Education in Russia

Education in Russia
Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science and Higher Education
Minister for Education and Minister for Science and Higher EducationSergey Kravtsov[1] and Valery Falkov
National education budget (2014[3])
Budget499.5 billion rouble[2]
General details
Primary languagesRussian
System typeNational
Literacy
Male99.7%[4]
Female99.6%[4]

In Russia, the state provides most education services regulating education through the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Regional authorities regulate education within their jurisdictions within the prevailing framework of federal laws. Russia's expenditure on education has grown from 2.7% of the GDP in 2005 to 4.7% in 2018 but remains below the OECD average of 4.9%.[5][6]

Before 1990 the course of school training in the Soviet Union lasted 10 years (11 for non-Russian language schools in the occupied Baltic states), but at the end of 1990, an 11-year course officially came into operation. Education in state-owned secondary schools is free; first tertiary (university level) education is free with reservations: a substantial number of students enroll on full pay. Male and female students have equal shares in all stages of education,[7] except in tertiary education where women lead with 57%.[8]

A 2015 estimate by the United States Central Intelligence Agency puts the literacy rate in Russia at 99.7% (99.7% for men, 99.6% for women).[9] According to a 2016 OECD estimate, 54% of Russia's adults (25- to 64-year-olds) have attained tertiary education, giving Russia the second-highest attainment of tertiary education among 35 OECD member countries.[10] 47.7% have completed secondary education (the full 11-year course); 26.5% have completed middle school (9 years) and 8.1% have elementary education (at least 4 years). The highest rates of tertiary education (24.7%) are recorded among women aged 35 to 39 years (compared to 19.5% for men of the same age bracket).[11]

Compared with other OECD countries, Russia has close to average class sizes[12] and some of the shortest instruction hours per year.[13]

In 2014 the Pearson/Economist Intelligence Unit rated Russia's education as the 8th-best in Europe and the 13th-best in the world;[14] Russia's educational attainment was rated as the 21st-highest in the world, and the students' cognitive skills as the 9th-highest.[15]

In 2015 the OECD ranked Russian students' mathematics and science skills as the 34th-best in the world, between Sweden and Iceland.[16]

In 2016 the US company Bloomberg rated Russia's higher education as the third-best in the world, measuring the percentage of high-school graduates who go on to attend college, the annual science and engineering graduates as a percentage of all college graduates, and science and engineering graduates as a percentage of the labor force.[17]

In 2014 Russia ranked as the 6th most popular destination for international students.[18]

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative[19] finds that Russia is fulfilling 86.8% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to education, based on its level of income.[20]

  1. ^ "Utbildningsdepartementet" (in Swedish). Government of Sweden. 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  2. ^ "Statens budget i siffror" (in Swedish). Government of Sweden. 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  3. ^ "Счетная палата Российской Федерации".
  4. ^ a b "CIA - the World Factbook -- Field Listing - Literacy". www.cia.gov. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  5. ^ "Education at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators". OECD Library. 17 June 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
  6. ^ "Government expenditure on education, total (% of GDP) - Russian Federation". World Bank Open Data. 24 October 2022. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
  7. ^ Education for all by 2015, p. 82 and underlying data tables
  8. ^ Education for all by 2015, p. 316
  9. ^ "Country Comparison to the World of Literacy Rate"
  10. ^ "Education at a glance in 2016: Russian Federation"
  11. ^ "Data tables of 2002 census: Breakdown by level of education" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 18 December 2007. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
  12. ^ Indicator D2. What is the student-teacher ratio and how big are classes?
  13. ^ Education at a Glance 2013
  14. ^ Top 20 Education Systems BBC. Source: Pearson/Economist Intelligence Unit.
  15. ^ Index - Which countries have the best schools? Source: Pearson
  16. ^ Asia tops biggest global school rankings BBC. Source: OECD.
  17. ^ These Are the World's Most Innovative Economies Source: Bloomberg Business.
  18. ^ "Top 20 countries for international students". The Guardian. 17 July 2014. Archived from the original on 8 May 2022.
  19. ^ "Human Rights Measurement Initiative – The first global initiative to track the human rights performance of countries". humanrightsmeasurement.org. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  20. ^ "Russian Federation - HRMI Rights Tracker". rightstracker.org. Retrieved 4 March 2022.