Реферат: Education in Russia

Secondary education is mandatory in Russia. Children start schoolat the age of 6 and finish at 17. As a rule, a child attends the schoollocated in the neighborhood,the one which is the closes to home. However,there in big cities there are also so-called «special» schools,offering more in-depth studies of the major European languages ( English,French, or  German), or the advanced courses in physics and mathematics, andchildren attending one of these may have to commute from home. There are noschool buses in Russia.

The first stage of education is elementary school for grades 1through 4. The second is secondary school for grades 5 through 9. Upongraduation from secondary school ( which is not the equivalent of havingcompleted their secondary education ), students are given the choice ofeither  continuing to attend the same school (high school; grades 10 and 11 ),or entering a vocational school or trade school. Both vocational school and trade schools are meant to provide one, long with the certificate of secondaryeducation, with a number of useful skills ( e.g., those of an  electrician,technical, or computer operator ).One attends the former for two years, and thelatter for three or four.

Haveing completed one's secondary education, one can either becomepart of work force or go on to college ( " institution of higher learning" ). There are universityes and so-called «institutes» inRussian. The former stress a more teoretical, fundamental approach toeducation, while the  latter are more practice oriented.

There are no medical schools or departments with in the structureof Russian universitys. Future doctors attend medical institutes. There are nodegrees in Russian equivalent to those of bachelor's or master's.Students spendapproximately five years in college or six in a medical institute.

To be admited to an institution of higher learning, one has topass a series of oral and written tests. Grades in the certificate of secondaryeducation are also taken account.

Entry to higher education is quite competitive. Some collegedepartments ( philologist,foreign languages-especially English,law, journalism) have dozens of applicants for one prospective student's position. The same istrue of medical and theatre institutes.

Up to the present, neither college students nor schoolchildrenhave had any say in the selection of courses they had to take. Everyone has studied according to uniform series of guide lines approved by the Ministery ofHigher Education. Evidently, this situation is going to  change in the nearfuture.

Education in Russian has until recently been free on all levels.College students with good grades were rewarded with a modest stipend. Allinstitutions of higher learning were subsidized by the government. Now thatthe country is changing to a market-place economy, the system of education isalso bound to undergo profound changes. The first private scholls, gymnasiumsand lycees, have already been founded in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in anattempt to revive the pre-1917 traditionals of  Russian educational system withits high standards of excellence.

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