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Volume 11, Issue 6 
REGIONAL NEWS
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REGIONAL NEWS
The emergence of private schools in Russia is a phenomenon concentrated in the urban and financial centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
It coincides with the general deterioration of the public educational system, which has been hit by budgetary cuts and is adapting poorly to the social transformations that have taken place since the dissolution of the USSR.
With the Yeltsin reforms, the privatizations, the emergence of financial markets and the development of large exporting firms, the major route to good paying employment for a young Russian is through finance, business and foreign languages.
In the fields, private institutions — expensive as they may be — have the reputation of providing a better education, and Russians who have the money prefer private sector education.
Questioned about the future prospects of her adolescent son, the director of a publishing house in St. Petersburg notes that, “There is hardly a choice. Look in the newspapers. The only valid job offers are in accounting and management. [The liberal arts] and sciences do not lead to work.”
According to the weekly financial magazine Diengui, there are about 500 private schools in Russia today.
The first appeared at the end of the 1980s, during Perestroika.
The majority (256) are in Moscow, and 80 of them offer an education that goes to the end of high school.
In addition to the regular curriculum, private schools offer “supplementary courses” intended to increase student chances of admission to higher education.
The schools often recruit university professors to teach these courses, attracting them with more enticing salaries than can be found in the public sector.
According to the weekly newspaper Profil, “One finds a considerable number of children of businessmen and high-ranking politicians” enrolled at the private Institute of International Business and Law in Moscow.
“Here [students] are prepared to become future specialists in the areas of international business: managers, lawyers and economists,” says the newspaper.
The idea of such a lycee arose when teachers of the institute expressed their “desperation” at the lack of knowledge among students leaving the public education system.
The newspaper asks: “What good is an economist who doesn’t know about geography?”
The school teaches typewriting in English, computer skills, business writing and etiquette.
On campus, discipline is normally imposed through fines.
“The rules are strict,” states Profil. “For tardiness to class, or an unexcused absence, or if the student is caught smoking a cigarette, the fine is $5. And if it happens again, it’s two or three times more expensive.”
- Le Monde de l’Education
Training local governmental officials may not seem like mold-breaking, revolutionary activity, but the Ukrainian Academy of Public Administration is leading the way in changing Ukraine education.
The academy, established by presidential decree in 1995, symbolizes the break with Moscow and the current government’s belief that a decentralized system of local planning responds better to local needs.
Under the 1996 Education Reform Act, some responsibilities for education were devolved to local authorities. And it will be local government officers who administer the reform.
The Dnipropetrovsk branch of the academy has struck a cooperative deal with the University of North London (UNL), one of the few universities in Britain with a Ukrainian center.
A master’s degree program in public administration is being set up with financial assistance from the United Kingdom’s Know-How Fund.
Yuri Sharov, deputy director of the Dnipropetrovsk branch, said, “Local government officers who have worked a minimum of one year for state structures and local government organizations are referred to us from their place of work. They must have degrees.”
The program aims to train public servants who will be able to develop and implement policies in different spheres of public activity.
It is designed to help them analyze and solve problems in their own particular area.
“Our course is very intensive, according to Western standards,” said Sharov. “They include about six hours of contact teaching a day. In addition to the MA course work, students also follow an intensive foreign-language course, which they do in the evening.”
UNL also helps Ukrainian officials with materials and visiting lecturers. The program combines theory with practice.
There are lectures on economics, law and management strategy, and courses in public speaking and information technology.
Teaching methods are more student-centered and communicative than is traditional in Eastern Europe, with lots of role playing, business games and student participation in the lectures.
“We know this course is successful,” said Sharov. “We keep track of students when they leave us, and most are promoted within a year. It is a fast-track to success.”
Sergey Seriogin, program director, added: “We dream that one day one of our graduates will become the president of the Ukraine. Maybe it’s our only chance of getting a decent pension.”
- Times Higher Education Supplement
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