Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti: One point higher. The St Petersburg University online school for Russian-speaking foreigners completed its first year

Three people per place 

St Petersburg University opened its online school last year. Yet, the countdown starts in 2018. At the request of Russian-speaking families living abroad, the University opened a virtual weekend school. Three subjects were taught and there were 70 students. That school still exists. Today, it offers 11 subjects and has 3,000 students from 25 countries. 

Last year, a ’full’ online school was opened with all 40 subjects, like in any other Russian school. And with a state certificate upon completion.

In the first year, the school enrolled students for fifth to tenth grades. We decided not to open the eleventh grade as we needed to figure out how to prepare for the Unified State Exam. We received applications, according to the Rector of St Petersburg University Nikolay Kropachev, from 300 families from 44 countries. The competition was almost three people per place. 

Applicants had to take admissions tests in the Russian language and mathematics. Some of them were recommended to study in a lower grade: for example, if the level of Russian language is rather low. 

As a result, 120 schoolchildren from 30 countries were enrolled: from the post-Soviet space, Australia, Germany, Canada, Italy, Great Britain, the USA, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Finland, Türkiye, Romania, Israel, Indonesia, Cambodia, Cyprus, Mexico, and Nicaragua. 

"We do not accept students to the St Petersburg University online school.’ We admit students to the Academic Gymnasium, and from the first day we try to include children in its life," said Elena Kazakova. 

In the famous St Petersburg University’s Academic Gymnasium named after D.K. Faddeev, the programme is advanced, while the online school offers a programme to get a secondary education that meets the requirements of the state. The teaching methodology is completely different, as everything is online. Nevertheless, these are not just virtual classes. Rather, they are virtual classes (with a class teacher), breaks, and even trips to museums (albeit online). The teachers are the same as those who collaborate with the ’full-time’ gymnasium, including scientists and scholars. 

Most of the applicants had tried to study at their foreign secondary school. 

"It seemed to them that the school wouldn’t last long, that they definitely needed to study somewhere else," commented Elena Kazakova. "As things went on, more and more children stayed with us." 

Shamil and Aleksii 

Mom Kseniia and her ten-year-old son Shamil are citizens of Kazakhstan, but have been living in Cambodia since 2010. Shamil was born there. His native language is Russian, and his family only speaks it to "support him". The boy studied at the school at the Russian Embassy until the third grade, but during the pandemic the school "focused" on the children of diplomatic workers. They tried to start another school. Later, they found out that St Petersburg University was about to open an online school. 

"I even burst into tears when I knew about this opportunity to give my child a chance to receive an education in the Russian language," said Kseniia. ’There will be a class where children communicate during breaks and make video presentations for the Teacher’s Day...’ Shamil said that "the school is excellent, the teachers don’t just give us knowledge and forget about us, but also make sure that we have successfully obtained this knowledge." Yet, online school has a disadvantage, Shamil believes. It is "online". 

Mom Tatiana is originally from St Petersburg, but she has been living in Italy for 23 years and married to an Italian. Her son Aleksii (yes, pronounced like the church name) was born in Italy. He is 11 years old. He went to an Italian school, where Russian was the second language. Yet, he didn’t have enough environment. 

"I studied with my child, read with him in Russian, he went to a Saturday Russian language school in Milan, but it was closed due to Covid. We took private lessons," said Tatiana. 

The family was not happy with Italian education. She believes that in European schools "trans-propaganda is very active", and the family is traditional. My husband and I were looking for another option, but couldn’t find it even in Milan. 

"In the online school, we probably got even more than we had expected." 

At the beginning of the academic year, Aleksii spoke with an accent, but now he speaks without any accent. Learning is difficult, but fascinating, and if something is not clear, the teacher is always ready to help. 

Unified State Exam and Russia-wide Olympiads 

At the beginning of the academic year, the average score in all subjects per class was slightly above three, said Aleksandr Babich, Senior Vice-Rector for Youth Policy and Admissions at St Petersburg University. Different levels of the Russian language and training in disciplines played a role. At the end of the academic year, the average score is a little over four. 

"Their performance has increased by a whole point!" said Aleksandr Babich. 

During the year, 28 students left the school. For different reasons. Either the programme at two schools was too much to handle, and the parents didn’t want to quit studying in their country of residence, or their level of preparation was too low to allow them to study even at a lower grade at the online school. 

The school announced enrolment for the vacant positions. The competition is currently more than three students per place, said the Senior Vice-Rector at St Petersburg University. 

This year, tenth graders moved to the eleventh grade. In this regard, the online school has a debut and yet another challenge, i.e. preparing for the Unified State Exam online. Moreover, the school is enrolling the fifth grade, since the previous fifth graders migrated to the sixth grade. The initiators have a dream, i.e. to involve students in the Russia-wide Olympiad in school subjects. Now this is impossible. The Olympiad is in person. Probably, they will gather children in Russia as the children are studying Olympiad tasks. 

A lesson at 1am? 

The competition to enter the online school can make any university happy. Yet, for the secondary school at the University, it is a twofold achievement. On the one hand, it evidences a high demand. On the other hand, the task of an educational school is to teach everyone who wants to study. 

"We are not doing PR, but solving a very difficult social problem," said Nikolay Kropachev. "The mere fact that our school exist is our first achievement. Yet, if it is left alone, the social result will be minimal." 

In his opinion, the project should be expanded. Even the online lesson should have, as a rule, a definite number of students. In this regard, it is like an offline lesson, and the class teacher must keep track of everything that is going on during the lesson. What is more is that the students live in different time zones. When the school day begins in St Petersburg, it is already evening for the Australian student, and for the Mexican student it is still the previous night. 

No, they are not forced to sit in front of the computer at this time, but they have to watch the recorded lessons. It is a dream to study at an online school at a university that is a little closer in terms of the time zone. Live... 

The teachers are ready to share the package of the developed online programmes. Seven universities are planning to join the project. ...

The online school is just one of the University’s international educational projects. According to the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation, among Russian universities, St Petersburg University is the most popular among foreign citizens. Competition through the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation, this is when a foreigner can enrol free of charge, is 21 applicants per place. On a fee-paying basis, it is about five people per place. We have applicants from 140 countries, said Aleksandr Babich. 

Since 2020, full-time and distance courses in the Russian language have been conducted for citizens of 18 countries, 120 Russian language centres operate in 50 countries. This is a University project with the support of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation and the Foundation for Humanitarian Projects "My History". This year, 11 open education centres are opening, where the Russian language is taught full-time. Nine out of them are in African countries. "This is an important area of work," according to the University staff. 

Every year, the number of those enrolled in the Preparatory Department at the University grows. Over a year, some students have to start to learn the Russian language from scratch. Currently, citizens from more than 60 countries are studying at the Preparatory Department.