Russian college applicants will receive bonus points for their drone piloting skills

Russian schoolchildren who master the skills of operating unmanned aerial vehicles will be able to earn extra points on the Unified State Exam (USE) when applying to higher education institutions. This initiative will be implemented by incorporating a relevant test into the “Ready for Labor and Defense” (GTO) military-sports program.

This was reported by The Moscow Times.

As Russian Minister of Sport Mikhail Degtyarev stated at the All-Russian Congress of Physical Education Teachers in the Tula region, UAV piloting skills testing will be introduced on a trial basis within the GTO program as early as this year. Starting next year, any interested student across the country will be able to take this test.

Additional points for meeting GTO standards are awarded to college applicants as part of the individual achievements system; however, the total number of points is strictly limited by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Specifically, the maximum total score for all possible personal achievements of an applicant (which, in addition to the GTO, includes a diploma with honors, volunteer work, and other merits) amounts to no more than 10 points.

Students at the Kemerovo Polytechnic College in Anzhero-Sudzhensk are being threatened with deployment to the front lines if they refuse to undergo UAV pilot training.

Recruitment of students into the unmanned aerial vehicle forces has failed in Russia.

Russia is recruiting students into its unmanned systems forces at at least eight universities and five colleges in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.