It is possible that these were the last exams in the Unified State Exam format. In the autumn, State Duma deputies intend to consider a bill that would return the traditional exams. Earlier, they tried to cancel the unified state exam three times: in 2013, 2016 and in 2023. But the bill was rejected already at the first reading. As State Duma deputy Yaroslav Nilov, one of the authors of the bill, told MEDIA TALK, the need to abolish the Unified State Exam has been overdue for a long time, since it "forms clip thinking in children," the mental health of schoolchildren suffers, "they were tortured, parents were tortured, teachers were tortured," the amount of sedative consumption is growing. "That is why now the country needs to return to the classical form of education," the deputy is sure.
Photo: Sergey Bulkin/TASS
Meanwhile, Larisa Arachashvili, a teacher of Russian language and literature, winner of the All-Russian competition "Teacher of the Year 2019", recalls how she herself had to take entrance exams to several universities at the same time, and the requirements of each educational institution were different, and it was necessary to prepare daily to pass the tests successfully. "It was very difficult both emotionally and physically," she recalls. – And the unified state exam is good because it is both a graduation and an entrance exam at the same time. Yes, there are questions about the procedure itself, about the scale of primary points transfer, and we need to work with this. But it is impractical to abolish this exam," the teacher is sure. By the way, the author of the law on the abolition of the Unified State Exam, Yaroslav Nilov, did not take the entrance exams to the institute. He admitted in an interview with our publication that he studied at a school at the Moscow Energy Institute, and some institute disciplines were taught in grades 10 and 11, as additional, as part of extracurricular activities. "Winning Olympiads and a silver medal made it possible to enter a university without exams. I passed the interview and enrolled," the deputy said.
Natalia Smirnova, a public observer of the OGE and the Unified State Exam, the mother of the 2024 graduate, told about the difficulties with admission to the university. Even with a red diploma after the College of Economics, she could not enter the Leningrad Institute of Finance and Economics, now St. Petersburg State University, one of the largest universities of economic profile in Russia. There was no question of any transparency then, in 1998, the girl's last name was simply not on the lists. It is unclear how many points she scored, Natalia Smirnova still does not know about the reasons for the failure in admission, since none of the applicants had heard about the appeal at that time. Therefore, she believes that the format of the unified state exam is an ideal option for school certification, as it makes it possible to objectively assess the knowledge of a graduate and, very importantly, apply for admission to several higher educational institutions. It is also convenient that the child takes the exams once, and they are both final and introductory at the same time. "Everyone is admitted on equal terms, and the results of the Unified State Exam really reflect the degree of knowledge of the graduate, the system is transparent, and that's what I admire. My daughter was preparing for exams on her own and got above 70 points in all subjects," my mother told us in an interview.
It is impossible not to take into account the material component. If you save on the services of tutors, then parents will have the opportunity to pay for 1-2 years of study at a university, for example, and this is a significant amount, since today the cost of annual tuition is 200-300 thousand rubles on average in the country. Natalia Smirnova attended the exams as a public observer in 2016 and 2024 and told us that, in her opinion, schoolchildren are now less worried, the procedure itself is calmer. The organizers also feel more confident. There were no violations in the schools where Natalia Smirnova was present at the exams.
Rosobrnadzor– an organization that performs the functions of control and supervision in the field of education and science, MEDIA TOK reported that in 2024 (for the main and reserve periods) 700 thousand schoolchildren took the Unified State Exam, and only 1% of violations were recorded – 768 participants of the Unified State Exam were removed for violations of the established Procedure for conducting the GIA. The figure is actually minuscule. "The main reasons for the removal are traditional," the federal service said.
Despite the fact that the unified state exam has been for more than 20 years and instructs high school students in front of it more than once, there are those who bring cheat sheets, reference materials, telephones, micro cameras and micro headphones. Of course, more often the examinees violate the procedure, not the organizers. But, nevertheless, every year during the examination campaign, both in the regions and in the capital's schools, incidents occur that turn into a scandal. So, in 2021, the indignation of graduates and their parents was associated with unreasonably difficult tasks in chemistry and with the computer science exam, which was held for the first time on computers. The computer science exam was then held on two days, on June 24 and 25, but for some reason the tasks turned out to be the same for both the first and second days. Of course, after the first day, the answers to the tests appeared online, and the students who took computer science on the second day had a significantly increased chance of getting more points. In 2022, there were many complaints about control and measuring materials with errors. For example, due to an incorrectly formulated task on the Unified State Exam in literature, a schoolgirl from the Sverdlovsk region could not get her cherished 100 points, scoring only 96. By the way, the graduate cannot file an appeal related to the content of the test tasks. An appeal is accepted only if there has been a violation of the examination procedure. In 2023, on the tables of graduates at the examination reception point of school no.Spelling dictionaries mysteriously turned out to be in Novorossiysk during the Russian language exam. As a result, the results of 33 students were canceled, and the guys had to retake. This year was also no exception. On May 29, in Voronezh, the students were forced to undress almost to their underwear right at the entrance to the exam reception point. In Moscow, a schoolgirl was removed from a social studies exam because of a phone she forgot in her pocket, which she remembered and hurried to take it. In Omsk, a student was illegally suspended from taking final exams because of the calculator he brought, which the young man handed over to the organizers before the start of testing, but was still removed from the exam.
Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education, one of the authors of the bill on the abolition of the Unified State Exam, Yana Lantratova, considers it necessary to start making changes to the existing regulations for the organization of final certification: "We need to take into account all the comments that we received during the last examination campaign in order to further exclude such situations. For example, I consider it important to prohibit the suspension of a student from the exam if he carried prohibited items, but voluntarily passed them before the start of the tests. It is necessary to prohibit touching a student during inspection; allow taking water for the exam; work out the issue of nutrition in exams lasting more than 3 hours and 30 minutes; pre-adjust the sensitivity of metal detectors; ensure silence near the exam reception points on exam days. Suspend construction and repair work."
At the moment, Rosobrnadzor has begun collecting proposals on what changes should be made to the Unified State Exam. They will be accepted until August 15, and an all-Russian public discussion to determine their necessity is scheduled for the last week of August 2024.
