Overview of Education System

Under the current Law on Education in the Russian Federation passed in 2012, the Russian education system has become more decentralized in its decision making and funding practices. Education policy is developed at the national level and implemented at regional and local levels under the oversight of national authorities.2

The public system of education in the Russian Federation consists of general education, vocational education, further education, and vocational training, providing the right to education throughout life (lifelong learning).

As a specialized authority of the capital city, the Moscow Department of Education carries out state administration and educational policy suitable for the regional socioeconomic characteristics of Moscow, ensuring that the education system functions for the benefit of its residents, the constitutional right to education is realized, and public services are organized and provided at all levels of education: preschool, primary, basic, secondary, additional, secondary vocational, and higher education.

On January 1, 2016, the Moscow educational system included 632 multiprofile schools, which implement programs of general and additional education of children and adults, including 566 schools with preschool groups; 57 colleges; two institutions of higher education; and 30 institutions of additional education. The number of students in the Moscow educational system exceeds 1.3 million.3

In Moscow, general education is provided by major multiprofile educational complexes, which include preschool, primary, basic, and secondary educational institutions as well as additional education institutions and special corrective institutions.

For 2012–2018, one of the tasks of the Moscow state program Development of Education of Moscow (“Metropolitan Education”) is “the complex development of the network of educational institutions to ensure the availability of preschool, general and additional education, regardless of the residence area or the state of health.” Large educational systems are able to provide neighborhood residents with a full range of services the consumers want.

During the implementation of Metropolitan Education, the distribution of administrative responsibilities between the Moscow Department of Education and educational institutions changed. The Department of Education provides conditions, including rules, monitoring systems, and incentives for development and determines the general policy in the education system; the educational institution has become a key element of the system with real rights and power for its development on behalf of Moscow households. Following this logic, a teacher has become a key worker who is directly involved in the educational process; the school staff has become a key structure, designed to work as a coherent mechanism whose quality ensures the growth of the budget and extra-budgetary funding; and the head of an educational institution has become a key manager who is required to build an effective team of teachers and administrators.

A new system of financial support of educational institutions has been implemented; a child has become a project to be financed at all levels of education (not the status of an educational institution).

The priority of the Moscow educational system is the development of prevocational education. Prevocational education programs are implemented in military schools, medical and engineering classes, and others.

Since September 1, 2013, the Moscow Department of Education, jointly with the federal state institutions of higher education located in Moscow, has been realizing a pilot project on school vocational education (called preduniversarii). The number of high school students who receive general education in the structure of universities within the pilot project is 2,794 people, including 19 disabled children and 502 children from large and disadvantaged families.