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ABOUT THE SYSTEM OF PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION IN PRESENT RUSSIA: MAJOR TRENDS, PROBLEMS, SOLUTIONS
O. I. Kosenko
The article analyzes the essence of the Russian system of professional educational and reveals its basic trends. Special attention is paid to considering topical problems and priorities in the Russian system of professional education.
Key words: system of professional education, assessment of the Russian system of professional education.
According to official statistics, the share of the population without education and with primary general education is less than 2% in Russia (one of the lowest indicators among countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)1. In terms of general education coverage of the population from the age of 7 to 17 (99.8%), Russia surpasses most OECD countries. In 2010, the number of students per 1,000 people of the population of Russia - 65 people -was one of the highest in the world. In 2011 the share of employed people with higher education was 29.5%, while that of employed people with secondary vocational education was 26.9%2 3. Despite the aforesaid achievements, the quality of mass education in present-day Russia is considered by experts to be on a major decline. According to the Knowledge Economy Index of the World Bank, used to assess the availability of steady skills of creation, dissemination and use of knowledge among the population, Russia took only the 55th position among 145 states in 2012.
The educational potential of the Russian population is being formed in the conditions of a low level of state funding. Education expenditures from the consolidated budget are still at the level of 4% of GDP and lower, while in countries with advanced economy this level is about 6%. The decrease in state commitments is accompanied by commercialization of the system of education. The share of students studying with full reimbursement of expenses in the system of secondary vocational education (hereinafter SVE) was 30.1% (in 2010), 62.8% in the system of higher vocational education (hereinafter HVE), including 55.2% in state institutions. The demand for education in higher educational institutions, being largely related to the possibility of avoiding military conscription and receiving formal confirmation of acquired knowledge irrespective of its quality, has entailed the unbridled growth of the number of higher educational institutions (from 514 to 1,115 in 1990-2010) and the number of students (from 2,824,500 people to 7,049,800 people). This could not but result in a decline in the quality of education
1 Государственная программа Российской Федерации «Развитие образования» на 20132020 годы (в новой редакции. httpV/минобрнауки.рф
2 Россия на пути к современной динамической и эффективной экономике / под ред. академиков А.Д. Некипелова, В.В. Ивантера, С.Ю. Глазьева. - М.: изд. РАН РФ, 2013 - С. 13.
3 Россия на пути к современной динамической и эффективной экономике / под ред. академиков А.Д. Некипелова, В.В. Ивантера, С.Ю. Глазьева. - М.: изд. РАН РФ, 2013 - С. 14, 15.
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and disproportions in the structure of staff training. This endangered the system of primary vocational education (hereinafter PVE), with the number of students more than halving over the period under consideration (from 1,867,000 people to 920,000 people from 1990 to 2011). In the structure of staff training of the IVE, SVE, HVE system there is a sharp drop in the number of graduates in specialties related to the production sphere, which ensures modernization. In IVE institutions, the volumes of worker training drop the fastest, including in industrial professions (from 230,900 people to 160,000 people from 2001 to 2011). SVE and HVE institutions have an unreasonably high share of those receiving diplomas in the field of economics, management, business, and law. International comparisons show that in the structure of the Russian HVE system, the share of graduates in these specialties was 51% in 2011, which is an unacceptable value for countries with an advanced economy (average 32%). In its turn, the share of graduates of HVE institutions in the specialties of “metallurgy, mechanical engineering and material processing” (1.8%), “instrument making and optical engineering” (0.6%), “computer science and computer facilities” (1.8%), “automation and management” (1.1%) is quite small and keeps declining.
All advanced states of the world are currently implementing programs of forming systems of continuous education (lifelong learning). The leading countries of the European Union have succeeded in providing large-scale involvement of the adult population in programs of learning and training, and have steady positive dynamics in this sphere. The share of the economically active population of advanced European countries involved in continuous education has reached 6070%. In the Russian Federation, the share of economically active people involved in continuous education does not exceed 22.4% now. In the recent decade, a number of steps have been taken for content-related modernization of vocational education, to improve its quality, to integrate Russian vocational education in the international educational space. First and foremost, this means Russia’ s joining the Bologna process, increasing the flexibility of educational programs, and overcoming the early narrow specialization, and introduction of federal state educational standards of vocational education.
Since January 1, 2013, the new law “On Education in the Russian Federation” has come into force and the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of May 15, 2013 (No. 792-р) has put the state program “Development of Education” for 2013-2020 (as amended) into force. Pursuant to the previously mentioned strategic documents, the Russian Federation is to provide higher affordability of quality education meeting the requirements of innovative development of the economy, the modern needs of the society, and every citizen and to create a system of education open to external requests and providing conditions for forming the competencies of “innovative man” in citizens by 2020. As a result of implementation of the relevant programs, the network of institutions and organizations of vocational education will acquire a structure meeting the requirements of the knowledge economy. This will include the leading research universities (40-60 higher educational institutions), being the engines of development of the innovative economy, base higher educational institutions of regional economic systems providing specialized vocational training, and higher educational institutions providing wide training for Bachelor’s degrees. Training of
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postgraduate students will be mostly concentrated in national research and federal universities. By 2020, all students will study based on individual curriculums including a considerable share of independent work using information technologies. Non-state education will develop in conditions of fair competition with the state sector through admission of accredited programs to budget funding. This will result in a higher quality of educational services in this sector and in education in general. It will provide at least 30% of the overall enrollment of vocational education.
In experts’ opinion, the present Russian system of vocational education disregards the needs of local employers. For example, in the regions of developed mechanical engineering and, accordingly, with a high demand for engineering professions, higher educational institutions graduate lawyers and economists; as a result enterprises are short of hands while graduates stay unemployed. It is the enterprises themselves that are most interested in correcting the imbalance between the educational system and the needs of their production. It is for this reason that the new system of vocational education presupposes their active involvement both in forming the request for specialist training, and their assistance in organization of the educational process itself. As stressed by the Ministry of Education and Science, this is the only format of private-public partnership that will effectively help solve the problem of staff deficit.
Among the models of integration of higher educational institutions and employers, the highest results have been attained by “basic chairs”. Their creation became possible due to the new federal law “On Education in the Russian Federation”. “While previously higher educational institutions were able to create basic chairs and other structural divisions only in scientific organizations, now educational institutions have the possibility of cooperating with any organizations involved in the activities corresponding to the relevant educational program”, noted Aleksandr Klimov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the RF1. As a result, some part of the educational process takes place on the site of the partner enterprise, thanks to which students acquire the skills of working at the production facilities while yet at the university. In the future, they will not have to go through the long period of adaptation to industrial realities that generally takes from one year to five years. Such measures help both to increase the level of qualification of future specialists, and to raise their labour efficiency.
Another format of interaction of a higher educational institution and an outside organization is the applied Bachelor’s program. This is an introduction of practice-oriented programs for higher education owing to which, as the Ministry of Education and Science hopes, industry will get specialists with skills for work on high-tech equipment. A total of 3,677 state-funded places in 44 higher educational institutions were allotted under this program in 2013 (2013/2014 academic year). Students will study a total of 60 majors; as for organization of the study process, its greater part takes place on the sites of enterprises. If desired, students have the possibility to get work qualification or secondary vocational education in 50 majors. One of the schools that are already implementing the applied Bachelor’s program is M.V. Lomonosov North Federal University. It trains staff under the auspices of
1 Мария Карнаух. Совместными усилиями. Коммерсантъ, 24 мая 2014 года. - С. 21,22.
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the Sevmashvtuz Institute of Shipbuilding and Marine Arctic Facilities. The Ural Federal University provides training together with the Ural Mining and Smelting Company.
Another innovation in the educational process is the network format. As explained at the Ministry of Education and Science of the RF, this means a network of educational programs jointly developed and approved by the partners. The participants of the process jointly provide the conditions for their implementation: this is material and technical resources, an educational and methodological base, and teachers - the staff. Owing to such “network interaction”, the educational process obtains flexibility: students immediately learn about the latest innovations and industrial developments, while the educational institution regulates the educational programs according to the demand of the “consumer” - future employers.
The fundamentally new instruments of specialist training include the system of dual education. “In the Address to the Federal Assembly, the President of the RF placed an emphasis on the need to introduce education models that are effective for training highly qualified production staff. We hope that the focus on practical education will become systemic. And this will no longer be a pilot project, but normal everyday practice”, stressed Dmitri Peskov, Director of the Agency of Strategic Initiatives1. In Russia, ten regions - winners of the competition of the Agency of Strategic Initiatives are the first to assimilate the experience of dual education. They include the Kaluga Region, Yaroslavl Region, Ulyanovsk Region, Sverdlovsk Region, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Volgograd Region and Moscow Region, the Perm Krai and Krasnoyarsk Krai, as well as the Republic of Tatarstan.
Integration with the real sector of economy is carried out not only in training of future specialists, but also in the educational programs for those who are already working in the specialty. The Ministry of Education and Science of the RF plans to organize retraining and advanced training of working Russian citizens at the age from 25 to 65. By 2018 the percentage of those who will have undergone professional trainings is to reach 37%. For example, at least 5 thousand specialists of engineering-technical enterprises and organizations of the real sector of economy will undergo training. The aggregate volume of spending on the sphere of education with regard to GDP (budget funds, funds of families and enterprises channeled into the system of education) will increase from 5.4% to 6.5%. This will ensure full satisfaction of the needs of the Russian economy for highly qualified staff in the priority areas of modernization and technological development. At least five Russian higher educational institutions will be in the first top hundred leading ratings of world universities.
These are the plans of the Russian state to develop the system of vocational education for the short-term; as practice shows, the first steps to implement these plans have already been made.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translastions Bureas
1 Там же.
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