Research part. Surveys.

The aims of different schools are the same: to bring up literate people who will be able to find their way and be useful for the country. We have conducted the survey among the British, Russian and Japanese. We succeeded in getting answers from the Russian a lot. All in all we have asked more than 300 people. We have divided the respondents into three groups:

• Students (11-15 years old):

• Graduates (16-25 years old):

• Teachers and parents (older than 26 years old).

This division is aimed at objective view of modern schools of different categories of people.

We gave some answers for the test part:

• Yes;

• No;

• Does not matter.

The last answer was mentioned only in Russian survey because more and more people (mainly young) are becoming less interested in social life of our country and do not take an active life position.

System of education in secondary school. Students.

O

Picture 1 Is the education in Russian secondary school effective?

nly the Russian answered this question. We can see that nearly half of them think that modern secondary education is effective (see picture 1). This survey confirmed our hypothesis that the school needs to be reorganized. Moreover, we found out the number of students who are indifferent to their school life and country. If the methods of education are changed, the students will be interested in studying at school more. Indifferent attitude to school leads to apathetic life position. Those who support the passive position in life cannot become personalities and patriots. This point contradicts school and life demands.

We also asked the respondents’ opinion what they would love to change in schools. The answers are in the table below (see table 1).

Table 1

11-15 years	16-25 years	Older 26
To improve the discipline; To have more festivals and school holidays; To study subjects that student really needs; To have less stressful timetable.	To change the assessment system; To lessen PE lessons from 3 to 2; To cut down the secondary education; To organise more interesting lessons.	To improve the timetable; To adapt the volume of information for higher school; To improve good skills in writing (to express the thoughts clearly), reading (to read fast and get the information), counting; To simplify the programme so that the students were not afraid of the subject; To cancel lessons on Saturday; To lessen the burden of homework on students; To improve (pre-) profile system of education.

Moreover, the question of online-survey about practical works refers to this subject too. We should mention that practical works mean not only some experiments in Chemistry or Physics, but also some activities that differ from the usual ones (like doing written exercises from the student’s book). We decided to ask this question because practical exercises at lessons are extremely interesting and useful. The ideal number of such tasks is one in two weeks.

O

Picture 2 Are you satisfied with the list of school subjects?

ur next question was about the list of school subjects. A lot of Russian students mentioned that they would love to get rid of World Art Culture (or Art), the second foreign language. The majority of graduates, parents and teachers claimed, that Life Safety, the third PE lesson in a week are not needed, because children lose their time and cannot concentrate on really important subjects such as Russian and Mathematics. The results of the survey, which you can see on the diagram (see picture 3), show that the list of school subjects should be renewed. It is important to provide more time for basic subjects by reducing unnecessary subjects or increasing the length/amount of lessons.

W

Picture 3 Were you satisfied with the list of school subjects? (Japan)

Picture 4 Do we really need 5 years to get secondary education?

e also asked this question to Japanese students. You can see the results on the diagram (see picture 2). The students are satisfied with the subjects they study at school. The half of the Japanese respondents mentioned, that English in schools is studied at a very low level. This is a very actual problem in Russia too. It is very important to know English well because it is an international language. Unfortunately we can hardly see the opinion of British students because only one student from Northern Ireland answered our questions. However she said that she really likes the school subjects. We also should mention that the British can choose the subjects they want to study in secondary school (except the basic, such as the Native language, Mathematics and Science). We suppose this is the reason why nearly every British student would answer the same.

We should pay attention to the period of secondary education. Nearly 30% of teachers and parents do not agree that we need five years to get secondary education (see picture 4). Some of them mentioned that this amount should be cut down.

O

Picture 5 Do you think school uniform is very important? (Russia)

Picture 6 Do you think school uniform is very important? (Japan)

ur next question refers to the obligatory school uniform. Although most of the students and graduates are against it, school cannot exist without a uniform (see picture 6). A student should be concentrated on the learning process during the lesson. Bright and flashy clothes do not contribute to the learning process. Moreover, some “trendies” are always late to school because they are not able to choose the attire. We know exactly that a school uniform is obligatory in the UK and Japan. We asked the same question to foreign students. Our only British respondent said “I think wearing a uniform is very important because it helps people identify what school you attend and also you don’t have to worry about what you are going to wear every day!” There is a rather strange situation in Japan at this point (see picture 5). One half of the respondents are “for” and the other is “against” the obligatory uniform. However, nearly every student who is against mentioned that he/she likes the uniform. We also got some comments like “Of course, because we wear the same clothes whether poor or rich. If we wear clothes what we want, it becomes the reason for bulling. We can see who's poor.”

W

Picture 7 How should the school uniform like?

e decided to ask the Russian students which type of school uniform they like most of all. We mentioned four variants of answers (Russian type, English type, Japanese type, it is not needed/your variant). We found out a rather interesting fact – the amount of respondents who chose the variant “it is not needed” is lower three or two times in comparison to the answer “Japanese type” (see picture 7).

There are two variants of Japanese uniform. The first one is called sailor fuku (sailor outfits). It is modelled on British type naval uniform of the XIX century. The girls’ variant usually consists of pleated skirt, a blouse with a sailor-style collar and the ribbon, which is tied under the collar. The length of the blouse sleeves depends on the season (short for summer, long for winter). The boys’ uniform is called gakuran. It consists of straight leg trousers, a shirt and a jacket with a standing collar and buttoned up to the top. The buttons are decorated with the school emblem. Sometimes there are special collar pins representing the school, class and rank. The second variant of Japanese school uniform is western type, which looks very much the same as the English one. It consists of pleated matched skirt (for girls) or straight legged trousers (for boys), a blouse or a shirt, a jacket or a vest. The uniform is decorated with the school emblem. The half-hose and shoes are sometimes included in the uniform. The British uniform consists of the same clothes, though the skirt is not usually pleated and matched. The colours for the uniform are usually chosen by schools.

S

Picture 8 Quarters or semesters?

tudents and graduates did not agree with each other (see picture 8). Graduates like semesters more because they experienced this system in higher institutions. They prefer it because students have more time for studying and improving their marks. However, we must pay attention to children’s psychology. It is very hard for children under 13-14 to study for 5 weeks without stopping. It would be rather reasonable to use quarter system for 5-7 forms and semester system for 8-9 forms.

W

Picture 9 Would you like to take part in extracurricular sections organized by students?

Picture 10 Are the student`s council and radio needed?

e have found out that in the UK and Japan there are a lot of sport sections and student clubs. In Japan they are run by the students, whereas teachers do not play very important role in these sections. The main advantages of such activities are the development of students’ personal characteristics (such as leadership), the ability to work in a group, the adaptation to their peers with the same interests and the help in development of skills in different fields, that may not be covered by the school programme (see picture 9). For example, students may organize a “Foreign club” where they will not just study a foreign language, but also learn the culture and traditions of the native country or establish the connection with foreign students and communication with them. The students may also create a music club. They may teach the other students how to play musical instruments, create a band, which would take part in school concerts and write their own songs. The indispensable condition is that these sections are run by students of 9 or 10 forms because this is the best time to form the traits of leadership and these children are more competent than younger ones. Children are able to understand each other better than teachers and they know what would be really interesting. The other examples of such sections are student council or school radio. Student government is very important for children. It adapts them for a future life. Although not every student agrees with this idea we believe everyone would be glad to be friendly met at school (see picture 10).