EDUCATION IN RUSSIA

 Secondary education is mandatory in Russia. Children start school at the

age of 6 and finish at 17 . As a rule, a child attends the school located

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, and children

attending one of these may have to commute from home. There are no school

buses in Russia.

 The first stage of education is elementary school for grades 1 through 4.

The  second  is secondary school for grades 5 through 9 . Upon graduation

from secondary school ( which  is  not the equivalent of having completed

their  secondary  education ) , students  are  given the choice of either

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

secondary  education, with a number of useful skills ( e.g. , those of an

electrician, technical, or computer operator ).One attends the former for

two years, and the latter for three or four.

 Haveing completed one's secondary education, one can either become  part

of work force or go on to college ( " institution of higher learning " ).

There are universityes and so-called "institutes" in Russian . The former

stress  a more teoretical , fundamental approach to education , while the

latter are more practice oriented.

 There are no medical  schools  or  departments with in the  structure of

Russian universitys . Future doctors attend medical institutes. There are

no  degrees  in   Russian  equivalent to those of bachelor's or master's.

Students  spend  approximately  five years in college or six in a medical

institute.

 To be admited to an institution of higher learning , one has to  pass  a

series of oral and written tests. Grades in the certificate of  secondary

education are also taken account.

 Entry to higher education is quite competitive. Some college departments

( philologist,foreign languages-especially English,law, journalism ) have

dozens of applicants for one prospective student's position. The same  is

true of medical and theatre institutes.

 Up to the present, neither college students nor schoolchildren have  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  of  Higher  Education . Evidently , this situation is going to

change in the near future.

 Education in Russia has until recently been free on all levels. College

students  with  good  grades  were  rewarded  with a modest stipend . All

institutions  of  higher learning were subsidized by the government . Now

that  the  country  is  changing to a market-place economy, the system of

education  is  also bound to undergo profound changes . The first private

scholls , gymnasiums and lycees, have already been founded in  Moscow and

St. Petersburg , in  an  attempt  to  revive the pre-1917 traditionals of

Russian educational system with its high standards of excellence.