Dr.Hab., Associate Professor G.V. Rudenko¹
Dr.Hab, Professor, Honorary Figure of Russian Higher Education A.E. Bolotin^2
1National Mineral Resources University "Mining University", St. Petersburg
²St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg

Keywords: new GTO (Ready for Labour and Defence) Complex, institutional and educational conditions, Russian physical education system.

Introduction

Russian society presently undergoes reforms in every sector of its social system, and the national physical education system is no exclusion in the process. The project to have the new GTO Complex implemented in the Russian physical education system is being increasingly supported by the society since it is widely recognized that the project success will be of great contribution to the efforts to improve the health situation in the country. Therefore, it is very important that every state institution and every physical culture and sport specialist is prepared to make contribution to the GTO Complex implementation efforts.

It may be mentioned in this context that even the success of the modern general policy to build up a democratic law-governed state based on highly developed civil society institutions in modern Russia will largely depend on how healthy the nation is. Modern state of that kind will never be able to progress and even perform successfully without support of healthy, enthusiastic, well-developed and open-minded patriots capable of making decisions and bearing responsibility for their actions. No ambitious project may be implemented unless supported by healthy nation [1-4].

On the other hand, it should be confessed that the ongoing reforms of the Russian society are still not free of a variety of negative aspects, including poor civil, moral and ethical standards, particularly expressed and destructive in the younger generation of the country. This negativism may be largely due to the fact that the past Soviet physical education system in application to young people was broken down as soon as every element of the social system was open for liberalization process and the new policy to build up a law-governed state based on highly developed civil society institutions was designed and pursued. And it is in this reform process that the reformers now feel the critical need in a brand-new physical education system for young people based on the national historical values including the spiritual, ethical, labour, battle and cultural traditions, with the due focus on the new constitutional values of the Russian Federation [1, 3].

In view of the above, the new GTO Complex implementation project is rated among the top priorities in the initiatives to upgrade the Russian physical education system and thereby improve health of the Russian nation with the understanding that it forms a basis for the progress of the country on the whole. These initiatives are broadly supported for the following reasons:

• Expressed negative trend in the health condition of the nation on the whole and young students in particular;

• The need to respond to this trend by improvements in performance of the relevant state institutions and the physical culture and sport specialists to reverse the trend and improve health of the nation with due account for the other relevant negative trends in the society; and

• The need for the relevant legislative framework providing the means to restructure and improve the existing physical education system for the benefit of the nation on the whole and the young people in particular.

The critical need of the society for the new GTO Complex being implemented in the Russian physical education system for the benefit of nation was confirmed by President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin.

Key role in the modernized physical education of the Russian nation on the whole and young students in particular will be played by the local decision-making physical culture and sport specialists who design and implement the mass physical culture policies in their areas of responsibility. It is their professional management skills that will be pivotal in how successfully the project will be implemented in the local physical education systems. The project to establish the modern national physical education system based on the new GTO Complex will be listed among the top priorities by the sport management officers of every level of responsibility.

In view of the above, importance of the present study is due to the pressing need of the Russian Federation for well-trained healthy patriots prepared for defence and high-efficient labour, on the one hand, and the lack of science-backed institutional and educational conditions for implementation of the new GTO Complex in the Russian physical education system, on the other hand.

The purpose of the study was to reveal and rate the institutional and educational conditions for implementation of the new GTO Complex in the Russian physical education system.

Materials and methods

To reveal and rank the key institutional and educational conditions for implementation of the new GTO Complex in the Russian physical education system, we have conducted an opinion poll of the physical culture and sport specialists and educators representing two universities based in Saint Petersburg. In total, 73 specialists from the Saint Petersburg State Polytechnic University and National Mineral Resources "Mining" University, Saint Petersburg, were surveyed. The respondents were offered to list and prioritize the institutional and educational conditions needed to update and implement the new GTO Complex in the Russian physical education system. The responses were rated by the relevant indicators expressed in percentage terms.

Results and discussion. In the present situation, the main objective of the national policy as far as the implementation of the new GTO Complex in the Russian physical education system is concerned is to protect the genetic potential of the nation and encourage good healthy living standards to help raise and educate healthy and physically strong generation well prepared both for efficient labour and defence of the Motherland [4].

The valuable historical experience of the GTO “Ready for Labour and Defence” Complex tradition in the former USSR demonstrated that the Complex was of good positive influence on the sport infrastructure development and generally established favourable environment for mass involvement of people in physical culture and sports. Systemic trainings that were required to pass the GTO tests and meet the relevant standards and requirements largely contributed to the overall physical activity and culture of the nation. In addition, the GTO Complex provided high-quality institutional basis for physical culture, health improvement and mass sport promotion activities among the people of middle, senior and elderly age categories [4].

The modern initiatives to update the GTO Complex and launch in a new format cannot be successful without due scientific grounds for the institutional and educational conditions for implementation of the new GTO Complex in the Russian physical education system. Results of our study are given in Table 1 hereunder.

Table 1. Institutional and educational conditions for implementation of the new GTO Complex in the Russian physical education system, on a rated basis (n=73)

As demonstrated by the above study results, the necessary institutional and educational conditions are dominated by the actions to: improve the professional competency level of the physical culture specialists to provide for the new GTO Complex being implemented in the Russian physical education system; and develop the requirements and standards of the new GTO Complex supported by a research data base on the actual physical health condition of different age groups. Much attention was given by the respondents to the need for programs, plans and regulatory documents to stipulate conditions for involvement of different non-governmental organizations in the new GTO Complex implementation process; and to help involve the leading researchers, psychologists and education specialists in the new GTO Complex development process. Most of the respondents were found to support the opinions that: democratic policies need to be pursued in selection of training means, methods and forms to facilitate mass training of people for the new GTO Complex tests; a monitoring system need to be established to assess the young students’ physical fitness levels in the context of the GTO standards of readiness for labour and defence of the Motherland; and due financial and technical basis for the research and methodological support of the efforts to implement the new GTO Complex in the Russian physical education system need to be formed.

Conclusion

The study revealed and prioritized the key institutional and educational conditions for the new GTO Complex being implemented on a most efficient basis in the Russian physical education system.

References

1. Bolotin, A.E. Pokazateli gotovnosti studentov k zdorov'esberegayushchemu povedeniyu (Indicators of readiness of students for health protection activity) / A.E. Bolotin, V.V. Bakaev // Uch. zapiski un-ta im. P.F. Lesgafta, 2013. – № 12 (106). – P. 36–39.
2. Bolotin, A.E. Struktura i soderzhanie pedagogicheskoy kontseptsii sovershenstvovaniya mnogourovnevoy sistemy fizicheskogo vospitaniya v Rossii (Structure and content of educational concept of improvement of multi-level physical education system in Russia) / A.E. Bolotin, A.V. Chistyakov // Uch. zapiski un-ta im. P.F. Lesgafta, 2013. – № 3 (97). – P. 35–41.
3. Bolotin, A.E. Tekhnologiya upravleniya zdorovym obrazom zhizni studentov (Student healthy lifestyle management technology) / A.E. Bolotin, V.V. Bakaev // Uch. zapiski un-ta imeni P.F. Lesgafta, 2014. – № 1 (107). – P. 24-28.
4. Titushina, N.V. Faktory, opredelyayushchie neobkhodimost' vnedreniya novogo kompleksa GTO v sistemu fizicheskogo vospitaniya naseleniya Rossii (Factors that determine the need to introduce new GTO complex in Russian physical education system) / N.V. Titushina // Uch. zapiski un-ta im. P.F. Lesgafta, 2014. – № 7 (113). – P. 168–171.

Corresponding author: panfilio@spmi.ru