Russia has published a “drone studies” textbook for 14- and 15-year-olds, part of a Kremlin project to produce a new generation of drone specialists.
The Prosveshchenie publishing house teamed up with Russian drone manufacturer Geoscan to produce the textbook, which contains 34 hours of tuition for an exam.
Mikhail Lutsky, author of the textbook and head of educational projects at Geoscan, said: “The manual will be of interest not only to teachers of ‘Labour (technology) studies’, but also to teachers of related disciplines, such as computer science, physics, the basics of security and defence of the motherland.”
Russian schools started teaching a compulsory “Labour (technology)” course on Sept 1 designed to introduce “drone studies” into classrooms.
The full-colour illustrated textbook teaches children the classification of different drones, how they are built, the electrical components included in drones, the basics of flying a drone and how they are programmed to fly on autopilot.
Prosveshchenie, which means enlightenment, is controlled by the Kremlin and is one of Russia’s biggest and oldest publishing houses.
The Kremlin uses school textbooks to push its propaganda and manipulate children.
Shortly after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it ordered Prosveshchenie to remove “inappropriate” references to Kyiv and Ukraine in textbooks.
Prosveshchenie said on its website that the new textbook was part of a Kremlin project to “teach skills for working with drones” in selected schools across Russia.
“This is the first educational publication on unmanned technologies, created for the implementation of the federal project: Personnel for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles,” it said.
“By 2030, about one million specialists in unmanned aviation will be trained in the country.”
Drones have become an important part of the Kremlin’s arsenal for its war in Ukraine.
It has imported thousands of Shahed drones from Iran and built a drone factory in Kazan, central Russia.
Many of the workers building the drones at the new factory are students from a nearby technical college.
Vladimir Putin has ordered military and nationalistic lessons at schools to push his propaganda and to “normalise” his invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s war footing.
