Text 2. Kicked out of school

By Andy Potts

Fears of “extremism” in the classroom could leave foreign teachers tied up in red tape, if Russia's lawmakers get their way.

Moscow's City Duma has put forward an amendment to a new law which would require all teachers to apply for work permits in addition to the work visas which currently allow them to teach here.

And, according to the amendment's author, Tatyana Potyayeva, the deputy head of the City Duma's Science and Education committee, the move is necessary after some foreign teachers were responsible for “inciting ethnic and religious strife” in educational centres.

In practical terms the proposal would mean schools and colleges have to spend up to three months processing the paperwork for new recruits, compared with about one month at present.

English language schools, which have enjoyed years of growth, often recruit staff with either the Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) or the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certificate – both of which might now become insufficient for would-be teachers in Russia.

At Moscow's BKC Language School, the largest in the country, visa manager Tanya Chibireva expressed concern that the new legislation would make it difficult to attract native speakers as teachers.

“The work permit procedure takes much longer - we are afraid people won't wait to prepare these documents,” she said. “It also means that all diplomas and certificates will be checked and we might find we can only recruit teachers with university degrees in language teaching”.

The popular CELTA and TESOL courses are usually taken by graduates from a wide range of disciplines, and provide a four-week grounding in teaching.

In most countries they are seen as the industry-standard entry qualification, but this new legislation could see them deemed unacceptable in Russia as lawmakers seek to push up standards.

This could have a knock-on effect for BKC, which is currently Moscow's only CELTA training centre.

“People choose our courses because they're not as expensive as in other cities,” added Chibireva. “Now maybe people will have to go somewhere else after these courses, but hopefully those students with good backgrounds can be employed by BKC”.

According to Kommersant, Yaroslav Kuzminov, director of the Higher School of Economics, said the planned new law was “like trying to cure a headache with a guillotine”.

“When they talk about “extremism” they mean teachers mostly from countries of the former USSR,” she said. “But I suppose there is another reason as well, and this is just an excuse. Probably they are worried that lots of people come to Russia as teachers because it's easier, but are actually here for other purposes”.

Chibireva also doubted that extremism was the real issue. “This was discovered in regions far from Moscow, according to the articles I've read, and it hasn't happened here,” she said. “From our point of view, we've never had such cases at BKC and it's unlikely to happen”.

But she added that teachers should not be put off working in Russia. “Our school has been running for more than 10 years, and we don't think this will stop us,” she said.

There was some support for plans to ensure teachers were properly qualified, though. Natalya Voroshilova, a teacher of English and Russian, said she felt that CELTA wasn't enough on its own.

“It's a nice course and very serious, but it doesn't give a thorough picture of all the different teaching methodologies,” she said. “A university course gives the whole picture of the language. It makes it much easier to explain why we say certain things”.

The amendment, which has yet to be ratified by the State Duma, would affect teachers in all levels of education, working in both public and private sectors. However, academics on exchange programmes would not be affected.

The State Duma is also set to consider plans to give five-year work visas to key banking staff in a measure planned to help Moscow become a world financial centre. The bill, put forward by A Just Russia deputy Kira Lukyanova, would also eliminate work permits for economic experts recruited by Russian banks [11, p. 6].

Text 3. Education overhaul

Russian higher education institutes have to switch to a new two-stage system, according to changes in the federal law on education approved two years ago and coming into effect with the start of the new academic year on September 1. Various specializations, such as engineering and medicine, will retain their present five-year courses, but the majority of universities will now be enrolling students into Bachelor's and Master's programs.

From May 20, the Higher School of Economics is accepting applications to study in the new, separate courses. RIA Novosti's Yulia Medvedovskaya talked with the Higher School of Economics' pro-rector Vadim Radayev about what's in store with the change to the new system.

Yulia Medvedovskaya: What are the main difficulties in the swap over to the Bachelor's and Master's system?

Vadim Radayev: One of the main problems of the Master's system of education is a lack of preparation among students enrolling from different fields of education with different theoretical bases. Everyone can enrol on a common basis, but they may not have sufficient knowledge. So for those who want to change their area of focus, preparation for enrolment and study in the area of specialisation for the Master's course is necessary. Universities need to offer preparation courses, which help not only to be accepted into the Master's, but also help with successful study during the course. From 2009, we are preparing to create such a preparatory department for students who have finished a Bachelor's in a different field. The course will last one year and be free.

Despite the different levels of preliminary preparation, we decided not to divide into different groups those students who are enrolling into our Master's program from our Bachelor's program and those who came from different universities or faculties. Dividing them, naturally, would make things easier, but we decided not to do that. Formally they receive the same degree and the results should be the same. And it would not be fair to those who came from different specialisations. The fact that they will study together will help the weaker students catch up on what they lack.

YM: What will happen with Bachelor's graduates who don't enrol in a Master's? How will employers relate to them?

VR: I consider that Bachelor's graduates who don't continue with Master's should not have any fundamental problems with employers. People, of course, are still not used to the two-stage system, because the question arises about what is this Bachelor's and is it just an "unfinished" higher education. With time they will start to relate to them differently. Much that now we consider normal was taken with suspicion five to seven years ago. In fact, five-year specialist education is not so fundamental, especially if you consider that many afterwards don't work in their specialisation; the educational foundations are laid in the first two to three years.

YM: One of the ideas of the Bologna process is to provide students with academic mobility as Master's allows for a change not only in specialisation, but university as well as geographical location. In what way will the Higher School of Economics stimulate student's academic mobility?

VR: To help orientate university students we publish information on our site, conduct open-door days, distribute booklets. We have thought up another interesting method to help students understand the new system. In February, the Higher School of Economics for the first time conducted four winter schools for students of different universities who were interested in Master's and wanted to enrol in it.

As concerns student mobility, we need to develop cooperation between universities. We are trying to set up these ties. Representatives of our university are travelling around various towns, talking about our university, about the Master's program, about what professions you can acquire with us. Cooperation between universities is stimulated by such exchanges. Students need to have more possibilities to communicate with future colleagues from different universities. Isolation within one faculty and within one university (even if it is a good university), is naturally not worth it [10, p. 20].