Students from Non-Pedagogical Backgrounds to Become Teachers

A new legislative initiative will allow third-year university students from non-pedagogical fields to teach school subjects, provided they have completed relevant pedagogical courses. While experts highlight the benefits of fresh perspectives and improved student engagement, they also caution about potential deficiencies in methodological training.

The Federation Council has approved a bill permitting university students who have completed their third year of study in non-pedagogical programs to teach in schools and colleges. To qualify, students must have successfully passed all their examinations, including those in subjects related to educational practice – essentially, any discipline they intend to teach, whether it`s physics or literature.

Expert Opinion: Benefits and Challenges

Irina Abankina, Chief Researcher at the Center for Financial and Economic Solutions in Education at HSE University`s Institute of Education, commented on the initiative:

Irina Abankina
Chief Researcher, Center for Financial and Economic Solutions in Education, HSE University`s Institute of Education

This actually provides excellent skills in mastering subjects. Of course, significant support is crucial for those from non-pedagogical specializations. If it involves a deeper subject study, then psycho-pedagogical training is necessary. This training can begin earlier and, importantly, should be accompanied by tutoring while teaching in school, which I believe is highly significant. A key advantage is the relatively small age gap between students and pupils, which facilitates easier rapport. Moreover, teaching often helps students themselves better understand their subject and even discover new interests; by explaining to others, one gains deeper insights. Therefore, this is a very positive initiative. We need young people in schools, young people with contemporary knowledge, and, frankly, those who share a cultural and linguistic space with students.

Even currently, many students often enter the education sector, sometimes as early as their first or second year, working as curators in online schools or as supplementary education teachers in traditional schools.

Ekaterina Shtrykova, a former employee and journalism graduate, shared her experience:

Ekaterina Shtrykova
Journalism Graduate and Former Educator

I first attempted to work in education at the beginning of my third year, taking on a curator role at an online school. The main criteria for my selection primarily involved my experience interacting with children. I mentioned having some experience, having produced a podcast with 9-11th graders during my university studies, which gave me a fair understanding of how to work with them. Naturally, my Unified State Exam (USE) scores were checked, and it was incredibly helpful that I had a perfect score in Literature, the subject I was going to teach. During the interview, I was given USE task files, some to complete myself and some to check for errors in pre-filled answers. I was assigned a group of about 25-30 students whose literature USE homework I had to grade. Prior to this, I underwent several weeks of training where I was taught how to grade and my grading was monitored. And I`m not unique in this. Many of my acquaintances, including those studying journalism like myself, started tutoring almost from their first year. They had high USE scores and engaged in private tutoring, sometimes having several students a day, even preparing students for the USE during exam periods, and building blog content around this. Others also joined online schools. Furthermore, I personally know people who not only entered online education but also worked as SMM specialists in regular Moscow schools, successfully managing their Telegram channels, and were then hired to conduct media classes, teaching children how to write news, for an additional fee.

However, this type of teaching primarily falls under electives and supplementary education. A student, even with a strong grasp of their subject, will not be able to fill the role of a traditional school subject teacher, asserts Konstantin Tkhostov, director of St. Petersburg Lyceum No. 369 and a member of the Public Chamber of St. Petersburg:

Concerns About Methodological Preparedness

Konstantin Tkhostov
Director of St. Petersburg Lyceum No. 369, Member of the Public Chamber of St. Petersburg

Any student who has completed their second year at a non-pedagogical university certainly possesses knowledge, for instance, in physics, but they lack the methodology for teaching a school physics curriculum. In other words, knowing the subject yourself doesn`t guarantee you can effectively explain it to a child. A 14-year-old child, for example, facing a personal issue, primarily needs the assistance of an educator who understands psychology, critical situations, and conflict resolution, rather than just someone who possesses knowledge. We shouldn`t plug gaps with individuals who know the subject but don`t know how to convey it to children. Most importantly, believe me, to become a teacher, one must understand that it is a calling, a nation-building profession. I would gladly hire a second or third-year student from a pedagogical university because the earlier a future teacher immerses themselves in the profession, and the sooner they grasp why they needed to study psychology, physiology, and other specialized disciplines directly related to pedagogy in their first and second years, the quicker their integration into the complex educational mechanism of any modern school will be. That`s the ideal model. If we consider non-pedagogical students, it complicates processes. A school cannot teach both children and students simultaneously.

Ultimately, the decision to hire a young, uncertified teacher will rest with the individual school and its administration.