German Gref said that mathematicians will not be in demand. Many did not agree

Russia is experiencing a colossal shortage of specialists who can think independently and solve non-standard analytical and creative problems. By 2025, the shortage of such workers could reach 10 million people. If the current structure of the labor market is not changed over the next 7-10 years, the country is unlikely to be able to catch up with the leaders of the world economy, warn the authors of a study from the Boston Consulting Group.

According to BCG, only 17% of the Russian population is engaged in highly skilled labor classified as “knowledge”, while in developed countries this figure is at least 25%. In Singapore, for example, it is twice as high as in Russia, and in the UK - 2.6 times.

A third of Russians work in positions classified as “skill” (repetitive typical tasks, physical labor). The most popular professions are driver (7.1%), salesperson (6.8%), security guard (1.9%). Moreover, their total share in the employment structure has continued to grow over the past 15 years, writes Finanz.ru.

The domestic education system trains mainly specialists in the “rule” category - clerks, office workers, managers who are capable of performing routine technical work within given limits. At the same time, people go to universities not for the sake of knowledge, just for a diploma, and 91% of employers complain about the lack of practical skills among graduates.

80% of Russia’s working population is not prepared to work in modern markets; the employment structure in the country remains inherited from the USSR and corresponds to the level of a raw materials colony, BCG states.

Conservation is facilitated by the lack of incentives for development and self-realization. Thus, in terms of income, intellectual work is not very different from physical work: the difference in the salary of a driver and a doctor in Russia is only 20% (in the USA - 261%, in Germany - 174%, in Brazil - 172%).

It is not surprising that people do not want to spend time and energy on acquiring complex professions with a high degree of responsibility. 98% of Russians prefer stability, opting for “safe” work with simple requirements and guarantees.

More than 30% of the Russian population works in the public sector. Only 15% of citizens are employed in small businesses (for comparison, in India - 40%, in Brazil - 52%, in Germany - 63%, in China - 80%). And the values ​​of growth (willingness to learn new skills, take responsibility and take risks) are shared by only 2% of Russians versus 24% in Western Europe and 32% in the USA.

State task

The professor of the Department of Labor and social policy RANEPA Alexander Shcherbakov. Especially in the fact that the level of wages for qualified and unskilled workers is not sufficiently differentiated. The expert’s only doubt is the statement regarding the structure of the economy, which was allegedly inherited from the Soviet Union.

“In Soviet times, the structure was, it seems to me, more progressive, that is, the share of manufacturing industries was higher. Now it has become heavier, more focused on raw materials. And from the point of view of innovation and technical progress, the Soviet Union at that time had more advantageous positions relative to other countries than now,” he explained to Reedus.

According to the expert, rely only on market mechanisms in this situation - naive and unpromising. Until now, domestic entrepreneurs have not shown themselves to be a sufficiently proactive force in social development. And they lose every kind of competition possible. Therefore, government intervention is needed to set the right emphasis and become more active in stimulating the development of progressive industries.

This is not about the state’s share in the economy, but about the quality government controlled, the scientist emphasized, about creating motivation for advanced types of economic activity.

If not for sanctions...

Head of the Department of Labor and Personnel Economics, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosova Riorita Kolosova, in turn, believes that BCG estimates are a lie. In particular, the number of people in the “skill” category in the economic structure, according to her, is not increasing at all. On the contrary, it is declining, and the share of knowledge jobs is increasing. At the same time, “blame” people of ordinary labor for the lack of creative tasks also not entirely correct.

“The same managers in trade make deeply creative decisions when working with the buyer. This is a non-trivial task - to force people to buy,” the expert notes.

According to her, 16 areas have been identified in Russia scientific research who move energetically.

“Our young people are being stolen and stolen all the time. The people whom we trained for intellectual work are exported abroad in their thousands. And they leave the jobs where they performed intellectual work,” says Kolosova. - Take any trends in the computerization of work processes, the spread of network organizations, modern technologies- not only information, but also mechanical engineering, metalworking. The qualification potential of these jobs is growing all around.”

If there were no sanctions, Russia would rush forward in several industries at once, the expert is sure.

“Of course, it would be good if we were allowed to develop quietly and given the opportunity for the innovative leap that we have outlined,” she sums up.

Botov in this text raises the problem of moral education of a person.

He believes that “an immoral person is not really a person, because he lives by destroying society.” One cannot but agree with the author that this problem has been and remains very relevant at all times.

V. Rasputin in his work “French Lessons” touches on this problem. It talks about the relationship between a student and a teacher. About how a teacher French Lidia Mikhailovna taught lessons of kindness, empathy, and the ability to feel someone else's pain.

This problem is also raised by A.S. Pushkin in the story “The Captain's Daughter”. Peter Grinev's parents raised morals from childhood. They told him that he must take care of his honor from a young age. And throughout his life's journey, he tries to do the right thing. And he is opposed by Alexey Ivanovich Shvabrin. In the story, this hero appears before us as an immoral person.

In conclusion, I would like to remind you that the problem raised by Botov is very important for every person in our world.

After all, morality must be cultivated in a person from childhood.

Updated: 2017-04-23

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Illustration copyright Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS Image caption German Gref has repeatedly surprised the public with his statements

Mathematicians and programmers will be in less and less demand in the future, said Sberbank President German Gref at the Moscow forum. Is there any confirmation of this?

“The good news is that in this world, not only mathematicians and programmers will be needed. Moreover, I think that less and less of them will be needed. Therefore, when we try to say that we will now develop the specialties “mathematics” and “programmer,” we fall into exactly the same trap as we had some time ago with lawyers and economists,” the economist noted at the international forum “Open Innovation” in Moscow.

How to develop children evenly? Gref has some advice.

“We don’t need math schools. In my opinion, this is a relic of the past. I am a categorical opponent of math schools, because math schools are where people are selected and stuffed with one single subject. This was the case in the Soviet Union, and it seems to me that this not a very good experience,” - this is how the chairman of Sberbank pleased those gathered at the forum with the neologism “mono-subject”.

• German Gref heads Sberbank of Russia

The speech of the banker, who is considered a liberal in government structures, quite puzzled the Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva, who stated that theoretical mathematics is a fundamental science.

“I will give only figures that speak, perhaps, more clearly than the quote from the respected German Oskarovich... Over the past 10 years, our student teams in computer science and programming have been winners at international Olympiads, there are no equals. We have a decree on strategy development of our country, the May decree, we now have grandiose plans to create 15 mathematical centers,” said Madame Minister.

Where is education going?

Gref’s statement could not but give rise to controversy among Internet users.

“I think German Gref simply read Oleg Tinkov’s recently published book and argues with it. Oleg wrote in the book that it is now very difficult to find good developers (programmers) in Russia. There are 150 vacancies for one of the projects that cannot be filled. In the book Oleg also says that the backbone of the organization consists of graduates of the best physics and mathematics universities (Mekhmat, Physics and Technology) and this is one of the explanations for its success,” - sure MTS Bank economist Pavel Tychina.

Some users wanted to clarify the very definition of physics and mathematics schools and classes.

“In the realities of Russia, it seems that in general physics and mathematics are euphemistically called the more capable class, and the rest are shoved into the humanities according to the residual principle,” believes Nikita Zmanovsky, an employee of the laboratory of neurolinguistics at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

“Mathematics as a profession has almost never been in demand. Perhaps he [Gref] was trying to say that programming has become so simple that in order to do it, you no longer need a strong mathematical foundation,” argues Oleg Martynov, a student at the Moscow State University.

Illustration copyright Science & Society Picture Library Image caption School mathematics education has changed over 200 years, although this drawing from the 1820s still makes intuitive sense today. But what will happen to him in another 200?

Teachers mathematical theory and computer scientists were not delighted with what they heard.

"Exist basic sciences, which are the basis for the well-being of the whole world, and these sciences - physics, mathematics, chemistry, which allow an engineer to gain knowledge corresponding to his rank. Just like programming, since it is a solution to nonlinear problems, research is unthinkable without it. Gref has no right to judge this,” a teacher at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, candidate of science, told the BBC Russian Service. technical sciences Sergei Legotin.

“The crisis in economics, jurisprudence, and management has come because we have dumped too much of our idea of ​​what needs to be done in this area. In order to steal, you don’t need knowledge of mathematics, and this has been happening for the last decades “I believe that the relevance of mathematics and engineering has become much greater than it was decades ago,” the specialist added.

“Good mathematical training allows you to better understand and study all other areas of life - the same programmers (one of the unconditional professions of the present and future) without knowledge of mathematics - just [no one]. Mathematics is generally the language of strict inferences and descriptions of processes: in physics, economics , biology, engineering, everyone speaks the language of mathematics, even self-respecting humanities use mathematical methods,” said Egor M., candidate of physical and mathematical sciences at MIPT, on condition of anonymity.

“As for specialized mathematics schools - for me, this is one of the few places where capable students can study mathematics at a decent level. There are no problems with this at universities, but those who come to university after school often have problems, having passed the Unified State Exam with a good score, in fact being able to solve only standard problems,” the certified physicist develops his idea in correspondence with the BBC.

"They don't need anything else"

“This man’s tongue moves far ahead of his head, and therefore most of his statements deserve attention only as an illustration of what monsters the sleep of reason gives birth to,” the pro-Kremlin polymath Anatoly Wasserman was horrified in a conversation with Regnum.

Gref also got it from the opposition.

"Medinsky called Mayakovsky a rapper, and Gref spoke out against mathematical schools. Which, to put it mildly, unusual people occupy leading positions in the country,"

The other day, the head of Sberbank, German Gref, declared the best domestic physics and mathematics schools a “Soviet relic” and said that the country does not need them. The official and banker spoke directly and simply:

When we try to say that we will now develop the specialties “mathematician” and “programmer”, we fall into exactly the same trap as we had some time ago with lawyers and economists.

Mathematical training - from Gref's point of view - is important, but people must be developed evenly, “360 degrees”.

This very formula - “developed 360 degrees” - causes bewilderment, or even just laughter. However, this is not so bad. The ability to competently express one’s thoughts in Russian has always been a weak point of domestic top managers.

Something else is much worse. Mr. Gref’s reasoning is based on, at best, astonishing ignorance, and at worst, an outright lie. Over the past decades, mathematical schools in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and other cities have produced many bright people of various professions - from physicists, engineers and mathematicians to managers, military officers, journalists, philologists and poets. These are, at a minimum, smart, gifted people with excellent mathematical training.

Mathematics structures thinking. In addition, as practice shows, it is in mathematics schools that children receive an excellent education in both humanities and natural sciences. It turns out that independently thinking young specialists are not needed by Gref and those circles whose interests he represents. It's clear. It is much more difficult to program such people for the interests of “corporations” and “businesses”.

Well, let's keep that in mind.

Board, rag and chalk

Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva immediately responded to Gref. The development of physics and mathematics education, Ms. Minister emphasized, remains an essential part national strategy country designated in the May presidential decrees. According to these decrees, 15 specialized mathematical centers will be created in Russia in the coming years. So the head of Sberbank need not worry too much.

However, in this case, we are not even interested in the danger of abolishing physics and mathematics school education. The probability of such an outcome is almost zero - at least until the “pure Grefovites” came to power. However, the expressed opinion, which, of course, was not born in a vacuum, is a very serious signal from which conclusions must be drawn. In this case, the most influential top manager in the country most likely simply let it slip. He made public the collective judgment of the environment, the community in which he moves and whose interests he represents.

Maybe - from the point of view of his interests - he did it in vain, prematurely. But now we know exactly what Gref and his like-minded people want. If we talk in simple words, then, by opposing physics and mathematics schools, they are trying to eliminate or at least undermine the prestige of the most serious and intellectually complete, well-founded and fruitful part of domestic secondary education where it concerns the most gifted children.

Judge for yourself. For more than 50 years, it is our mathematical school education considered one of the best in the world. Over the past ten years, Russian teams have constantly taken first place at international mathematical Olympiads. Only one teacher, Sergei Evgenievich Rukshin, founder and director of the St. Petersburg city mathematical center for gifted schoolchildren, trained 40 gold medalists of international mathematical olympiads. Three of his students became three-time Olympic champions.

In addition, Rukshin is the teacher of two Fields Prize laureates (analogous to the Nobel Prize in mathematics) - G. Perelman and S. Smirnov.

S. Rukshin. Photo: page Did you study with Rukshin? In contact with

Answering the question of how you prepare geniuses, Rukshin once remarked: “To prepare geniuses, you need to pay attention to only three things: a board, a rag and chalk.” That's all. Money must be invested, first of all, in people, and then, if possible, in everything else.

Maybe this is exactly what Mr. Gref doesn’t like? Won't you start investing and innovating? Only ideas, discoveries, gains and achievements. Some boring, unanglicized words.

Why does Russia need a future?

But this is all a joke. Essentially, the situation is much more serious than it seems at first glance.

The head of Sberbank seriously states that we may have too many “mathematicians and programmers” and compares them with economists and lawyers. But this is again a deliberate substitution! To mathematicians and programmers we should add scientists, engineers, designers, builders, creators of new military equipment.

Indeed, why do Russia need these people? Why does Russia need a future?

From Mr. Gref’s point of view, it will be much better if we fit into the global distribution of roles. Let it be on a residual basis, let it be in third roles. The people whose interests Gref represents will always get a piece of them. They won’t be bypassed, so don’t worry.

This story has another, completely unexpected subtext. This time it is concretely political, momentary. Lately, cries have been heard from various quarters about cyber threats from Russia. Madam Minister of Defense of the Netherlands Ank Bijleveld recently stated that her country is in a state of cyber war with the Russian Federation.

Ankh Beyleveld. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

It seems that domestic programmers are simply inflicting panic on our enemies - real and potential. They are frightened by their mere presence in virtual space. And then there are math schools every year that graduate hundreds of talented, bright and ambitious kids, who have no equal in the world. And many of them are ready to serve their Motherland.

Maybe this is exactly what it's all about? Perhaps this is where the reason for Gref’s unexpectedly expressed desire to eliminate physics and mathematics schools in the country lies?

Text from the Unified State Examination

(1) We don’t need educated people. (2) Only educated people. (3) If you start with a sign, then it should reflect a different, more true essence of human development. (4) Not the Ministry of Education, but the Ministry of Education of a healthy, harmonious personality. (5) We have already educated officials, builders of financial pyramids, unscrupulous politicians, criminals, it is time to understand that morality must be put at the forefront. (6) Since an immoral person is not really a person, because he lives by destroying society, that is, he is not a person at all. (7) Why do we need him like that? (8) And why do we need this system itself, which educates society for criminals? (9) It’s very difficult to talk about upbringing, the term with which I personally once and for all replace the term ‘education’. (10) Great is the responsibility towards this most important topic, the most important matter in the lives and activities of people. (11) If the teacher does not put into the student’s soul all the best that humanity has produced, there will be no person. (12) And what is the current attitude towards this matter, the most important for our future? (13) Based on expenditures from the country’s budget per student high school As a percentage of GDP, we rank second in the world. (14) Don't be happy. (15) Our second place is the place from the end. (16) And we only have the African country of Zimbabwe. (17) How has the world changed in response to such ‘care’? (18) Nowadays there are 800,000 children school age illiterate, more than 3 million do not attend school..

(19) For the rest, a standard secondary, average education dumps a bunch of unnecessary, burdensome knowledge into the soul. (20) They do not cultivate each individual individually, like a bush, nurturing strengths personality, gently eliminating shortcomings, and cutting all the bushes the same way - into a rectangle. (21) The best time of the year is the holidays, the most best time It's a break at school, the biggest joy at school is - hurray, the teacher is sick. (22) Or - they didn’t ask me today. (23) Why? (24) Because the soul turns away from knowledge, because it is not fueled either by individual interest from the affinity of the soul with the subject being studied, or by the visible obvious suitability of this knowledge in the future. (25) A feeling of nausea appears in relation to this gray, average knowledge endlessly crammed into the head. (26) Feeling of protest. (27) Sometimes protest slips into behavior. (28) Unites students, opposing them to teachers. (29) The curiosity inherent in children at the beginning of their studies is killed. (30) Knowledge is burdensome because it does not enrich. (31) Then the growing teenager (I mean, spiritually, he is two meters tall) comes across cigarettes, beer, then other quick ways of getting pleasure, he slides into vicious, wrong habits, and they lead him through life to the end. (32) This person is already lost to knowledge. (33) He is no longer interested in knowledge. (34) They are a burden, the school hammered into him. (35) He does not strive to expand his knowledge, his horizons; drink, smoke, sex, dancing - these are the only sources of pleasure and satisfaction from the life he lives that remain with him. (36) Forever. (37) Thirty years ago I heard the host of the program “The Obvious - the Incredible” say: (38) Most of the knowledge that school gives us is not needed by us at the institute. (39) Most of the knowledge that the institute gives us is not needed in life. (40) So, we seem to understand the problem, but nothing has changed since those years. (41) But this does not mean that nothing needs to be changed further. (42) We urgently need to start creating a bright world of the future today.

(According to I. Botov)

Introduction

Knowledge is of paramount importance for modern man. Russia has always been famous high level education provided at school. However, recently, during the period of reform of the education system, more and more disputes and disagreements have arisen regarding the quality of knowledge acquired and the system for assessing it.

The issue of education, the formation of a harmoniously developed personality, maximally prepared for life in society, is also important. When solving all these problems, the image of the teacher, teacher, and the influence of the current school on the younger generation becomes of great importance.

Problem

The problem of quality, relevance and usefulness of knowledge, inextricably linked with the problem of upbringing and education in modern educational institutions, raised by I. Botov in the proposed text. The role of the teacher and the school as a whole in the development of a person as an individual is considered.

A comment

The author begins the story with the statement that only educated people, who do not have the proper upbringing, are completely unnecessary to our society. There are already enough dishonest, criminal individuals in it. Therefore, the main slogan modern education education of moral, harmonious developed person bringing only good to the country and its people.

The teacher is primarily responsible for the upbringing of such a person, who is simply obliged to put his soul into his students, to give them a part of himself. Without this, you won't get a real person.

The state does not see such an important problem. Our country is in second to last place in terms of the amount of money spent per student. After us there is only Africa, third world countries. As a result, literacy has dropped significantly; many simply do not attend school.

The author is concerned that the current system too equalizes children, averaging their abilities and filling them with the same knowledge. Moreover, the quality of this knowledge leaves much to be desired. All together leads the average person to a feeling of disgust from knowledge. Most young people are looking for entertainment in completely different areas of life. They don’t care about knowledge, but alcohol, drugs, sex, and dancing become an integral part of their lives, contributing to the degradation of their personality.

The author complains that for several decades the situation in education has not changed: school knowledge is not needed for universities, university knowledge is not useful in life. Something urgently needs to change.

Author's position

The author tries to convey to the reader the paramount importance for society of an ideal personality, moral, comprehensively developed, educated. He calls for the need for speedy changes that must lead to a bright future.

Your position

I can't help but agree with the author. Education is indeed ambiguous today. On the one hand, it is greatly simplified - the material is schematic and unambiguous. On the other hand, many unnecessary subjects appear - introducing a second foreign language, planning the introduction of a third. School knowledge foreign languages so superficial that studying several foreign languages ​​will only take time away from preparing for really necessary subjects.

Changes are necessary, but they must be as deliberate as possible. And we need to start with the training of teaching staff. A teacher is obliged not only to impart knowledge, but to educate by example.

Argument No. 1

If a person has a thirst for knowledge, he is able to develop. The problem of knowledge is raised in the play by D.I. Fonvizin "Undergrowth". The main task of the main character, the young teenager Mitrofanushka, is to gain knowledge. In fact, his teachers are so shallow that they give him only superficial knowledge, but he is not able to grasp even this.

And this is not just about teachers. Much also depends on Prostakova’s maternal upbringing, who inspires her son that he does not need education. We see that knowledge that has fallen into unfruitful soil will not be able to bear the fruit it deserves. Education without upbringing loses half of its benefits.

Argument No. 2

If a person strives for deep knowledge, is passionate about science and the process of cognition itself, he can achieve a lot. Evgeny Bazarov from the novel by I.S. showed himself to be such a person. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons". Only through knowledge did he become a man of strong and deep intelligence.

Conclusion

Education is of utmost importance for human development. It creates the foundation for the formation of personality, the formation of life aspirations and beliefs, and the spiritual development of people.