Inequality of children’s opportunities in extracurricular education in post-Soviet countries

Abstract

The article considers the problem of inequality of opportunities for children’s participation in extracurricular education in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The differences in the general coverage of extracurricular education and the peculiarities of participation due to the territory of children’s residence (urban and rural) are presented and analysed. There is also a discussion of the trends and causes of changes in extracurricular education’s availability in the post-Soviet period. The article analyses the legislative regulation of the issues of extracurricular education’s accessibility and the content of national policies to ensure the fair and inclusive nature of extracurricular education. An attempt is made to correlate the level of institutionalisation of national regulation of extracurricular education with the participation rate. The article is based on quantitative and qualitative data collected during a two-year study of the institutional transformation of the extracurricular education sector in the countries of the former Soviet Union.