Russia's Ministry of Education plans to give marks for conduct in Years 1 to 11 from 1 September

The proposal to introduce such marks was voiced at the Human Rights Council as long ago as 2024.

On a trial basis, conduct marks have been awarded since the start of the 2025/26 school year in 89 schools in seven regions of Russia, each of which has chosen one of three proposed options: pass/fail, a three-point scale or a five-point scale. At the end of the experiment a single model will be chosen.

Let us remember that the task of the school is not only teaching but also upbringing.

A system of marking conduct existed in Russia before the Revolution. In May 1918 it was banned by a decree of the People's Commissar for Education, Lunacharsky, but only together with a ban on "the use of a points system for assessing the knowledge and conduct of pupils in all cases of school practice without exception". In other words, conduct ceased to be marked at the very moment when marks of any kind were abolished altogether. But Soviet schools gradually returned to the old system: in 1935 to a verbal scale of "excellent, good, mediocre, bad, very bad", and in 1943 to a scale of numbers once again.

How did conduct marks affect schooling? Only excellent and good conduct was permitted in pupils. A pupil with good conduct was obliged to correct his offence by the following term, otherwise his conduct mark could be lowered. A three for conduct was a warning of expulsion from school. Expulsion was recorded with a two. A five for conduct was a condition of receiving the school-leaving certificate.