The 4th season of the All-Russian Digital Dictation campaign has ended in Russia. The organizer of the event was the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC). The all-Russian event is being implemented in support of the federal project “Cadre for the Digital Economy” of the national program “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation”. The level of digital literacy is determined annually as part of the campaign; testing has been taking place since 2019 on the platform of the same name ЦифровойДиктант.рф.
“In modern conditions, issues of digital literacy are of fundamental importance. Public initiatives such as “Digital Dictation” allow participants to assess the level of awareness of new technologies, services and methods of protecting information from fraud. The digital literacy of citizens also affects the level of cybersecurity in the country as a whole. A new national project “Data Economy” is being created by the initiative of President Vladimir Putin. One of the key areas of the project will be the protection of data, both personal and organizations,” Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Chernyshenko said.
He added that according to the results of the “Digital Dictation” in 2023, the digital literacy index of Russians was 6.43 points. It is calculated based on the average value of the results for each semantic block of dictation questions. The highest average value was shown by the “Digital Security” block – an average score of 6.84 out of 10 possible.
At the end of the campaign, almost 2 million people (1.8 million) took part in the all-Russian testing, of which 1.38 million passed the Digital Dictation in full and received a digital literacy certificate. The number of participants increased by 1.5 times compared to 2021. The highest levels of digital literacy are typical for participants in the middle age groups – 26-35 years old and 36-45 years old.
The largest number of dictation completions is recorded in the age group from 18 to 59 years old - it accounts for more than 42% of the total number of dictation participants, and 7.7 thousand people became “excellent” dictation students in 2023.
The leading regions in terms of the level of digital literacy of their residents were noted by Deputy Minister of Digital Development Bella Cherkesova.
“In 2023, the Republic of Karelia and Moscow became the leaders in the digital literacy index - the average score in the regions was 7.34. High results were also demonstrated by the Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Voronezh, Penza regions, Chuvash Republic, Smolensk region, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra, Yaroslavl and Ivanovo regions. The largest number of completions of the “Digital Dictation” was recorded in the Belgorod region - almost 80,000 (79,878) respondents. The most active in terms of the total number of participants from the regions were also the Novosibirsk region, Krasnodar region, Kemerovo region-Kuzbass, Samara, Saratov regions and the city of Moscow,” Bella Cherkesova said.
In addition, the Deputy Minister expressed gratitude to the regional departments that took an active part in supporting the Digital Dictation. For example, the Belgorod and Novosibirsk regions became the most active regions in terms of the number of participants in the action. The Omsk region is a leader in simultaneous dictation in educational institutions. Vladimir, Kaliningrad, Volgograd regions, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
Panel discussion with representatives of dictation partner companies, where the speakers shared their impressions of this year’s event and discussed options for increasing the awareness and skills of Russians in the field of digital literacy, took place during the press conference:
“The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ annually updates questions on the topic of domains within the Digital Dictation. There is a demand from the industry and the registrar community to increase awareness of the functioning of the domain industry. I would like to note that this year the questions were practice-oriented, but during testing there were also historical moments to remind the user about the development of the Runet. It’s great that this year we observed a high level of involvement of regions in the work of the All-Russian action,” Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, said.
The results of the All-Russian action were summarized by the Director of RAEC and the ideologist of the action, Sergey Grebennikov: “Summarizing the results, I would like to note that the Digital Literacy Index has not reached its maximum values due to the increase in new import-substituting services that the consumer is still unfamiliar with, and with the change in the advertising landscape market. An increase in the number of external threats in the form of fraudsters in terms of digital security also has a significant impact, so today ensuring the digital literacy of the population is a critical aspect not only for federal and regional departments, but also for the business community. It is important to create simulators, popularize educational content for different target audiences, and test the digital literacy of employees. It’s gratifying to see that large corporations such as Avito, VK, VTB, Rostelecom not only actively support the campaign, but also participate as much as possible in the project and understand the importance of measuring and increasing the level of digital literacy among employees and service users.”
Sergey Plugotarenko, General Director of ANO Digital Economy, spoke about the importance of digital literacy for businesses and citizens, digital transformation in the regions: “Increasing the level of digital literacy is the most important component of the development of not only the digital economy, but also the data economy. And direct benefits for business.
It is very important for ANO Digital Economy to keep its finger on the pulse and see how “digital” is developing in the regions, how users use technologies and services. One of the areas of our activity is dedicated to the regional agenda - “Digital Upgrading”. The results of the Dictation will help us, among other things, adjust our plans for the next year and pay attention to those regions where such “pumping” is necessary.”
The results of the “Digital Dictation” include an assessment of the overall level of digital literacy, as well as an assessment of knowledge in three key components: digital security, digital consumption and digital competencies. Russians have the best understanding of digital security (6.84 points), but knowledge of the basics of digital consumption (6.46 points) and digital competencies (6.00 points) lags behind.
For Moscow citizens, this year’s event was especially interesting: for the first time in the history of the event, experts from the Moscow Department of Information Technologies prepared questions that were available only to residents of the capital, and helped them test their knowledge of the capital’s digital services. The digital literacy index of Muscovites is 7.34 points out of 10 possible. Moscow also took first place among Russian regions in terms of the average level of digital competencies - 7.28.
Average digital literacy level of action participants by federal district:
- Northwestern Federal District took the leading position (6.73 points)
- Ural Federal District (6.65 points)
- Southern Federal District (6.56 points).
Results from other federal districts:
- Privolzhsky – 6.45 points;
- Siberian – 6.38 points;
- Central – 6.36 points;
- Far Eastern – 6.28 points;
- North Caucasian – 6.09 points.
The top regions in terms of digital literacy were announced as part of summing up the results of the event: first place was shared by Moscow and the Republic of Karelia - the average score in both regions was 7.34, second place went to the Astrakhan region (7.26 points), Arkhangelsk region showed a result of 7.06 points.
The TOP 10 also included the following regions:
- Voronezh region – 6.91 points;
- Penza region – 6.87 points;
- Chuvash Republic - Chuvashia – 6.87 points;
- Smolensk region – 6.85 points;
- Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra – 6.84 points;
- Yaroslavl region – 6.84 points;
- Ivanovo region – 6.83 points.
Among the participants, the most active were women, their number amounted to more than 59% of the total number of participants. This year, all Russians over the age of 10 could take part - questions for children and teenagers were approved by the Institute of Education. However, younger participants also decided to try their hand: 1.2% of participants under 10 years old passed the test.
More detailed information about the results and achievements of the campaign in 2023 will appear soon on the official website of ЦифровойДиктант.рф.
