There’s been an emerging trend in St. Petersburg for Jewish parents to send their children to public school over the city’s Jewish schools. Since the public schools don’t provide Jewish education—and many parents have little if any Jewish background having grown up under Soviet rule -- it’s a particularly troublesome development. Who will connect the next generation of Jewish children in Russia to their heritage?

Students attending the Jewish school in St. Petersburg—which, thanks to the support of ORT, has become the most computerized in the city—are challenged by a dual program. They study both Jewish subjects and the national curriculum required by State education, all within the regular school day. As a result, there simply aren’t enough hours dedicated to key subjects such as math, biology, chemistry and physics. Moreover, traditional methods of teaching at Jewish schools have proven ineffective at piquing student interest or initiative.

ORT’s solution is a new, project-based method of teaching, where students are provided a specific project they must complete within a set time and under teacher guidance. With the objective of encouraging students to continue their studies after school hours, from their own homes, the projects will help make them competitive with students at state-run schools.

To get the ORT school community excited about the projects, Jewish students from other cities will also be involved, project reports will be published on-line and prizes will be awarded. At the end of the school year, a much-promoted Project Day will allow students to present their projects and share results.

Contributions to this project will allow ORT to:

• Hire a project teacher-manager and teacher-curator; and
• Provide transportation and hostel costs for Project Day.