What is wrong with IT education in Russia

Hello.



Today I want to tell you what exactly is wrong with IT education in Russia and how, in my opinion, it is worth doing, and I will also give advice to those who just do yes, I know that it's already a bit late . Better late than never. At the same time, I’ll find out your opinion, maybe I’ll learn something new for myself.



I ask everyone to immediately reject arguments about the fact that “they learn to study at university”, “you never know what will come in handy in life” and “you need a diploma without it.” This is not about that now, if you want, I will speak about it.



To begin with, I’ll say that I’m 20, I studied at UNN in Nizhny Novgorod. This is our largest university and certainly it is one of the three best in the city. He left after 1.5 courses, for the reasons that I will describe below. On the example of UNN, I will show what is going wrong.



I want to sort out all the problems from beginning to end.



And in order to get to the beginning, we need to return in 2010 for a couple of years ago when I was choosing where to go.

Part_1 You will choose a place where you study, almost at random

Having little information you may not realize that you have little information.



Even before the start of the exam I had to choose where to go to which university and what to take for admission. And I, like many others, climbed the Internet to find out where to go to become a programmer. Then I did not think about which direction in programming is better to choose and which languages ​​are better to learn.



Having studied the website of the Nizhny Novgorod State University, having read huge texts praising each direction in my own way, I decided that in the process of training there I would understand that it was not worth doing more to me in IT.



And it was here that I made the first mistake that too many people in Russia make.



I did not particularly think about what was written. I just saw the word "computer science" in line with other smart words and decided that it suits me. So I ended up in the direction of Applied Informatics.

Problem_1

Universities write information about directions so that you do not understand what is at stake, but are very impressed.



An example taken from the site of the UNN in the direction in which I studied.

Applied Informatics. The direction is focused on the training of specialists in the creation and use of software tools to support decision-making processes, specialists in the development of algorithms for solving high-tech applied problems.

Well, how many of you are ready to say that he clearly understood what he was talking about ?! Would you understand this when you were 17 years old? I don’t even know what they’re talking about. But that sounds impressive.



About the training plan, too, someone does not really tell. You have to find data for the past year to understand how many hours are spent on what. And it’s not a fact that the watch will be useful to you, but more on that later.

Solution_1

In fact, you just need to write adequately about what you teach at the university. If you have a whole line of Web programming - just write. If you have only six months to learn C ++, then just write it. But still they understand that then a lot of people will go not where they tell the truth, but where they lie. Therefore, they all lie. More precisely, they do not lie, but hide the truth with the smart structures of sentences. Dirty but working.

Tip_1

To study the website of the university, of course, is still worth it. Just if you do not understand something, read it a couple of times. If even then it is not clear, then maybe the problem is not with you. Have your friends or adults read the same. If they don’t understand or they cannot tell you what they understood, then do not focus on this information, look for another one.



For example, it’s a good idea to ask those who are already studying at a particular university. Yes, some of them may be silent about problems, so interview a lot. And 2 is not much! Interview a person 10-15, do not repeat my mistakes :) Ask them what they are doing in their field, what languages ​​they go through, whether they have practice (in 90% of cases not). By the way, consider practice only normal practice, if your interlocutor has done 3 tasks in a semester to sort through an array of 20 elements in different ways on Visual Basic - this is a serious reason to think about another direction.



In general, collect information not from the university, but from those who study there. So it will be more reliable.

Part 2. Congratulations, you are enrolled!

Who are all these people? And who threw matanalysis on my schedule ?!



So, the next stage, when I was enrolled and I, pleased, came in September to study.

Seeing the schedule, I was wary. “Did I just open my schedule?” I thought. “Why in the week I have only 2 pairs, vaguely reminiscent of programming, and about 10 pairs of what is usually called Higher mathematics ?!” Naturally, no one could answer me, since half of classmates asked exactly the same questions. The names of the objects were seriously annoying, and the amount of the scholarship made their eyes watery every time someone opened the schedule.



Over the next 1.5 years, I had only 1 year when I was taught to program. About the quality of training further, this section is about unnecessary subjects.



So here. You say, “Well, yes, 1 year out of 1.5, not so bad.” But that's bad, because this is ALL that I have according to plan for 4.5 years of study. Of course, we were told from time to time that everything would still be there, but the stories of those who were already in their fourth year talked about the opposite.



Yes, 1.5 years should be enough for teaching programming at a good level, BUT! only if these 1.5 years learn to skip most of the time. And not 2 hours a week.



In general, instead of new programming languages, I got a slightly different language - mathematical. I love math, but scholarship is not exactly why I went to college.

Problem_2

Awful drawing up a training plan.



I don’t know what is connected with the fact that people who are 50-60 years old (not ageism, guys, you never know) make up a plan or the state presses with its standards or something else, but fact is a fact.

In Russia, many universities make stunningly bad training plans for programmers.

In my opinion, this is because for leading people, programming has not really changed in the last 20-30 years, and computer science and programming are clear synonyms for them.

Solution_2

Of course, you need to make plans based on current trends.



It makes no sense to teach old languages ​​and write in Pascal for six months. (Although I love him the first language all the same :)



It makes no sense to give tasks for binary operations (in most cases).



It makes no sense to teach students a bunch of higher mathematics if they want to become sysadmins and layout designers. (Just let’s argue “Do you need a matan in programming.” Well, only if a bit )

Tip_2

In advance, hear, ADVANCE find the training plans and schedules of the directions you are interested in and study them. In order not to be surprised then what is happening.



Well, of course, ask all the same 10-15 people about what they go through. Believe me, they can tell you a lot of interesting things.

Part_3. Not all teachers are good

If your IT teacher is more than 50-60 years old - most likely you will not get the necessary knowledge







About the first couple I was bothered that we are taught by C (not ++, not #) a woman who is 64 years old. This is not ageism, I am not saying that age itself is bad. There are no problems with him. The problem is that programming is developing rapidly, and adults for the salary that they are paid, well, with too much probability will not understand something new.

And in this case, I was not mistaken.



Punch card stories were good only the first 2 times.



Teaching was built only with the help of blackboard and chalk. (Yes, she did write code on the board)

Yes, even the pronunciation of individual words from the terminology of C was fun to hear.

In general, there was little useful, but it took, again, took a lot of time.

Problem_3

Highly. The bad ones. The teachings.



And this problem is not surprising if, even in the largest university of the city of a millionaire, teachers receive less than any novice developer.



Young people have no motivation to teach if you can work for good money instead.



People who already work in universities have no motivation to improve their skills and maintain knowledge of the current realities of programming.

Solution_3

The solution is obvious - we need normal salaries. I can understand that in small universities they can only do this with difficulty, but large ones can easily. By the way, the rector of the UNN until the recent dismissal received 1,000,000 (1 million) rubles a month. Yes, that would be enough for a whole small department with normal teachers with a salary of 100,000 rubles a month!

Tip_3

As a student, you most likely will not affect this in any way.



The main advice is to study everything outside the university. Do not expect to be taught. Learn for yourself!

In the end, some people removed the “Education” field altogether, but from my own experience, I was not asked about education at all. They asked about knowledge and skills. About the paper there. Some will ask, of course, but not all.

Part_4. Real practice? Is she really needed?

Theory and practice in isolation from each other will not be very useful







So, we had a bad theory and some practice. But this is not enough. After all, at work everything will be a little different.



Here I am not talking about all the universities, but there is a suspicion that such a situation is widespread. But I’ll tell you about UNN.



So, there will be no real practice somewhere. Absolutely. Only if you find it yourself. But no matter how successful you are, the university will not be interested in this and will not help find anything.

Problem_4

This is a problem for everyone. And for students and for the university and for employers.



Students leave the university without normal practice. The university does not improve its reputation among future students. Employers do not have a reliable source of knowledgeable beginners.

Solution_4

Obviously, start finding employers for the best students for the summer.

Actually, this will solve all the problems above.

Tip_4

Again, advice - do it yourself.



Find a part-time job at a company that does what you like in the summer.

And now, what, in my opinion, should look like the training of programmers in universities in educational institutions

I will be glad to criticize my approach. Only competent criticism :)



First , after entering, we drop all people into the same groups, where for a couple of months they are shown different directions in programming.

After that, it will be possible to divide everyone into groups, depending on what they like best.



The second - you need to remove excess objects. And ideally, do not just throw them away, but leave them as objects "at will." If someone wants to learn math analysis - please. Just don't make it mandatory.



Again, if a student has chosen a direction where the exact analysis is needed - there it is necessary, and not selectively. This is obvious, but I’d better clarify :)



That is, if you only want to program to study - excellent. He visited in the right pairs and is free, go home and study there too.



Thirdly , salaries should be raised and hiring younger people more professionally.



There is a minus - this will outrage other teachers. But what to do, we want to promote IT, and in IT, obviously, there is always a lot of money.



However, it is generally desirable for teachers and teachers to increase their salaries, but we are not talking about that now.



Fourth , a connection between the university and companies is necessary in order to arrange the best students to practice. For real practice. It is very important.



Fifth , you will have to reduce the training time to 1-2 years. I am sure that it is the period of training in programming that should not be stretched more than for such a period. Further, skills are already being developed at work, and not at the university. There is no point in sitting there for 4-5 years.



Of course, this is not an ideal option and much more can be done, but as a basis, in my opinion, this option will be very good and can create many good programmers.

Ending

So, it turned out a lot of text, but if you read it - thanks, I appreciate your time.



Write in the comments what you think about IT education in the Russian Federation, share your opinion.



And I hope you enjoyed this article.



Good luck :)



UPD_1.

After talking in the comments, it will be fair to note the fidelity of many statements and comment on them.

Namely:

- Then it will be a vocational school, not a university.

Yes, this is not quite a university, since they are training not “scientists,” but just good workers.

But this is not a vocational school, as they train GOOD workers, and teaching programming involves considerable knowledge, at least in the field of mathematics. And if you passed the GIA into triples and go to vocational schools - this is not quite the level of knowledge that I'm talking about :)



- Why, then, education in general, there are courses

And why then we do not do courses of engineers, doctors and other specialists?

Because we want to be sure that we have special places where they can train well and give confirmation that the person is well trained.

And on what course can I get such confirmation that will be quoted at least somewhere in Russia? And ideally in other countries?



UPD_2.

And many more did not quite understand what I meant by "reconsidering the need for scholarship."

Many perceived as if I were saying that this is all an unnecessary crap, which 100% must be thrown out completely from the It-education.

Maybe I wrote this moment wrong, maybe they read it wrong, it doesn’t matter.

The main thing is that you don’t have to completely throw everything away, I’m not talking about that.



And there are many things that I did not take into account, but which are also worth mentioning.

It’s just that this publication was very superficial (it’s easy to notice).

In the future, I will try to do everything more reliably, articulated and, professionally, or something.

So in the future (if there is a desire) I will make a more specific description of what you can think of so that universities do not drop to technical schools, but also do not drag vocational schools to the level of universities.



UPD_3.

Before writing angry comments, read this article.