On October 19, a meeting of the Expert Council of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly on Science and Education was held in the Tauride Palace. The event was chaired by the Rector of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrey Rudsky. The key topics of the experts’ discussion were digitalization of educational processes and regulation of formal and non-formal education. The focus of the participants’ attention was also directed to educational programs and the creation of an international scientific citation index.
The experts were welcomed by the Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council Dmitry Kobitsky. He noted that the development and introduction of the latest information technologies is associated with uncertainty and sometimes unpredictability for economic structures.
“Considering that modern world progress in the progressive movement has a cyclical cycle of only 10 years, unlike past centuries with a cyclical cycle of 100 years, it is necessary to work ahead of the curve to create harmonized models of national legal regulation aimed at ensuring the effective development of science and cooperation of the Commonwealth countries in the scientific field,” the Secretary General said.
The meeting reviewed and supported the draft model law “On trust funds to support scientific, scientific, technical and innovative activities”. The document is aimed at stimulating the development of science and innovation, implementing priority areas of activity and improving the effectiveness of research and development.
Individuals, including individual entrepreneurs, as well as legal entities and international organizations can act as investors. The project developers paid special attention to the issues of protection against possible risks, ways to prevent conflicts of interest and prevent corruption in the financing of research.
The members of the Council reviewed and supported the draft of a new version of the model law “On scientific and scientific-technical activities”. The document reflects current trends and directions of legal regulation in science.
The adoption of the law will not entail a significant change in regional legislation, but will help it become more flexible. The document is intended to simplify the interaction of subjects of scientific activity within the framework of international cooperation and to promote investment in scientific projects.
The meeting was told about the concept of the draft amendments and additions to the model Educational Code for the CIS member states.
The main idea is to adapt the model legislation on education to the conditions of the modern digital environment. The education sector is actively involved in the processes of digitalization, which began even before the appearance of coronavirus infection, but actively accelerated as a result of the impact of the pandemic.
Currently, there are no provisions in the legislation of the CIS countries that establish that the digitalization of education is a change in the technology of education, but not its content. Through general regulation, it is possible to avoid a number of issues on the part of participants in educational relations that are associated with a possible deterioration in the quality of education due to the use of distance technologies.
Another topical issue is the approval of a single standard equipment of educational organizations with software and material and technical base.
With the development of technological progress, the status of participants in educational relations is also changing. Thus, active processes of development of online education systems, online platforms, online courses have made the issue of determining the status of subjects who have the necessary resources to carry out educational activities relevant.
Dmitry Kobitsky asked the developers of the document to pay special attention to distance education programs for schoolchildren.
The head of the International Center for Scientific Information, Doctor of Economics, Professor made a report on the draft regulation “On the International Science Citation Index (MINC)” Sergey Kudyukov.
MINC is a platform that includes a database, analytical tools, and provides coordination of scientific research in the CIS countries. The purpose of the creation of the MINC is to develop international scientific cooperation and partnership within the CIS countries.
The creation of the MINC is aimed at developing new scientometrics tools, forming a communication platform for scientists from the Commonwealth countries, improving the quality of scientific journals and analyzing advanced areas of scientific research.
With the help of MINTS, users will receive complete information about the required material or author, and will also be able to find experts in scientific fields, scientific supervisors or opponents for scientific research.
The Supervisory Board of the MINC includes representatives of government authorities, scientific and educational organizations, scientists of the Commonwealth and other states.
Andrey Rudskoy noted the particular interest of experts in scientific citation indices and suggested including representatives of international citation systems in the Supervisory Board, as well as attracting universities that can independently award academic degrees.
The relevant committees of the Federation Council and the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation are also interested in creating this project, Dmitry Kobitsky noted and thanked the developers for implementing the MINC at the IPA CIS site.
In turn, Ivan Musket, Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the IPA CIS Council, Director of the International Institute for Monitoring the Development of Democracy of the IPA CIS, invited the members of the Council to participate in a seminar-meeting with editors of scientific journals, chairmen of expert councils of the Higher Attestation Commission, representatives of libraries and scientific and educational organizations dealing with scientometrics. The event will be held on October 20 at the Tauride Palace.
The issues of formal, non-formal and informal education were discussed at the meeting.
Continuous education is a necessary condition for social development. It includes formal education, which is carried out according to professional programs and terms of study and is confirmed by obtaining relevant educational documents.
Non-formal education includes trainings, courses, and small programs offered at all stages of education or work. Informal education is an independent cognitive activity that takes place at the workplace or in free time.
Today, employees undergo retraining courses, group and individual vocational training, short-term training courses, but this is not actually fixed by any legal document. There is no appropriate regulation of which organizations can conduct retraining courses, according to which programs, who guarantees these programs, who exercises control, whose results can be recognized in accordance with the procedure established by law.
The issue of recognition of acquired competencies for their use in professional or educational activities, as well as the regulation of mechanisms of additional education programs, becomes relevant.
The issue of non-formal and informal education was addressed in the model law of the IPA CIS “On Adult Education” and “On educational activities”. Speaking at the meeting, the speakers proposed to amend these documents, which would ensure the procedure for approval, principles of formation and implementation of educational programs.
Following the discussions, the members of the Expert Council propose to create a temporary working group at the IPA CIS for a more detailed study of the issue and drawing up an expert opinion.
At the meeting, Dmitry Mokhorov, a member of the Expert Council, and Bakhtiyor Rasulov, Rector of the Andijan State Pedagogical University, presented information on anti-corruption education in the context of the Concept of Cooperation of the CIS countries in Combating Corruption. The members of the Council decided to support the initiative to develop recommendations on anti-corruption education and to invite the Permanent commissions of the IPA CIS on legal issues and on science and education to consider the inclusion in the Long-term Plan of model lawmaking in the Commonwealth of Independent States for 2023-2025.
Denis Zhuk, Head of the Expert and Analytical Department of the Secretariat of the IPA CIS Council, spoke about the preparations for the international conference “The Russian language is the basis of the integration dialogue in the CIS region”. The event will be held on October 26-27 in St. Petersburg, at the Tauride Palace, as well as at other venues of the co-organizers.
The results of the XXVI Forum of Creative and Scientific Intelligentsia of the CIS member States and the XV Congress of the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature were presented by Alexander Surygin, Secretary of the IPA CIS Standing Committee on Science and Education, Executive Secretary of the IPA CIS–RSS Expert Council.
At the conclusion of the meeting Andrey Rudskoy noted the results of the work of the Expert Council. The Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation supported the initiative to create an International Olympiad in Humanities and Social Sciences for schoolchildren of the CIS countries.
The meeting was attended by representatives of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, the CIS Executive Committee, relevant departments, research centers and leading universities, employees of the Secretariat of the IPA CIS Council.
The next meeting of the Expert Council on Science and Education will be held in April 2024 in St. Petersburg.
A source: https://e-cis.info/news/564/113048/
