Portrait of the current secondary education system in Perm region, Russia

Education is one of the most important socio-cultural institutions, which relates to the functions of socialization of individuals. In the human development index level of education is seen as the main component of its value.

This article focuses on consequences of the secondary education system reform in Perm region in order to study the mechanism of realization of the planned changes, their consistency with each other and social impacts caused by the transformations.

Education is understood as the public and private good, purposeful process of upbringing and learning in the interests of human, society, state and as the sum of acquired knowledge, skills and competencies [5]. Between all levels of education existing in the modern Russian education system secondary education seems especially important to the state system – its mandatory status is declared by the Federal law.

The main problems of secondary education in the Perm region include:

1) The process of reducing the number of state and municipal schools, especially in the rural region. Since 1990, the number of rural schools has decreased in half, in cities 15% of schools were closed [2, p. 96];

2) The technical condition of schools. 40% of all schools in the region are in need of great repair, which is much higher than the average rate in Russia [2, p. 104];

3) Low wages in the industry. Despite the steady increase in wages in the industry, which is indicated in the records of the Ministry of Education, the salary is still quite low (lower than the average salary), what also results in personnel outflow from the industry [6];

4) A big number of students per one teacher. Despite a significant decrease of this indicator (in half) over the past years, in state and municipal schools students-teachers ratio is still 2,5 times greater than in non-state schools [2, p. 97].

To solve these and other issues of secondary education, there several projects of reforming the industry at various levels (national, regional and industrial) were created.

As part of a national project "Education", best teachers and schools were supported on a competitive basis. This teachers and schools implemented innovative programs, that enhance the openness of the educational system, its responsiveness to the needs of society.This project was conducted throughout the country and influenced the development of students and teachers human potential in the Perm region.

As part of a regional project of reforming the educational system Education Network "Education web-2.0" was created. It was designed to provide new forms of information services to the participants of the educational process: students, parents, teachers, and to automate control processes in education from Ministry of Education of Perm region [3]. Practice shows that the introduction of electronic diaries and electronic journals often leads to several problems. These diaries and journals appeared in schools with the lack of computers, where teachers are lining up to fill in an electronic document. Teachers also don`t like amounts of allowances for extra work.

Another project is the creation of New Educational Center. The purpose of this project was to create a model of high-school which is oriented to achieve a new quality of education available to all ninth-grade graduates. New Educational Center is a high school which implements programs of specialized education, and assumes the following features of the educational process: individual educational trajectories, individual-group classes, external and distance education [4]. With all the advantages of this project is necessary to admit the significant restrictions on the possibility of its realization: the high population density, high potential development area and others, which narrow the range of its availability.

Among the industrial projects we should highlight "The new wage system" project. According to the project, salary of the teacher consists of a base (always got) and stimulating (received for services) parts. The project brings counterproductive effect. "Money for stimulating payments is not enough – marks on the website of Human Rights Ombudsman in Perm region Tatyana Margolina. – Many wages in fact have decreased, many employees receive the minimum or slightly higher wages" [1]. As a result of this project, the average salary of teaching staff has gone down from 5 to 20% in the vast majority of teachers.

At this moment, due to the implementation of federal and regional events, there were some positive trends in solving some of the secondary education system problems in the Perm region (decrease in the number of emergency schools and schools that need major repairs, changing the students-teachers balance, computerization of schools). Nevertheless, these projects generate significant problems associated with both process of adaptation to the transforming conditions and the lack of reasonableness and financial preparedness of the reforms.

Bibliography: 1. Газета «Пермские новости» [Электронный ресурс]. – URL.: http:// permnews.ru/stat.asp?tr=83. 2. Пермский край. Статистический ежегодник: Статистический сборник/Территориальный орган Федеральной службы государственной статистики по Пермскому краю. - Пермь, 2009. – 372 p. 3. Региональные проекты //Министерство Образования Пермского края [Электронный ресурс]. – URL.: http://minobr.permkrai.ru/projects/region/ 4. Региональные проекты //Министерство Образования Пермского края [Электронный ресурс]. – URL.: http://minobr.permkrai.ru/projects/region/new_school/noc/ 5. Федеральный закон «Об образовании». 6. Экономика образования // Министерство образования Пермского края [Электронный ресурс]. – URL.: http://minobr.permkrai.ru/public/ (дата обращения 19.10.2010).

Авксентьев Антон

Харьковский национальный университет им. В.Н. Каразина

(Украина, г. Харьков)