develop it against the background of all these wonderful managerial skills, so that the main thing is not lost - the ability to see the future? This is what you need to think about.
There is another reason for concern. The director of a large complex will not be able to keep track of what is happening in the classroom, how well certain teachers cope with their duties. He hadn't done much before, but he still had some time for it.
It is no coincidence that, for example, there are no schools in Finland with more than 900 students each. They attach great importance to the fact that the director participates in the pedagogical process. There is even such a term - "pedagogical leadership", which is considered one of the most important functions of the director. Will this pedagogical leadership be present in the new complexes? I'm not sure.
What new challenges will school principals face in the future?
First of all, they will have to learn how to plan development, taking into account a very wide range of diverse interests. If earlier they worked with a fairly limited number of students of the same age category, now there are much more of them and their age has become less uniform - these are both preschoolers and adults who attend circles and sections. Principals will have to learn how to reconcile the interests of different groups of people in education.
The most important thing they will face and are already facing is the problem of personnel management. Prevention at the first stage, at least, of serious conflicts, fair distribution of resources and so on are new tasks that were not so acute before.
It seems to me important that the director could maintain leadership qualities in a situation where he risks turning into a classic manager who only solves tasks from the outside.
In Moscow (and possibly all over the country, I don't know for sure), the strangest experiment possible is taking place. This association of schools and kindergartens into something single is called. It seems like they call it now educational centers. It must be said that not only is the school being merged with the kindergarten, but the schools are also being molded to each other, i.e. there were two schools, and now they are called one school.
I can still understand the logic of a kindergarten that is attached to a school - they give out kids who now have only one road - only to the nearest school. And next to it, put a factory, a military registration and enlistment office and a nursing home, so that the circle of life is immediately outlined.
But I don't understand the logic of joining one school to another at all. Here there are physically two different buildings. Physically, there are two different directors. There are children who prefer to go to one school or another. There are children who like the atmosphere of one school or the other.
And then someone from above decides - no, we don’t want you to even have such a choice. Now we will call these two buildings one school, they will have one director and one atmosphere. the choice you, the inhabitants, will now be half as much. Oh no, four times less, because we will transfer the atmosphere of the school to two more kindergartens attached to schools.
For some time, I was approached with a rather simple and, probably, by the standards of global events in the country, an ordinary story. There is a teacher in Moscow. Her name is Soldatova Elena Zinovievna. Primary school teacher of the highest category, 14th category of the ETS, certificates from the administration, certificate of the ministry, awarded a medal, labor veteran, total teaching experience of 38 years, school experience of 20 years. What is important - her children have excellent academic performance.
And probably still Elena Zinovievna would have taught Moscow children if her school had not got stuck in the association. School 711 (in which she worked) was attached to school 1726. And now for a second we digress from this situation and try to imagine such an association purely humanly.
You are the principal of a school to which you have attached another. You have your team, which you have known for a long time and with whom you have worked well together. And there is a team that you inherited from the second school. If it suddenly comes to layoffs, layoffs - who will you cut first?
I think you already know what this story is about. Elena Zinovievna suddenly finds out that she no longer has a class, he was "not recruited." Yes, and the second primary school teacher from the same school receives a class, apparently only because the teacher from the school to which they were attached goes on maternity leave.
Soldatova is offered an extended day group, and a little later - a paper about the reduction.
There were a number of other unpleasant moments in this story, but I do not want to write about them, because. I think it's clear how stressful and how such decisions can be framed. An important fact is that our heroine is not timid. She always knew how to stand up for herself and even withdrew in principle from the formal trade union organization of her school. Unfortunately, she has not yet joined the independent teachers' union - she is looking for contacts, she needs help now.
The whole story with not recruited classes is possible only in a situation where the director is not working to recruit them. If the school were autonomous, of course, classes would be recruited. But the giant that turned out - why strain so hard?
What is clear to me?
1. That a teacher in Moscow is not protected at all. He may have the best performance, he may have the best feedback from teachers and parents, but he can be fired just like that and there is no one to protect the teacher today. Independent trade unions should appear in schools.
2. That the artificial "unification" and enlargement of schools and kindergartens, schools and schools deprives them of their independence, their own identity, their individuality. In such associations, bright personalities are left out, and loyal and gray ones get the green light.
3. As a result, children lose the best school directors, the best teachers, and the probability of finding a good school is sharply reduced.
Soldatova Elena Zinovievna is trying to challenge the decision to reduce. She turned to the prosecutor's office, to the labor inspectorate, she is looking for contacts of independent teachers' trade unions. Maybe someone from public figures, from the media will be able to help her - it will be great. Contacts are ready to provide. We need to help a good teacher.
Due to the multifunctionality, such buildings can alternately be an elementary school, a kindergarten, or a combined educational institution combining preschool groups and an elementary education building.
The transforming building will change its purpose depending on the needs of the area. Refurbishment can be done during the summer holidays. It will cost much less than building another building.
“The need for kindergartens and schools is constantly growing, so the city is looking for new ways to resolve the issue. The idea of building transformer buildings arose several years ago. On behalf of the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, standard architectural and technical solutions were developed for a combined elementary school block with a preschool department, -
Marat Khusnullin
Deputy Mayor of Moscow in the Government of Moscow for urban planning policy and construction
For example, a kindergarten for 300 kids can accommodate 12 preschool groups. When transformed into an elementary school, the group rooms are transformed into 12 classrooms. The combined block will accommodate four elementary school classes and eight preschool groups.
In 2018, it is planned to commission three transformer buildings at the expense of the budget.
A combined BNK with a preschool department for 300 children will be built as part of school No. 1985 in the north-west of the capital in the Kurkino district at the address: st. Vorotynskaya, ow. 12, bldg. 3.
The same block of primary classes with the possibility of transformation will be erected at gymnasium No. 1786 in the South Butovo district in the south-west of the capital at the address: st. Admiral Lazarev, 77 (ZHSK "Alfa").
There will be four classrooms on each floor of the three-story buildings. If BNK is transformed into a kindergarten, then the classes will be adapted for 12 groups. On the ground floor, there will be a wardrobe, a dining room for 150 people, speech therapist, psychologist and medical offices.
There will also be a circle club with the possibility of transformation into a room for extended day groups and a hall for music and physical education.
The second floor will be occupied by a gym with a locker room, showers and toilets, rooms for extended day groups and an assembly hall with 243 seats.
On the third floor, a library with a reading room and a media library, a teacher's room, a methodological office, additional education, labor, technical modeling and technical toys, fine arts and nature rooms will be equipped.
When transformed into a kindergarten for 300 children, classrooms with recreation areas and toilets are transformed into 12 groups of four on each floor.
The dining room becomes a group for a short stay of children, the assembly hall - a music hall, the library premises - a circle for classes on computers and a hall for choreography.
Showers and changing rooms at the gym are used as technical premises: storerooms, laundries, etc. The gym, first-aid post and administrative premises will retain their function. The transformation will be carried out with the help of dismantling and additional construction of partitions.
BNK for 300 places with the possibility of transformation into a kindergarten will be built for secondary school No. 2109 in the south-west of the capital in the Yuzhnoye Butovo district at the address: microdistrict Shcherbinka, md. 3, st. Brusilova, d. 29, bldg. one.
The building will also have three floors. Each floor will house four classrooms that can be transformed into groups for preschoolers.
On the first floor there will be bedrooms for after-school groups, an assembly hall for 243 seats, a canteen for 150 seats, a medical office and a cloakroom for an elementary school.
The second floor will be occupied by a gym with locker rooms, toilets and showers and a room for extended day groups, the third floor will be occupied by a library with a reading room and a media library, a room for an extended day group, a speech therapist's office, a psychologist's office, a teacher's room and an administration office.
Combining kindergartens and schools is a topic of current interest, but not a new one. Back in the early 90s, an experiment was conducted in the capital to create educational complexes, but the experiment failed miserably. The failure can be explained by the legal inconsistency of the system at that time: educational complexes were not formalized in any way and it came to the point that teachers were not credited with the length of service in such joint institutions. The merger of kindergartens and schools, in addition, took place under the auspices of the continuity of education, but in reality nothing has changed and the words about continuity remained only on paper.
Now officials have returned to the idea of reviving the experiment. It must be said that such integrated centers have been operating successfully abroad for a long time. Therefore, if we are talking about the USA, Europe, then there the child begins to go to school from the age of 4 - not to a classical school in our understanding, but to the preschool department of an educational center.
Teachers and parents treat the “second wind” with caution, and some even with prejudice. What are their fears and why are not all institutions happy to support the idea of rallying?
Combining kindergartens and schools: what in fact
The educational complex includes several kindergartens and schools, united legally. The director of the school is at the head of the complex. Heads of kindergartens become heads of departments. It is quite natural that duplicative positions (for example, an accountant or a methodologist) are reduced.
Among the goals of the associations is also indicated "the opportunity for more children to receive a much better education." The situation before the experiment developed in such a way that prestigious schools and kindergartens coexisted in each district, which, of course, everyone aspired to get into, and less popular institutions, which remained half-empty due to a shortage. Officials, by combining strong institutions with weak ones, hope to “pull up” the latter and make all kindergartens and schools in the districts attractive to citizens.
However, in fact, prestigious schools are merged with other prestigious schools and kindergartens. Not a single, let's call it, "elite" educational institution will agree to unite with an institution that is not quoted by the population. Therefore, one of the stated goals of the merger is not realized.
At the same time, those educational institutions (as a rule, they can be attributed to popular among the population) that oppose the merger, in fact, risk being left out of work: all “strong” schools and kindergartens will already be reorganized into educational complexes, for which the new unit - a burden.
Combining kindergartens and schools: pluses
One of the essential and most important advantages of the association is cost savings. In the capital, as we know, per capita funding has been introduced, that is, money is allocated not for the entire institution, but for one student or pupil. The more children are included in the educational complex, the richer it is. In light of the reduction in staff, free funds appear that can be spent on improving equipment, purchasing methodological material, and bonus payments to teachers.
Small educational institutions with few people could not afford qualified specialists: speech therapist, swimming instructor. In the educational complex, this becomes possible.
In addition, it enhances continuity of preschool and primary school education. Emphasis is placed on introducing the child to the school even before he goes to the first grade. The child has time to adapt to the school walls before the official admission to school.
Importantly, the resources at the disposal of one institution of the complex become available to other departments: a library, a swimming pool, a gym, a sensory room, and so on.
Combining kindergartens and schools is promising in terms of building a dialogue in the professional sphere. Teachers exchange experiences, choose the most optimal system of relationships, pay salaries, for example.
For parents, the educational complex is a great advantage, since they do not have to fight for a "place in the sun" for their children. Children attending a kindergarten as part of an educational complex automatically enter a school from the same complex. They can, of course, go to another school if there are places.
Combining kindergartens and schools: cons
One of the main disadvantages is downsizing. Many teachers are losing their jobs, and finding new ones is not so easy.
Wherein, workload on remaining staff increases. Not all directors are ready for expanded powers. As you know, managing a large country (in this case, an educational complex) is much more difficult than a small state (a school).
The leaders of kindergartens have other concerns: from their point of view, the experiment should have been carried out in a different direction. Instead of combining two different levels of education, it would be logical to consolidate preschool institutions of the same order. In addition, charitable funds that used to go to the account of a preschool institution and could be spent freely at the discretion of the head of the kindergarten and the governing council will now be controlled by the head of the school, which will significantly limit the freedom of action with finances.
Many believe that integration, which is experimental and not fully developed, will lead to dictatorship of the school over the kindergarten. In fact, this will be expressed in the fact that the school will try to include in the kindergarten program as much material as possible to prepare for the first grade. Instead of the priority game direction in the preschool program, which, by the way, is prescribed in the new Federal State Educational Standards, the emphasis will be placed on preparing the child for the first grade - that is, education.
How the experiment will end is not yet clear, just as it is not entirely clear for all participants in the process: teachers, leaders and parents, a clear scheme for the work of the educational complex. Nevertheless, the experiment continues to gain momentum, and the Department of Education is replenished with applications for the merger of kindergartens and schools.
Opinions:
Maria Yasnova:
- Nonsense. Kindergarten is kindergarten, school is school. Two different institutions. They study at school, relax in kindergarten before school. What's the point of combining them?
Veronica 65:
“It feels like we've been through it all before. My daughter is already grown up. In the early nineties, it was like this: a kindergarten was attached to a school, a preparatory group worked in the kindergarten, in which teachers from the school taught.
Anna Aleksandrovna:
“But I think that this is a great idea, very humane for a child. In a few years of being in the garden, the child will get used to the children and will go to school with the same children, he will experience less stress. At the same time, the program in kindergarten and school will most likely be the same. For example, now in many schools they study according to the “School 2100”. It is very difficult for children. If you start with it in the garden, then everything will go like clockwork.
Zhenya Alakina:
— I live in the north of Moscow. At us too with might and main there is an association of schools and gardens. True, what it is and why it is done - no one understands. Teachers, it seems, do not mind - they are promised an increase in salary, and kindergartens, on the contrary, are not eager.