The Ministry of Science and Higher Education cheerfully reports that 627,000 state-funded places have been allocated at universities this year. They emphasized that there will be enough places for most of the 11th grade graduates, because there are even fewer graduates – only 620 thousand. Have we entered the era of free universal higher education? Has communism arrived? What about all those survival races where even the old auto mechanic vocational high school wouldn’t be eligible for the budget if the average score was below 4.5? How about the moans that there is no place now without money, without teachers, without courses?
In fact, an incredibly paradoxical picture has developed in our education. Education is becoming more and more expensive with the official declaration of increasing accessibility and avoidance of commercialization of education. They are indirectly paying more and more. Instructors for online courses, intensive courses, shifts in language camps, creative workshops and other general development. Pay in money or time. And even those who do their best to avoid spending due to the lack of any resources, one way or another, are still faced with the need to pay – they suddenly find themselves in a reality where they are not committed to teaching a third-round student to a third-round student. Even free as a cook or hairdresser. And this cannot be changed by a simple increase in state places at universities. Even if they allocate one and a half million, it will not benefit. Well, they will shout about the deficit in technical universities and calm down.
What’s happening? The government has a shortage of experts. Especially engineers. And also doctors. However, it was realized too late. Of course, you can open the doors of universities as wide as possible, but what’s the point if the majority of the youth in the country can’t master mathematics, physics and chemistry at the level to go to university? Thresholds for admission to universities have also been lowered. But where to download them further? Last year, the threshold in some universities was 120-150 points in the sum of the three exams. And there are suspicions that half of these weak C students are already successfully expelled from school, because learning complex sciences with such knowledge is torture. It’s like teaching string theory to a fifth grader.
But even 40-50 points for an exam is an achievement for many. This does not appear from the official USE statistics, but this is clearly evidenced by the fact that more than half of schoolchildren in Russia prefer not to take exams in the 11th grade at all – they leave after the ninth grade. Today, the share of such young people is about 60%. Less in the capitals, more in the regions. In many state schools, tenth grade sometimes goes one-third of the original enrollment at best. And in that sense, the news that the majority of these 627,000 state-funded places at universities, and more specifically 73%, are distributed across regions seems to be a particularly sophisticated mockery. These places will remain empty. Even 50-point articles will not be written that much. And few graduates with real knowledge and ambitions will not apply to them, if their parents have money, then Moscow State University, Higher School of Economics, St. They will prefer the paid programs of St. Petersburg State University, ITMO.
But the fate of 60% of school leavers after nine years of education is particularly interesting today. It seems that those who refuse to enter university seem to save on education. But no.
Just like in universities, the old technical schools, which were entered according to the exam results, turned into colleges and the old vocational school system, where everyone was taken without discrimination, today the competition is perhaps even tougher. higher than the higher education segment. Free here only more or less talented are ready to teach – at least savvy solid C students. Dvoechnikov and loafers are also ready to take, but as if for overexposure and a fee. Losers and idlers are troubled companions, and engaging with them requires compensation.
What type of C students is the author talking about if guys with an average score of 4.2-4.5 often move on to colleges for certifications and budget? And sometimes 4-7-4.9 is not enough. And if officially nobody leaves school in pairs, what kind of losers are we talking about? my dears! Let’s talk frankly. Some Petya, who did not learn the multiplication table in the ninth grade and passed the OGE on the third attempt, if he draws three times on the certificate, then in fact he did not cease to be a loser. And if some Masha’s parents, who are the school administrators, were promised a beautiful certificate for an agrotechnical college in exchange for a promise not to go to the 10th grade (and even a new projector in the classroom), then she actually did not become an excellent student. Everyone seems to understand everything. And Mash and Sing a lot. Dark, dark and dark. And everyone is advancing.
At the same time, Masha is still helped, provided that she at least passes the mandatory OGE for satisfactory grades. Masha’s family seems to be okay, worried about her daughter, going to the school administration, not making a fuss, which means they will find money for teachers for two lessons. And Petya will not exactly meet him, but his eyes will no longer see him. Upon the principal’s request to replace the glass that Petya had broken, he and his family went to the prosecutor’s office, testifying that there was corruption in education. God, yes for them it is also corruption to buy atlas for geography. God, yes, Petya does not even have notebooks, but he always writes pencils to his classmates. Happiness is being able to write OGE in math at least on the third try, letting it go all four ways. If for this purpose it is necessary to substitute a triple for a double, so be it.
And so it turned out that both Mashin’s and Petya’s parents had to pay for their education after school. Only the first ones “buy” the budget for their daughters, spending money on teachers. And the latter finally comes face to face with the sad truth of life that no one needs their dumbbell for free.
This year colleges are ready to admit about 812,000 students, but the budget is only 452,000. 360 thousand young people will study for a fee. On average, 8-15 thousand rubles per month. This may be a small sum of money for families in the capital where only teachers’ expenses are 20-40k during a student’s preparation for university. But this is an important investment for those living in the province with a salary of 25-30 thousand. For families where even the purchase of an atlas for 300 rubles is delicate. Practically a third of the income. Can you imagine an alternative past where parents pay a third of their salary to have their daughter or son attend vocational school?
The paradox is that even the poor today have to pay for education. Even the poor can be said. And the poor without ambition. And pay for such training. Or even for overexposure and crusting. And all this against the backdrop of slogans about how everything in our education is getting better and cheaper. It’s not like in some abstract West, where parents start saving for a college even before a child is born, or where former students pay off education loans for up to 40 years. Yes, we chose our own very original way, as always. Where it will take us remains to be seen.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.