Russia: schools will train children to use drones at the start of the school year

A new educational program aimed at training students to build and fly drones will be fully launched in schools and colleges in Russia from September 1, 2024, “the date on which students will start the next school year,” said the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Beloussov, as reported by the Russian government website.

The objective of the subject is to train young people in drones as these remotely piloted devices are increasingly used in the context of the conflict in Ukraine, including low-cost devices derived from civilian drones. A new illustration, in short, of the preparation of Russian society for war, including the youngest. In order to train teachers so that they have sufficient knowledge, “it is necessary to launch the program in July,” said Andrei Beloussov.

Specialized clubs will be opened in 523 schools and practical training centers for teaching drone control will be opened in 30 colleges. The objective is that by 2030, 4,872 specialized classrooms and 380 training centers will equip the country's schools, reports the Russian daily Novye Izvestia.

These establishments will be equipped with drones - more than 17,000 special training drones will be purchased in total - and staff to organize training. But they will also have specialized classrooms as well as suitable sites for testing drones. In addition, a place will be reserved for drone repair and a 3D printing area will be installed.

At the end of January, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced that more than 8.3 billion rubles (more than 80 million euros) would be allocated to 30 regions of Russia to achieve the objectives of this project entitled “Stimulating demand for systems national unmanned aircraft,” the state agency Interfax reported at the time. The new discipline was already called “Development, production and use of unmanned aircraft systems”. At the end of 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin also instructed the Russian government to create a system of continuing training for drone specialists, recalls the Russian press agency.

This militarization of minds to stir up patriotism has already begun within Russian schools. In 2023, history textbooks were rewritten for classes in the last year of secondary education, to explain to young people the state's point of view on this conflict. “It is important to make schoolchildren understand the objectives” of the war in Ukraine, which officially aims to “demilitarize” and “denazify” this former Soviet republic, declared the Russian Minister of Education, Sergei Kravtsov, in August 2023.