Publications

This study provides the assessments of the changes in the motivations, economic behavior and strategies of parents whose children attend preschool education institutions, their participation in providing quality preschool education in the context of the introduction of the Federal State Educational Standard of Preschool Education. The positive effect of using the electronic queue when enrolling in a kindergarten is noted; recommendations on resolving issues in terms of eliminating the low awareness of the procedure of the groups recruitment and rules of movement in the queue  are made. The influence of pedestrian and transport accessibility on the choice of a kindergarten is assessed. The information on the main achievements and problems in the process of education, upbringing, and child care is analyzed. The consequences of increasing the occupancy of groups (overcrowding of groups) on the educational processes, the activity of children, the lowering of the indicator of children’s health are examined. Parents’ strategies in their efforts to influence the creation of conditions for ensuring a safe environment for the child’s health, medical care, preparation of high-quality food, observation of sanitary standards in terms of the premises’ size and maintenance are explored. Differences in the cost of the child care (parents’ fee) and in the opportunities of leveling the conditions for children that are aimed at promoting the competition as one of the important mechanisms of regulating the quality of preschool education are assessed. The potential of development of the paid segment of children’s supplementary education at kindergartens within the acceptable range of expenditures is explored.

The source of data for the analysis were the results of the survey of parents whose children were attending education institutions implementing preschool education programmes that was conducted in 2017 as part of the monitoring of education markets and organizations by the National Research University Higher School of Economics jointly with the Yuri Levada Analytical Center ‘Levada-Center’ with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

The survey is focused on the possibilities of using the effective contract as a tool of the internal personnel policy and as a way of implementing the objectives of development of a preschool education institution. For decades, kindergarten staffs and their characteristics have not undergone significant changes. The first changes in the motivation of educators were recorded by the sociological surveys after large-scale measures of raising the salaries in the education sector had been implemented. The obtained results make it reasonable to further support the ongoing wage reform, to alter the character of professional activity in preschool education as a strategic direction.

Based on the analysis of the progress in the reform of salaries for teachers of preschool education and identifying the main trends in changing the institutions that ensured the introduction of the effective contract in 2012-2017, the authors come to the conclusion that further successful use of the principles of payment against the result is possible, provided the criteria of the performance recommended “from above” are specified more clearly at the level of individual education institutions and used to implement individual strategies of kindergartens’ development. The personnel policy becomes a resource for altering the content of preschool education, its focus on forming the skills of the 21^st century.

The source of data for the analysis were the results of the survey of educators at education institutions implementing preschool education programmes that was conducted in 2017 as part of the monitoring of education markets and organizations by the National Research University Higher School of Economics jointly with the Yuri Levada Analytical Center ‘Levada-Center’ with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

The information bulletin is devoted to the analysis of the results of the survey of parents whose children attend supplementary education institutions regarding their strategies in relation with the current situation in the field of supplementary educational and provided services, as well as their attitudes to ongoing or planned changes. The bulletin contains data on parents’ motivation (expectations from supplementary education and summer holidays, parents’ demand for organization of supplementary education of children, aspiration of families to increase the involvement of children into  supplementary education), their economic behavior (expenses on  supplementary education services (current and potential) and summer holiday) and strategies (factors of choice of supplementary education institution and hobby groups, use of different sources of information about educational organizations, parents’ strategies of organization of summer vacationtime of children, etc.).

The source of information was the results of the sociological survey based on the data of the Monitoring of Educational Markets and organizations conducted in 2013, 2016 and 2017 by the National Research University “Higher School of Economics” jointly with the Yuri Levada Analytical Center ‘Levada-Center’ with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

At the present time expectations for creation of opportunities for the creative versatile development of children, formation of the competences that would be important for future professions are linked with the system of supplementary education. Starting from 2012 the system of supplementary education has been involved in the process of modernization of organizational and economic mechanisms, content and technologies. Since 2017 the Priority project “Accessible supplementary education” which main objective is to increase the coverage of children with modern and qualitative programs of supplementary education has been implemented. It is recognized in all discussions that the central figure of the transformations in the supplementary education is the teacher. Growth of quality of the services provided in the market and increase in number of the children involved in the system of supplementary education substantially depends on the level of teacher’s qualification and efficiency of his or her work The updating of the content and technologies in the system of supplementary education is linked with the development of the personnel potential in many respects. The information bulletin presents the results of the survey of the pedagogical personnel at the institutions of supplementary education of children in which over a thousand of teachers implementing the relevant programs have participated since 2017.

The following aspects are considered: social position and work occupations of the pedagogical personnel at institutions of supplementary education of children; qualification and motivations for professional development of pedagogical personnel at institutions of supplementary education of children; labor motivation of the pedagogical personnel at institutions of supplementary education of children; remuneration and income of the pedagogical personnel at institutions of supplementary education of children; working conditions and professional strategies of the pedagogical personnel at institutions of supplementary education of children.

According to outcomes of the survey, in recent years the secondary employment of the faculty has significantly decreased, the proportion of faculty who are going to leave the academic profession has decreased significantly, the degree of teachers’ involvement in research activities and their publication activity has increased. Nevertheless, significantly higher corresponding indicators are noted among faculty of research universities. If the funding of programmes aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Russian research universities and supporting research universities is continued, their further growth may be predicted. However, in 2014-2016 the real income of faculty decreased. Because of ongoing economic crisis, this trend may persist, which may lead to an increase in additional employment. This situation creates risks for the preservation and multiplication of the achieved results. It was also revealed that the scales of the implementation and use of massive open online courses in the educational process is moderate, although they differ depending on the quality of higher education institutions. Teachers are involved in training at massive open online courses to a significantly greater extent than students. Teachers and students on the whole neutrally react to the replacement of general disciplines with massive open online courses, but they are negative about the replacement of special professional disciplines with them. For the period of 2006-2015 the educational mobility of students has increased considerably, and there has also been a significant increase in the demand for master's programs.  The motivation of the students’ labour supply shifted to the financial motives, their salary expectations and earnings at work which they combine with studies decreased. One can expect the continuation of this trend with further deterioration of the social and economic situation in Russia, as well as an increase in the proportion of students combining study and work.