EDUCATION-RUSSIA: This System Will Not Work, But Who Knows What Will

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW, Mar 29 2002 (IPS) - In the wake of the economic reforms, Russia is now struggling to find ways of pulling its education system out of a crisis.

Almost a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, most schools in Russia remain state-run. But the cash-strapped federal government finds itself increasingly unable to sustain the once vibrant education sector. Schools in rural areas — some two-thirds of the total — have been worst hit, with delays in salaries for teachers reaching ten months at one point.

This has led to demands for greater privatisation. But availability of private capital for education remains low. And government ministers remain opposed to any extensive privatisation.

Education at state-run schools is free. But Economic Development Minister German Gref says that education is de facto not free because many underpaid teachers take bribes and ‘informal payments’ from parents. Russia is now pondering various models for financing education.

Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko has announced that the education budget will be increased by two-thirds this year over last year. Most of this money will go on doubling wages for teachers. A 100 per cent wage increase sounds impressive, but it is still not enough to improve the lot of teachers. A young teacher’s base salary is around 17 dollars a month.

Remuneration for teachers has not kept pace with other sectors in the economy. The best-qualified teachers are leaving the profession as a result.

Russia’s system of social values traditionally gave education high priority. Accessible education ensured a high literacy rate and almost universal primary education during the Soviet era.

Females remain about half of the students in higher education. But on the other hand, educational successes of the past were linked to the requirements of a centrally planned economy, not to the demands of a free market.

The former Soviet Union spent up to 10 per cent of its GDP on education. Russia now spends 0.6 per cent of GDP on education. As investment in education has declined in recent years, buildings and libraries have deteriorated. The dropout rate is increasing, and young people are leaving school earlier.

Reform of Russia’s education system will affect more than 30 million young people, from nursery kids to Ph.D students. It also affects some 54 million parents, and six million teachers. These 90 million people represent about two-thirds of Russia’s population.

Education in Russia is expected to be short of money for a long time to come, and development of private fee-earning education is seen as one of the solutions. Russia now has 600 non-state schools attended by more than 50,000 students.

But despite lack of funding, Russian authorities are reluctant to fully commercialise the education system. President Vladimir Putin has said that the state must provide free education for all in line with a single standard.

Several academics also take that position. Viktor Sadovnichy, rector of Moscow State University, argues that the current system is good enough, although it requires some modernisation.

New educational standards will be approved by December this year, Education Minister Vladimir Filippov announced March 27. The reforms will hold for 2002-2004, Filippov said.

One proposal being considered is school education for 12 years to replace the present 10-year term. A single written test for admission to university is being proposed. A single state exam will be tested first in 17 regions, the Education Ministry says. The system is being seen as a recipe against graft.

Not everyone agrees it will work that way. Irina Khakamada, deputy speaker of the Duma (parliament) in charge of educational issues says a single written exam would be too complicated to manage. Educational reforms should not be based on Soviet-era patterns of bureaucratic thinking, Khakamada says. Otherwise, she warns, Russia’s education system could become obsolete ten to 15 years from now.

A World Bank project could point to the direction ahead. The World Bank approved a 50 million dollar project last May to pilot reforms in Samara, Yaroslavl and the Chuvash Republic in central Russia. The project aims at promoting efficient use of public resources for education, and at bringing in more vocational education, says project leader Mary Canning. Filippov approves of that path. “Russia will prioritise development of vocational education,” he says.

Vocational schools have been set up by local state enterprises in the past. But this support is now declining, while private sources of financing are nowhere near the level necessary.

At the moment the only consensus is that something needs to be done. But it is not clear what that should be, or where the money for it will come from.