Oksana Ilyina, Graduate of the Faculty of Preschool and Correctional Pedagogy and Psychology of I. Yakovlev CHSPU, defectologist of the Novocheboksarsk kindergarten of No. 48 “Zhuravlik”, became the winner of the 2nd All-Russian Pedagogical Mastery Competition “Defectologist Teacher of Russia-2019”.
Out of the 59 participants who won the regional “Defectologist Teacher of Russia-2019” competition, 20 specialists were invited to take part in the full-time stage of the competition.
Within the framework of the competition, the participants held workshops to demonstrate their pedagogical skills. During her workshop on the topic “Kindergarten as a National Playground”, Oksana Ilyina demonstrated to the fellow-participants and the jury self-designed corrective and developing techniques that can be used to work with visually impaired children, children with amblyopia and strabismus.
On the second day of the competition, there were observed classes with students with disabilities. The contestants had to work out the plans for their classes at short notice: the topics, age and number of participants were announced to them only the night before the class. Oksana Ilyina conducted a lesson on the development of social orientation – the formation of substantive presentations on the topic “Vegetable Discoveries” in the group for children with visual impairments from Moscow school No. 283. The jury commended the professionalism and creative approach of the teacher, and positively assessed the manuals and methods she developed.
The final test was the participation in the round table discussion “Defectological Science and Practice in Russia: How to Meet the Challenges of Time” with the jury members and all the finalists of the competition.
Olga Vasilyeva, Minister of Education of the Russian Federation, met with the finalists of the All-Russian contest “Defectologist Teacher of Russia-2019”. During the meeting, the participants discussed the best national practices in the field of defectology, current problems in the sphere of working with children with disabilities, and ways to tackle them.
In addition, the participants of the event discussed the need and opportunities of bringing young teachers back to the regions, including the issue of undergraduate practice. The minister stressed that it is necessary to increase the amount of time spent on practical training of would-be teachers.
Today in Russia there are 1.664 special (correctional) schools for children with disabilities, and every fourth school in the Russian Federation is inclusive. They create conditions for the comprehensive education of children with special needs. More than 45.000 speech therapists and 9.000 defectologists are employed in the industry.
In the Chuvash Republic, there are 15 state educational organizations that implement adapted basic general educational programs to provide education for children with disabilities. In 2019-2020, they enrolled more than 2.000 children with disabilities.

Based on the information published by the Ministry of Education and Youth Policy of the Chuvash Republic.