Reform of Vocational Education in the Russian Federation

Abstract

The reform processes for Russian vocational education and training (VET) started in the early 1990s when the former USSR split into independent states, and the Russian Federation became a nation consisting of eighty-nine regions, each with a considerable degree of autonomy. In the field of education this autonomy was reflected by the rapid adoption of regional legislation on education, even if based on the Federal Law on Education. The Federal Law on Education reflects the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, laying down in Article 42 universal access to free-of-charge pre-school, general and vocational education. The same Article (paragraph 5) also stipulates that national education standards are set by the Federal State. In Section II, Article 9, vocational education and training is subdivided into two levels—initial and secondary VET.1 Access to both levels of VET is open for general secondary (nine-year compulsory education) and complete or full secondary school-leavers (eleven years). For school-leavers who do not possess a full general secondary education certificate, vocational curricula at both levels are supplemented by a curriculum of complete general secondary education. Thus, in principle both levels of VET provide open access to higher education (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 1996) VET, and especially initial VET, has always played a two-fold role, namely that of preparation for work and of providing some kind of a social security net for children from disadvantaged families (as of now, about 70% of initial VET students come from low-income and single-parent families) (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education and Science, 2005). The social support role of VET that goes back to the Soviet days has, obviously, been transformed by the new market economy conditions, although VET has tended to retain this important social function. However, it has clearly been weakened by insufficient financial support for education from the State. In Russia the share of GDP spent on education amounts to only 3.6% (as against France 5.8% and Germany 4.5%) (National Observatory for VET, 2003). Tensions between the qualifying role and the social protection role of vocational education and training institutions remain one of the big challenges yet to be overcome.