The law on the two-level system of higher education has now gone into effect in Russia: the bachelor's degree will correspond to the first level of higher education, while the master's degree will correspond to the second level. These levels entail separate state educational standards and separate final certification. In the process of adopting…

The question of the philosophy of education remains an important topic of active discussion in science, education, and government. There are well-argued demands that the purposes of education be rethought, and recognition of the humanistic essence of education and its huge role in the revitalization of life and in the search for solutions to…

This critique of the interpretation of education exclusively in terms of the system of commodity relations explores the general cultural role of education and its "producing" function from the standpoint of the growth of the culture of knowledge. It looks at the position taken by foreign specialists that sheds light on the negative…

The latest scheduled Sorokin Readings on "Global Social Turbulence and Russia," a topic whose relevance has been confirmed by events of the past 10 years, were held on 6-7 December at Moscow State University. One key factor that keeps such turbulence in check is the education level as a factor of a high standard of living. The array of…

The need to reform education in Russia began to be discussed vigorously in the mid-1980s with the start of perestroika. The proposed aim of the reform, making the system of education more similar to Western standards, was soon made clear. In this article, the author takes a look at the two chief arguments offered by those who defend the reforms:…

Russian society is up in arms over innovations in the sphere of education. It looks as if, for example, Russians reacted to the universal adoption of the Unified State Examination more emotionally than they did to the devaluation of savings, the precipitous division into the poor and the wealthy, and the destruction of the country's industrial…

The crisis of rural life in Russia involves a declining and aging population, emigration of rural young people to urban areas, lack of employment, and farms in urgent need of modernization. Programs in rural schools can be used more deliberately to encourage young people to remain in the village and to equip them to be agents of rural…

Research on profile education in general shows that currently there is no system in place that can deal adequately with the needs of students or of the economy. (Contains 1 note.)

Under the conditions of the market, the development of the economy must be of priority to the state, for the state cannot exist and be dynamic without such an economy and, consequently, there can be no question of any transformation of marriage, family relations, and the birthrate. A vital task in the development of the state has to do with…

This article presents statements by President Dmitry A. Medvedev at the meeting of the Council on the Implementation of Priority National Projects and Demographic Policy on the development of education, health care, and demography, and at the ceremony on the occasion of the launching of the Year of the Schoolteacher in Russia, held at the Russian…

In Russia, people are once more coming to realize that it is fundamentally impossible to develop a genuinely civilized society unless people are taught national, patriotic, civic, legal, moral, cultural, ethical, and universal human values. Once again, leaders on different levels have begun to talk about the necessity of going back to the…

The possibilities of the school are not unlimited. For this reason, in order to answer the question of what the existing resources ought to be used for there is always the problem of the choice of goals of the school's educational activity. Different schools have different possibilities when it comes to achieving the desired results of educational…

The article examines changes in the sphere of Russian education as a result of the reform of education and the consequences of the use of audiovisual means of mass communication (especially television and the Internet) that foster the formation of consumerist media thinking in school and college students. That kind of thinking carries the threat…

The purpose of the present study is to monitor the opinions of the education community in regard to the felt need for humanities competencies and the possibilities of acquiring them in an institution of higher learning: How does the community perceive the real demand for humanities knowledge and skills? How does it rate the degree to which these…

Changes in the kinds of technology used in modern society are changing the ways in which people think. Russian students, like those elsewhere, are increasingly thinking in terms of short, unconnected forms of knowledge and are losing the ability to see connections, to think holistically. This presents a special challenge to education in Russia.