An Inter Press Service Feature
MOSCOW, Dic 08 (IPS) - Russian free market reforms have had a severe impact on the public education system which is starved for funds, beset by falling standards, and unable to cater to the country's new commercial needs.
Government budgetary support for education has been dwindling since the late-1980s and there is a provision for only 3.6 percent of the draft 1995 budget which envisages a total expenditure of more than 70 billion dollars.
Experts say this outlay of roughly 275 million dollars runs contrary to a 1992 law issued by President Boris Yeltsin which stipulated that at least ten percent of the budget would be devoted to the education sector.
Russian basic education and higher schooling is desperately in need of government relief and legislative support, says Vladimir Terekhov, a specialist in the Russian parliament's think-tank.
He says: "The situation is critical. Russia's intellectual potential, its moral foundation and culture is under threat. The result of educational degradation could be worse than that of the ill-considered economic reforms."
Terekhov adds: "After embarking on socio-economic reforms, the government has forgotten the priority role that education has to play in this process."
Thousands of Russia's best teachers and professors have taken side jobs in trading houses to supplement paltry salaries and fallen prestige while university students too must earn to augment the meagre stipends given to them by the government.
Teachers' monthly salaries average an estimated 125,000 roubles (roughly 80 dollars) while students are paid 25,000 roubles (eight dollars) with which those living in hostel are expected to buy food and look after other necessary expenses.
The number of pupils in intermediate diploma institutions -- between school and college -- has fallen by 340,000 and today stands at 3.8 million. Enrollment in higher education -- universities and special institutes -- has decreased by 57,000 and is currently estimated at 5.2 million.
Almost 700,000 teachers presently work in higher education institutions. But it has been found that nearly 40 percent of the youngest and most talented teachers are leaving their jobs.
© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service