“Education and Society. Is Russia willing to invest in their future?” is the title of a report produced by Russia’s Public Chamber. The report’s aim is to summarize the discussions going on in both the professional community and among employers about the measures that must be taken to ensure Russia does not lose out in the competition “for brains” and the quality of intellectual capital
The report, which experts from Russia’s Public Chamber (OPRF) worked on, will soon be presented to the president, legislators and the government, and published in a large circulation, reported the leader of the project Yaroslav Kuzminov, rector of Moscow’s Higher School Of Economics and Chairman of the OPRF Commission on the Intellectual Potential of the Nation. He is confident that the government will support the report’s proposals since the price of the issue is too high.
Russia will not be able to win in the competition in the next ten years, as it will be unable to enter the global market with an innovative economy unless it invests in education and science. Up until now, Russian society has given a high priority to learning: according to a poll, 88% of families think that their children should receive a higher education. Employer demand is growing for university graduates, people possessing a high level of initiative and capable of developing innovations.
According to Kuzminov, today in the national education system a very dangerous trend is taking shape: social stratification. There are strong schools with strong students and good prospects for further development and weak ones, where students are already doomed to failure on entering universities. In other countries - Europe, the Americas, and Asia - education compensates for inequality, ranking people according to the level of their talent.
Another problem is the pseudo-education sector, where a number of university graduates do not have the competencies stated in their diploma, because the teachers are weak and incompetent
Most universities do not carry out research. Only 50 universities in Russia do conduct research and there are only 200-300 scientific schools left in the entire country. This is a disaster. Their work must be restored to an appropriate volume.
Finding money is not difficult. Add just 1% of the GDP to education, and route it to the three primary channels: supporting research at universities; creating effective, informational education systems; and raising the basic salaries of secondary school teachers. Yaroslav Kuzminov told Expert Online that the minimum program, which he considers feasible, is increasing the salary fund of teachers in general education schools by about 200 billion rubles, that is, up to 22-24,000 rubles per month by 2010.
Approximately 50-70 billion rubles is needed to finance research universities, where the education budget should be equal to research.
Today, education in Russia receives about 3.7% of the GDP; this is lower than in any other developed country, where the level varies from 4.3% to 6%.
Moreover, Yaroslav Kuzminov told Expert Online that before 2010 funding for the education system could be increased to about 4.5-4.6% of GDP, and by 2015, it could be raised to 5-5.1% of the GDP. Education should be a key national priority.
Yaroslav Kuzminov said that appealing for more private funds in education is a very dangerous position: an acceptable level of private money in general education schools and in higher education has already been reached. If this limit is crossed, then a mechanism of social and national segregation will be laid.
This should not be done. General education schools must not be fee-paying. Up to five billion dollars could be found straightaway, legally transferring a significant number of general education schools to the fee-paying format. But the social price of this will be exorbitant. Russian society cannot bear this price. If the money was really not in the budget such a scenario could be considered, but if the money is there then to consider it would be foolish and even criminal.
Yaroslav Kuzminov also believes that the magistracy must not be fee-paying. The entire magistracy must be academic and free.
Evgeniya Novikova
Photo: Aleksandr Miridonov/Kommersant
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