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Millions of Soviet citizens had a membership card of the All-Union Society “Znanie” and were proud of it. 250 million inhabitants of the vast country in cities and villages, in workshops and at construction sites had the opportunity to join the Knowledge. And here – no irony. The mysteries of the universe, religion, politics, health – all topics cannot be counted. “Knowledge for the masses!” – is not a slogan, but a real practice. And it should be treated with reverence, as if it were its own history.
Now “Znanie” is a special brand. Znanie holds general status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and the UN Department of Public Information (DPI).
After the collapse of the Soviet Union this brand, and with it the very philosophy of adult education, could “order a long time. Buildings, publishing houses, printing houses, and with them sanatoriums, resorts and vacation homes in Russia and abroad, the knowledge-bearing icebreaker “Krasin” – the property of society, acquired over decades, was stolen and, more often than not, without a trace.
Fortunately, the Znanie brand has not only been saved, but also made popular and recognized worldwide as a brand. And most importantly – to breathe new life into adult education, to create essentially new, modern mechanisms of dissemination and renewal of knowledge, to involve the UN authority, to be included in the programs and the UN agenda for the XXI century.
Much credit is due to Efim MALITIKOV, President of the International Association “Znanie” since 1995, seeking to encourage the whole community to revolutionize the traditional, rooted among the dogmas of the past century view of our education – education for life to the installation: education – through life.
Knowledge and education are the central theme.
THE “DIGITAL” STANDARD – THE WAY OF HIS LIFE
President of MA Znanie Efim Malitikov is a Doctor of Economics, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Doctor of Law, Professor at the University of Chicago and the University of Denver (USA), Chairman of the Interstate Committee for the dissemination of knowledge and adult education. He has achieved high authority in a wide range of activities.
He worked his way up from the department head, deputy director of the Central Scientific Research Institute; enterprise director, chief engineer and general director of an industrial association to the head of the All-Union Administration, deputy minister of the USSR, Chairman of the Interstate Committee of the CIS.
Purposeful, mobile and versatile gifted, he does not tolerate archaic (“analog”) schemes. “Digital” standard – one of his favorite concepts – characterizes his lifestyle. His “ebullient” nature combines the mind of a scientist, the acumen of a businessman, and the talent of an executive administrator. He is a professor at renowned American universities and manages a multitude of international projects: educational; construction of airports, power plants, dams, telecommunications; and the military-industrial complex.
In the years of perestroika he created and led INPA “OLYMP”, which included 112 major industrial enterprises of the CIS leading sectors of the economy. He initiated the creation and led as CEO of Renaissance IPA, whose Honorary President was Boris Yeltsin.
Being the ninth president in the whole 50-years history of the Association “Znanie” he managed not only to maintain intellectual and personnel potential of “Znanie” in all CIS and Baltic states but also to give a powerful impulse to development of the largest public institution of the former USSR – All-USSR Association “Znanie” that became legal predecessor of the International Association “Znanie” (IA “Znanie”).
Е. Malitikov consolidated the authority of the Association in the world. The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations granted MA “Znanie” the highest general status for non-governmental organizations of the United Nations, and Malitikov – the status of its official representative.
At the personal invitation of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, he was the only representative of the world’s nongovernmental organizations at the Millennium Summit, the Forum of Presidents of all states of the world.
AI “Znanie” has acquired the status of the regional coordinator and the leading non-governmental organization of the UN for Eastern Europe, the main operator of the World Electronic Forum of Non-Governmental Organizations of the World with the status in the UN. In 2001 the World Industrial Development Organization gave it consultative status of UNIDO.
MA Znanie has become a truly international union of public non-governmental non-profit organizations, representing more than 30 NGOs in 24 countries of the world. Among them: International Association of Non-Governmental Universities, Russian Association of Non-Governmental Universities, Association of Russian (State) Universities, International Union of Economists, Free Economic Society of Russia, etc.
Recognition of Znanie at the public level allows it to carry out interstate initiatives as well.
With full support of the UN Agenda 21 and the UN Program for Sustainable Development, E. Malitikov makes annual reports and initiatives in various cities and states. He promotes the development of a new supranational super-branch of the planetary world order – adult education, the most important factor and tool of social development.
At the initiative of the President of MA Znanie E. Malitikov, the President of Kyrgyzstan, the President of Moldova as well as the Prime Minister of Armenia proposed to create the CIS Interstate Committee on Dissemination of Knowledge and Adult Education. On January 17, 1997 during the session of the Council of the Heads of Governments of the CIS the “Agreement on Cooperation in the Sphere of Dissemination of Knowledge and Adult Education” was signed and the Interstate Committee of the CIS was created. E. Malitikov was elected Chairman of the Committee. IA “Znanie” is a full member of this Committee. The CIS Interstate Committee and MA “Znanie” together with the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly adopted for consideration by the Council of Heads of State and the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS the following draft decisions: to establish national committees in every CIS Member State; to open the doors of all educational institutions (state and non-state) to use as a training base for the adult education system; to differentiate tasks, powers and responsibilities between basic education systems and adult education, co-operative education systems. Currently, in the CIS countries there is an active work to create branches and branches of the CISA (Modern Humanitarian Academy).
Under the Interstate Committee of the CIS on the basis of the UAS the Modern University of Continuing Adult Education was created. Special attention to the issue of adult education was paid at the Summit of Presidents – the Millennium Forum in New York as well as the heads of the G8 in Japan and Germany, the UNESCO World Conference. These forums declared the necessity of state and political support for continuing adult education in the era of the information revolution and the transition to the information society for the prosperity of the planet without wars, terrorism and conflicts.
Е. Malitikov is the author of more than 90 scientific works, famous international reports and public initiatives, the president of the Academy of Information Science of international structures, an academician of the International Academy of Informatization, the International Energy Academy, the Armenian Academy of Humanism, the New York Academy of Sciences and a number of other academies of sciences in the world. He is a member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Modern Humanitarian University and the Armenian Open University. He is the founder of personal awards and scholarships for the best students in a number of CIS countries.
Е. Malitikov is a member of the World Economic Forum, the First Vice-President of the Russian Association of the Club of Rome, a member of the International Vienna Council and a member of the Presidium of the Danube-European Institute, a member of the International Union of Economists and the Board of the Russian Free Economic Society, a member of the UN TASS-FORS working group, the founder and member of the Board of Trustees of the “Culture and Education in Extreme Conditions” Charity Foundation. He is also Deputy Director General of the International Biographical Center for Europe, a member of the International Biographical Association, and a recipient of the Leonardo da Vinci Award for Inspirational Achievement.
Е. E. Malitikov was awarded with the title of International Enlightener of the Year 2003, the titles of International Goodwill Ambassador and International Peace Ambassador, he was awarded with International Medal of Honor and Name Ribbon, named “Man of the Year 2004”, he was awarded with International Peace Prize.
Yefim takes interest in water skiing, underwater swimming, kitesurfing, independently pilots aircraft, takes a bath in an ice-hole – has a lot of students – followers in this extreme method of health improvement, etc. He is married. Wife – L.Malitikova, Doctor of Chemistry, Professor, Chair of Board of Directors of the International Chemical Concern ELIN.
KNOWLEDGE IS OUR FUTURE
In the era of information technology, an abundance of information, the development of globalization processes on the planet, the emergence of previously unknown to mankind problems, each inhabitant of the planet must have a certain intelligence to understand the world around him, the problems of our time, must have access to information, the ability to obtain and update knowledge. The time has come to pay the closest attention to the improvement of human knowledge, his education. President of the International Association “Znanie”, Chairman of the Interstate Committee for the dissemination of knowledge and adult education – Efim Malitikov for many years brings to life the attitude: “EDUCATION FOR ALL LIFE”, solves the problem of adult education, access to knowledge in the most remote and difficult corners of the world. Speaking at world summits, conferences, congresses in Geneva (Switzerland), Greifswald, Johannesburg (Germany) and other countries he touches upon the actual issues – the use of satellite technology in education, the most important tools for the development of human resources in modern forms of education, the development of the information society achievements, voicing his philosophy of world education. I give the floor to Mr. Malitikov.
MISTAKES CAN COST VERY MUCH!
The standard of living of people determines their level of education. Moreover, we do not count those who were once educated as uneducated, we keep statistics, we report: how many people graduated from school, how many – got higher education. But how many of them are backward, can not write or read – no records at all are kept …
Billions of people on the planet today, in the XXI century (!), cannot write or read. Billions – live on $1 per day, and even less in the Russian provinces and CIS countries. Hungry and bloodless, uneducated people are ready for any crime. They form that fanatical part of humanity, the critical mass of which is very large.
And if, on a mental level, man were free from the need to struggle daily for survival, there would be no need to break laws.
Speaking first of all about adults, I would like to point out that 5-6 years after graduating from the most modern, powerful, distinguished educational institution, but not being able to apply his knowledge in life, a person becomes an intellectual bankrupt, no matter in what rank he was.
Yes, some held on only due to the fact that they had a quick reaction to changes in society, and some united in a vicious circle to achieve common goals and not let in those who think up-to-date, own the situation. The education we once received to use it is not enough.
One must understand and not consider that one has received a completed education. At any age, even at the age of 80, he must have access to information, knowledge, which is constantly updated. Whoever does not have it sufficiently, may find himself on the margins – no one needs it.
FROM THE USSR TO THE CIS
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the new states have felt a false freedom, independence, especially independence from the Russian language. Russian was the state language among the 250 million population of the former Soviet Union – 1/ 6 of the planet’s landmass. But, the independent states decided to have their own script, culture – even though they had kept it before, their own official state language. They have the right! However, to lose a single language…
There are words which did not exist in Azerbaijani, Armenian, Kyrgyz and other languages, but were approved as English-Russian in all official relations. As a result, without learning English, people lost Russian as well.Here’s an example. To create a Russian-Georgian-English dictionary of foreign trade terms it was necessary to find, invent, invent an analogous, adequate Russian and English word – already accepted in the world – Georgian. As a result, today all foreign trade documents are signed in Russian and English.
The new generation, for example, in auls, kishlaks, speaking their native language, does not develop, but loses their culture. Because Russian culture developed by absorbing spiritual and cultural values of peoples living on the territory of the Russian state. Many presidents of the CIS countries have understood this today and are bringing back the Russian language…
Education must come even to those villages, where only 60 people live, to the most inaccessible corners and hot spots of the planet. People there are especially in need of knowledge and are not burdened by any traditional conventions, but today they can’t not only get to the university center inside their country, but also walk to the school in the neighboring aul for lack of clothes. In addition, there is no electricity, no transportation. But give them knowledge and they will begin to advance the life of their godforsaken region.
MY PHILOSOPHY
Knowledge is food for people and it energizes the mind and the body. The mind points the way and makes the future a reality.
I think that, first of all, we need to pay attention to the philosophy of life, to what hinders us. We are caught up in the day of today. And he who does not think about tomorrow, practically deprives himself of it.
Today the deficit of teachers, the number of uneducated people is so great that we can close that gap only by dramatically, repeatedly increasing the audience for education, by introducing the attitude of “lifelong learning” into our lives.
It is the policy of the entire world community! This is the focus of the UN programs for the twenty-first century, all the tasks of the millennium. When the mind possesses knowledge and realizes that it has a future, its power does not weaken and it does not degenerate, because life must receive intellectual nourishment.
Mentally broken and physically unhealthy older people do not see a positive future for themselves. But when you give them education, intellectual nourishment, you prolong their lives, while reducing the cost of pensions, nursing homes – preserving the economic resources of the state. Longer lives-without traditional retirement-make the country stronger, provide useful jobs for the elderly, invaluable information for children who now have teachers who can pass on their experiences. Education is not just a separate industry, but an instrument of sustainable human development, a critical factor in societal development.
Any one of us, whether we are the president of a country or the president of a science academy, can find ourselves in a child’s environment and be criticized for not understanding many of the processes that children have. The younger generation will one day begin to run the world in a new way. It will be a rigid style, where there will be no room for adults, older people, their mentality. And in order to be authoritative for young people, it is necessary, in terms of education, to start improving and thinking about how to live tomorrow. The combination of the experience of the elderly and the energy of the young is priceless! The mind sustains a person for many years – food only for hours.
EDUCATION IS OUR RIGHT
Despite everyone’s right to learn, I believe that education in our country is so organized that only the “best” have the right to it today. Only those who have the means to pay tuition. Moreover, no one thinks about the fact that a person, like a flower bud, can blossom and show his abilities at different ages and different times. For example, there are students, former honors students, who succeed only in 1 – 2 courses of the institute, and by the 4th – lose their leadership. Or those who came from the countryside, showed the utmost diligence and passed the exam. Such students are the most prepared by the end of their studies at the university.
I believe that education should be accessible to everyone, regardless of whether they have money or not. An interview should take place with each applicant to understand his or her aspirations.
Did all of our academics come out of school with honors, and did all honors students become academics? And how many children of the “ready rubes” are achieving success today? …
The so-called purchased diploma is a temporary thing. The employer today does not care about the diploma, but about the skills, the person’s desire to work. You cannot console yourself with just a diploma. All our approaches to education are based on the Constitution which obliges only secondary education and higher education on a competitive basis and on a budget. We have never had sufficient budgetary resources to provide a modern education, nor does a rich country like America have them.To train modern people it is necessary to have 6% of the national gross product invested in education. No one will ever give that.
Nevertheless, people should choose for themselves where to study – in paid or free, state or non-state universities. And you cannot monopolize this industry by letting state universities have big buildings with columns.
Today, thanks to the Modern Humanities Academy (formerly SGU University), which has 400 branches of its own institutes, and the use of satellite technology, children without leaving their village, without knowing English, have the opportunity to take a course, pass an exam and obtain a corresponding diploma directly from the University in Cambridge. SGA – the main basic educational center of IA “Znanie” (the regional coordinator of UN NGOs for Eastern Europe and the CIS) – has General consultative status at UN ECOSOC and Consultative status at UNIDO, is the operator of a permanent world interregional electronic forum – IREN NGO/UN network. It is the fifth higher educational establishment in the world (after similar higher educational institutions of China, India, Mexico, and Great Britain); by the number of its applicants it is seven times larger than Lomonosov Moscow State University; it is the largest in the post-Soviet area, including by concentration of its own newest technological innovations. SGU has returned to the mountain villages and poor remote villages of Russia and the CIS the constitutional right to education, which has not yet been realized due to inaccessible natural conditions.
FROM SPEECHES BY PROFESSOR EFIM MALITIKOV, CHAIRMAN OF THE CIS INTERSTATE COMMITTEE FOR KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION AND ADULT EDUCATION, PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION “ZNANIE”
Innovative Technologies of Education – the most important tool of social development
Izvestiya Newspaper, April 2002.
The process of mental changes is the most complex and long-lasting process in our human life, since it affects the genetic, political and social status and aspect of our existence.
Today we often see the tallest and largest suburban house in the neighborhood, which is architecturally, tastefully, falsely representing wealth and functionally a primitive rustic hut.
It demonstrates only in its size the unrealized essence and unfulfilled style of its owner, a genetically underdeveloped man, longing for ambitious self-expression. The happiness of many generations of his ancestors lay in the blind struggle for a piece of bread and a roof over his head.
Given a chance to change his life financially, such a person tries to change, in this way, his class. “You should know where we stand!”
Dreaming of a palace, he builds a barn, sometimes spending enough money to build a palace.
Our society is a derivative of the self-expression of influential, powerful people, who once received a long time ago a conventionally decent education. At the same time, they ostentatiously demonstrate their progressiveness against the background of mental backwardness.
The budgetary constitutional socialist system and the class-lesson form of education have created a deep rut from which many generations of people, governments and states cannot get out.
Undoubtedly, in the old days, the Soviet educational system was good and gave the world outstanding scientists and specialists. But, since then, many decades have passed that have changed the world, its scientific ideas and views on the future. And the task is not to speed up, supplement, tweak or adjust the system of education, but to fundamentally change the attitudes underlying the Sustainable Development of mankind. It is no coincidence that more than 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day, and half the planet, i.e. 3 billion people, live on less than $2 a day. It is no coincidence that 880 million people on Earth are completely illiterate — they can’t read or write.
To this we must add you and me, we are among the 4.5 billion people who do not have sufficient, modern knowledge. At the same time we continue to think that we rule society. In reality, we still manage, but already almost beyond our control, the digital world, with prehistoric or, if you like, antique analog ways and solutions …
The fine old educators of the “analog” last century are already unacceptably behind today’s knowledge. They no longer have anything to say even to their former “analog” but advanced students. For today’s young people with a digital mindset from birth they are no longer teachers. They are pupils at most, but who and how can teach them at a worldwide pedagogical deficit of 15 million people out of 59? And this number is constantly growing.
The old system insists that the main factor in a successful education is direct contact between student and teacher. Indeed, this is an important factor. But, what can we do if it is no longer effective for the Third Millennium society. The classroom-lesson method does not provide even basic literacy for hundreds of millions of people.
Socrates once taught individually, Plato created an entire academy with only a few students. They learned by walking in conversations in the garden. The students made a life from their teacher, imbibing his ideas about the world and copying even his way of thinking.
However, the classroom-lesson system was replaced by the Platonic system when thousands of educated people were needed. The time has come to say goodbye to it as well. After all, the world’s population is growing every second, and illiteracy is growing even faster. The shortage of educators, not to mention teachers to meet today’s demands, is growing steadily.
The planet’s educated people are in red balance.
The reasonable size of classes and classrooms, as well as the number of students in them, is limited. Even 40 people are difficult to keep in close touch with a teacher.
In addition, the tutelage of teachers is clogging up and sidelining the natural qualities of the individual, who needs to search for truth, profession, and purpose on his or her own.
New teaching technologies are needed to respond instantly to changes in the human environment and geopolitical trends.
Humanity needs to rely on fundamentally new knowledge.
We need a highly motivated independence of people in the study of new professions, disciplines, techniques and principles of life. All this makes it necessary to look for new modern tools for the dissemination of knowledge.
They are already at humanity’s disposal…
Necessary priorities of the policy of states. The tools of human resource development in modern forms of education
World Summit on Sustainable Development
Johannesburg, August 30, 2002.
“…A large part of humanity’s declarations are not effective enough or remain on paper, even though they have been adopted at high forums, summits and conferences. The Rio Declaration has not fully achieved its goal in 10 years either.
Why? The answer is this:
We all actively work and brainstorm at face-to-face meetings like today. But it does not have a long-lasting synergetic effect.
Having left face-to-face contact, we, under pressure of internal problems and being very busy, pass to ineffective scattered correspondence no longer in real time, but as far as possible and having very modest technical often not modern tools… Certainly, we are not yet ready to work as the united world electronic government. Although it is not the low level of technical progress that prevents this. After all, the technology and technical means are already available to humanity. The problem is the mental inertness and conservatism of managerial processes, analog thinking in the digital age that has begun. We must quickly master the constantly renewing achievements of the information society.
We are talking about the newest technologies using satellite remote interactive communications. Virtuality in this case is not inferior to the face-to-face form of communication and supports a synergetic effect. Operational planetary cooperation in all fields through specific or national teleports is thus attainable. Sustainability is not a constant. On one side of the scale are the problems of civilization and they are constantly being updated. On the other is our knowledge and the forecast of impending change, which is constantly lagging behind. Modern knowledge is too slow to be disseminated and applied by humankind with great delays. The cost of not keeping up is high.
Knowledge is changing at a rate of 17% per year. And this process is accelerating. After 6 years of information stagnation or non-acceptance of modern knowledge, man becomes intellectually bankrupt, and society is bankrupt in all areas, including economic and then political. The role of education in the sustainable development of mankind cannot be limited to higher education, it has not been sufficiently evaluated and has not been revised for decades. Constitutions, laws, and budgets have failed to create the conditions for the necessary change in our education and awareness. They are based on the old classroom-lesson approach and formula: “Education for Life,” which was enough when knowledge was updated every 30 years.
Life today requires a different formula: “Education for Life,” i.e., lifelong learning. It must become a priority of state policy, an integral part of laws and constitutions, and then a mental attitude of human civilization. It is necessary to implement this formula in all the efforts of states to confront the problems of …
The red educational balance on the planet is worth 6% of the national gross product of each country and the world as a whole. No budget can afford it.
Advanced science and practice already have the tools to help humanity deal with it many times cheaper and faster.
So far, new remote and especially satellite technologies in education have not been part of the policy priorities of states and governments.
It has been done by innovators at their own risk, as well as by entrepreneurs and NGOs. The transition to a new consciousness without the support of governments will take an unacceptably long time.
Interaction between NGOs and governments in this area is a bridge to the future. In the CIS in 1997 created the Interstate Committee for the dissemination of knowledge and adult education. NGOs and governments work together.
Joint efforts have created the largest in Russia, the CIS, Europe and the world’s largest Modern Humanitarian University, which operates as a space telecommunications company.
The services of this teleport are already being used by more than 2,000 NGOs and government agencies in the UN-HOPE-HIREN network, created on the initiative of the UN in Brazil in 2001.
This kind of education should be included among the priorities of the Summit, along with environmental protection, economic and social development.
In this way, we will demonstrate both the version of the Type 2 partnership, and a perfect example for the work and programs of governments and states’ policies.
Mountains as People
Global Mountain Summit, Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic), 2002
“…Mountains are like people. They feel, see, hear and react. They react adequately and powerfully.
In the history of the peoples of the planet, thanks to your patronage, which crowned the International Year of Mountains with the Global Summit, an unprecedented step towards new resources of life on Earth has been taken.
It is very symbolic that it was the Kyrgyz Republic that took this initiative, responsibility and honor, not yielding it even to the rich mountain Switzerland. Unfortunately, humanity has not preserved the Knowledge, Abilities and Might of the Aztec and Mayan mountain empires, leaving the unraveling of their secrets to researchers.
However, the qualitative and numerical gap in the living standards of highlanders and plainsmen only confirms the need to reverse the restructuring of human debt to Nature. It is a tragic list of catastrophes that reminds us of unreasonable human activity.
Water, the main resource of human life on Earth, which makes up 80% of our bodies, for half of humanity is protected by the giants of the mountain silence. The storerooms of the subsoil for the Future are also placed there, where only their true custodians, the faithful inhabitants of the mountains, can live.
Courageous loyalty to the mountains is kept by a fifth of humanity, paying for it unsettled life and poverty. We need new knowledge about the Earth that mountains and their ecosystems hold in their arms. The best representatives of more than 100 countries have contributed new visions, approaches and tools to the summit.
To disseminate this knowledge to those who live their lives together with the mountains, bearing all the hardships and deprivations, is a task of global scale. Solving it for the mountaineers, we will get an increase in their courage and natural ingenuity. This increase is an army of literate, well-educated people who are the custodians of the resources of life for the future of the inhabitants of the resources of the plains which are being devastated.
The Highlanders and the countries where they live will once again become an empire.
Talking about economics, ecology, social sphere and writing about them in declarations and communiqués, we are just making air. For Highlanders it is an empty sound, while for education they have to go down to the valleys, capitals, university centers, and for culture – to Louvres, Tretyakovks and other museums in unknown megalopolises. Education, and the highest quality, the most exclusive, the newest knowledge should come directly to them in a yurt on an ever-white slope, in a pasture. Life is changing rapidly…
Just five years ago on the business card of the President of the German Telecom had no email address. And today … Modern Humanities University from Moscow satellite teleport teaches Kazakh students international law in Cambridge without the cost of travel and accommodation in England. It teaches even those who do not know English, modern technology makes it possible.
There are 17 training centers of this type in Kazakhstan, one of them for 8,000 students. By your order, Nursultan Abishevich – a new building of our educational center is being built in Astana…
Our signal will come with a picture, a cartoon, a charming gesture of a unique lecturer or an outstanding scientist from any country. You can’t get that kind of teacher in the walls of one traditional university.
Our signal will come to places where no transport is acceptable, where there is not even electricity …
Today there is already such an institute – a branch center – and six more are being supplied and installed in the Kyrgyz Republic. They are being developed under the patronage of Academician A. Aidaraliev …
I make a proposal to create in Bishkek an International Information and Education Centre based on the latest satellite telecommunication technologies. Without satellite education, penetrating into those places where it is impossible to reach in any other way, we shall not be able to solve the global problem of mankind on Earth – eradication of illiteracy.
We invite the Council of Patrons and you, Askar Akayevich, personally, and you, Nursultan Abishevich, personally, to visit our base complex in Moscow. Visiting universities has long been a good tone for Presidents of the world.
You will be pleasantly surprised, and your impressions are a moment of truth for the whole country”.
The “train of life” for millions of people
World Summit on the Information Society. Geneva, Switzerland, December 10-12, 2003.
“Just as in one week it is impossible to comprehend, much less to plan the future century, so it is impossible in one decade to formulate in detail the Tasks of the Millennium, in which, as we see it, even the Concepts and Terms of the Past Century have not yet taken root.
Humanity follows with hope and trust the systematic efforts of the UN, which, consistently and vigorously, is shining beacons in the international and intermental, financial and political diversity of the attitudes and interests of the planetary world order.
The recent Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Human Development, the Mountain Peoples’ Summit in Bishkek, and dozens of other international events and initiatives are in the same context.
This World Summit on the Information Society is a direct instrument to the Future, whose solutions are the Dangers and Prospects of the Global World.
Today it is impossible to act locally, outside the context of responsibility for global consequences. Political and even financial interests should not prevail over the global construction in thinking and acting, overshadowing even the national Law of Value. Marginalization, Poverty and Poverty, which as elements of Mendeleev’s Table constitute the Sustainable Development of Mankind, will become a community of equal distribution and equitable use of planetary Knowledge as given by God.
And it doesn’t matter who was the first to extract, unearth, comprehend and apply them, if this is Knowledge about the Earth, Man, the Environment… The INTERNET dominates over other information technologies, but it does not reach the very greater half of the illiterate, and therefore doomed, humanity. After all, a fifth of it lives in the mountains, a significant part of it in the hard-to-reach, uncivilized, distant corners of the planet, where the Internet for natural, climatic and cost reasons has not been and will not come.
The planet’s hot spots, prisons, where millions of people are lagging behind the “train of life”, who will not be sent to the moon, are also a white spot on the map. The final planetary balance, then, is not coping with the challenges of the information society with the cable Internet as a tool. By relying on the Internet alone, our Summit will fail.
Nevertheless, we do not take into account the many examples we have given of the effective dissemination of knowledge through modern satellite technology … We do not take into account that with a large, much needed number of coverage, satellite technology becomes 100 times cheaper than the Internet and with the increasing number of users becomes available to even the poorest people. At the same time, the productivity of the already scarce modern teacher and lecturer increases by an amount necessary and sufficient to bridge the digital divide.
The language barrier is disappearing, and the finances for expensive travel to the world’s university centers and uniquely talented schools are becoming cheap and accessible to everyone on earth…
Today, without the cost of stone palaces for schools, right in the shepherd’s aul, deep village, in Chechnya, other hot spots on the Planet, 2.5 thousand of our professors work effectively in prisons without danger to their own lives, without mental stress and without reducing the synergistic effect of interaction with the students. In doing so, there is increased independence and creativity in both …”
“Future Island – World University
ECOSOC Upper Level Segment
New York, June 29, 2004.
“…Globalization has come inexorably into our world. It has impregnated our consciousness and mentality, covered megacities and provincial centers.
Its signs appeared in the villages, invaded every home, participated in the destiny of every person.
It has predetermined the lives of succeeding generations and dictates its conditions to governments.
It has come invisibly, like radiation, and is now galloping across the planet. Globalization makes us either its victims or its riders.
It is difficult and does not need to be stopped. It is objective, logical and inescapable. It must be accepted or become its slave.
I am a supporter of positive perception, a welcoming approach and active cooperation with global processes.
I am convinced that it is necessary to take a trailing rather than blocking stance in this. It is necessary to get on the train called “Globalization” in time.
Many countries and peoples have not fully realized this and are under the illusion that globalization will not affect them, that they can fence themselves off from it by shutting themselves in a comfortable niche with a familiar and mastered amount of prosperity.
But prosperity can fall from under the foundations of any country, even a wealthy one, if it stagnates in its conservative prosperity, expending the savings of the previous phase of its development. Such a worldview is reckless.
It is necessary to prepare for the coming processes, which no single country can cope with alone, in the mode of afterburner.
The best simulator for this is our education. But not the one we used in the last century, but a fundamentally new one, based on new mental attitudes and the latest technologies of introduction and dissemination of knowledge…
Ten years’ experience of the Modern Humanitarian University established in Russia with its own satellite teleport has demonstrated the validity of the arguments I have outlined:
– The cost of educating 165 thousand students using satellite technology is $5 per person per year, and over $500 via the Internet;
– The University with its 2.5 thousand professors covers more than 400 cities and towns in 14 countries and disseminates knowledge in 68 specialties;
– It is the largest in Russia and the CIS and the fourth largest in the world;
– Its virtual audience is 4,000 times larger than the classical one;
– Its students … can study in Cambridge without the cost of leaving their village.
And yet it is illiteracy and consequent uncompetitiveness that has resulted in hundreds of millions of people living in complete, hopeless poverty, in conditions scarcely compatible with civilized life, and more than 3 billion–more than half–living on $2 a day…
Until recently, the education of highly developed and wealthy Germany was considered one of the most prestigious in the world educational system. Today, by many objective quality components in the world rankings, Germany has fallen into the bottom third of the progressive scale, despite having the oldest schools and universities with centuries of history and learning experience.
“Knowledge for export!” – is the new theory of success we are putting forward, its social and economic component …
When the number of illiterate, uncompetitive people on Earth exceeds a critical mass, they may bury not only tranquility but also the very Sustainable Development of Mankind.
In cooperation with Research Institute of Space Systems and Russian Academy of Cosmonautics and following the conversion doctrine of military production the Interstate Committee of CIS on Spreading of Knowledge and Adult Education and International Association “Znanie” put forward the idea to create together with the English company “SatEduNet” the World University for ensuring global coverage in the interests of mutual exchange and export of knowledge between the leading universities of the world.
The process of mental change is the most complex and lengthy process in our human life. But despite the tendencies and desire of people to erect, reshape and gravitate toward boundaries, humanity remains a single organism of the planet.
To overcome this mentality will help the young Island of the Future, the World University…”
The main theses of Professor E. Malitikov’s report were also presented at the Conference on Application of Satellite Technologies in Education in Greifswald (Germany) on June 16-18, 2004.
It was also noted in his speech that “… A modern professor needs not a 40-seat auditorium, not a classroom but half a million listeners. Especially since 15 million of the world’s 60 million teachers are in deficit. The digital divide with this teacher ratio with the planetary ballast of illiteracy will grow even larger.
At the same time, knowledge for humanity is not spread evenly over the planet like butter on bread. Sometimes you can only get it from the careful hands of a unique scientist on another continent and not in a common language of mass consumption.
It is absolutely necessary to change the old formula to a modern demand, to a new mental attitude: “Knowledge – through life!” It is important to achieve real and not declarative inclusion in the priorities of public policy supranational extrabudgetary super-budgetary sector of the planetary world order – Adult Education.
Today, not being enshrined in the constitutions of States and the statutes of the ministries of education, this industry – the economic snowdrop in the state economy – turns two and a half times more money than the total education budget of States.
It is self-sufficient because it is demanded by a conscious portion of the world’s population for career advancement and to meet the material needs of adults and their families …”
HISTORY PAGE
On May 1st, 1947 the Central Press published the appeal of a group of eminent scientists, public and political and military figures (among them S.Vavilov, B.Grekov, N.Tikhonov, E.Tarle, A.Oparin, K.Simonov, G.Ulanova) to all representatives of science, literature and art, to scientific, public organizations and institutions of the Soviet Union for creation of the All-Union Society for dissemination of political and scientific knowledge.
Difficult post-war times, the need for rapid and large-scale reconstruction of the national economy sharply raised the question of improving the level of education of the Soviet people.
The USSR Council of Ministers, by decrees signed by V. Stalin on 29 April and 16 December 1947, approved an appeal of a group of scientists and public figures for establishing the Association, approved the organization committee and handed over to the Association the Polytechnic Museum and the material resources of the All-Union Lecture Bureau.
On the first session on May 12, 1947 the organizing committee decided to organize society branches in all, except RSFSR (Russian Znanie Society had been founded in 1957), allied republics and largest regional centers of Russia.
July 7, 1947 in Bolshoi Theater in Moscow was held a general meeting of the founding members and full members of the All-Union Society for the dissemination of political and scientific knowledge. It was attended by 930 people, including 578 – from 15 Union republics. On July 9, following discussions, the Society’s Charter was adopted, and its Board and Auditing Committee were elected.
S. Vavilov, chairman of the organizing committee and president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, made his opening speech at the constituent assembly. He said, in particular: “Science is taught, knowledge is passed from one person to another – this is the special meaning of the given Russian word … Our society should be a conductor and an intermediary of real, high, advanced scientific knowledge from specialists to the people … We hope that all advanced scientific intelligentsia of the Soviet Union will be in the ranks of our Society”.
On July 10, at the Plenum of the Society the following persons were elected to the presidium: S. Vavilov, president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, M. Mitin, first deputy president, Academician I. Artobolevsky, Professors V. Dokukin and I. Zubov were elected deputy presidents of the board. The members of the Presidium of the Board were Academician E. Varga, Major General M. Galaktionov, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences E. Korovin, Academician I. Mints, Professor M. Nechkina, Academicians A. Oparin and E. Chudakov.
At different times the All-Union Society “Znanie” was headed by such prominent figures as S. Vavilov, academicians and Nobel Prize winners N. Semenov and N. Basov, Vice President of the Academy of Sciences, Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, Chairman of the USSR State Committee on Science and Technology V. Kirillin, academicians I. Artobolevsky and K. Frolov. Academicians N. Zelinsky, V. Obruchev, and D. Pryanishnikov were the first honorary members of the society.
During first 20 years of its existence All-Union Znanie Society has transformed from a small elite group of scientists into a mass organization. Along with lectures, thematic evenings, theoretical and scientific conferences, talks, oral magazines, etc. were widely spread. Publishing activity successfully developed. Annual circulation of magazines, brochures and books issued by the Association was 30 million copies, and about 500 titles were published. Among them were such popular magazines as “Science and Life”, “International Life”, “Science and Religion”, “Znanie-power”, “The Speaker’s Word”. In 1972 the Znaiye society was awarded the Order of Lenin for its educational services.
By the early 1990s the society had almost 4 million members. Society had 2 thousand academicians, over 25 thousand doctors and professors, 383 thousand engineers, 208 thousand doctors, 184 thousand agricultural specialists.
Its material base included “Houses of Knowledge”, houses of scientific and technological propaganda, lecture theaters, planetariums, publishing houses. Its visiting card was 34 series of the cycle “New in life, science, technology”. Popular science books of series “Lives of Wonderful People”, “Science and Progress”, “Creators of Science and Technology” are of great interest for readers. The crisis in political, economic and spiritual life of the country which occurred at the beginning of the 1990s could not but have an impact on the activity of the society and its Republican organizations. The society was not able to rebuild itself and act independently without the guidance of the CPSU in its multi-party system and transition to market relations.
The Congress of the XI Congress of November 4, 1991 made a decision to reorganize the All-Union Society “Knowledge” into the International Association “Knowledge” (IA “Knowledge”) in order to preserve the traditional ties of the intellectuals of the sovereign republics. The vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, academician K. Frolov was elected President of the Association. In 1994, as a result of ineptitude of the Association’s Executive Committee for several years, the Association was on the brink of bankruptcy. At the II Congress (January 25, 1994) additions and amendments were made to the Association’s Charter, in particular equality of all members of the Association without exception was enshrined.
In June 29, 1995 the third congress was convened unexpectedly in connection with adoption of the new federal law of the Russian Federation “On Public Associations”. In accordance with this law, the Congress relieved Frolov of his duties as president at his request.
E. Malitikov became the new president of the International Association “Znanie”. In 2000, the IV International Congress of MA “Znanie” in Cyprus again unanimously elected Academician E. Malitikov as president for a new five-year term.
Biography of Academician E. Malitikov is published in official publications: “The Elite of the Information World – XX-XXI Century”; “Who is Who in the Modern World” – “200 prominent figures of our time”; “Russia – 2000. Modern Political History. Faces of Russia”; “30th Anniversary of Club of Rome”; “2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the XXI century”; “First five hundred” and others.
Today the International Association “Znanie” is a member of:
– International Council for Adult Education;
– European Organization for Adult Education;
– Working Group “Taek Force” of the UN;
– Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations of the United Nations (CONGO);
– The leading UN non-governmental organization for Eastern Europe and the CIS countries;
– Operator of the world network UN NGO IRENE.
During the last decade Academician E. Malitikov has developed a new strategy for MA Znanie’s activity based on a thorough analysis of the new era in the development of world civilization.
MA Znanie actively cooperates with authoritative international organizations, cultural and educational centers of different states.
The growing international authority and recognition of MA Znanie is evidenced by its status in the United Nations, entitling it to accredit its representatives to the UN headquarters in New York, Vienna, Geneva and other capitals of the world.
The history of MA Znanie since 1995 can be described in a separate volume – a new life of the organization, full of active work, introduction of new projects, including scientific and educational.
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Association its founders and structures, public and non-governmental organizations of the world, elders and young people join efforts to worthily meet the anniversary of the world famous, the oldest non-governmental organization both in Russia, CIS and abroad – MA Znanie. It gave birth and created a super-industry – adult education, which has become the most important tool and argument of social development of mankind.
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