Secondary special education in Russia

In Russia, due to changes in the economy, the emergence of new forms of ownership and structural changes in society, secondary specialized education is also undergoing fundamental changes. There are two mutually exclusive trends. The first is the elimination of the old system of vocational education, which includes: planned recruitment of students, centralized programming, mandatory distribution and mandatory testing. This is due, first of all, to the fact that federal funding has sharply decreased and was transferred to the subjects of the Federation.

The second trend is connected with the creation of a new system of secondary vocational education for the implementation of which new educational institutions, new curricula and so on will be required, but the most important thing is that the specialized secondary education will receive a new status and become a full part of the entire education of the country.

Now, secondary vocational education in Russia is going through difficult times, we can say that it simply survives. Therefore, within the secondary specialized institution, at the same time there is training of specialists of different levels, that is, colleges open general education departments and thus fulfill the role of the general education school, that is, in one educational institution one can obtain both primary education and secondary specialized education. Differentiated training periods are used to train specialists of different levels.

In many countries of the world higher education can be obtained in two ways: prestigious - at the university, and less prestigious - in college. Some Russian prestigious secondary professional institutions also went along this path, having obtained a license entitling them to implement bachelor-level programs, that is, universities and colleges are being integrated.

Thus, secondary specialized education loses its inferiority and gets a new status. It is assumed that in the future this will be the most massive and promising part of the education system in Russia. This direction is considered the most promising, since in the near future an increase in demand for higher education among young people is expected, with which state universities are unlikely to cope. But all these changes do not always contribute to the qualitative training of specialists. The pedagogy of secondary vocational education, which is not currently being given due attention, should help correct this situation.

In connection with the reduction of federal funding, educational institutions for the attraction of additional funds introduce paid services, without which the improvement of the quality of the specialists is impossible. The growing interest of young people and parents in both budgetary and paid forms of education suggests the growing popularity of higher education.

In Russia there are two levels of secondary vocational education - basic and advanced. Educational programs corresponding to the basic level are implemented in technical schools or colleges, and colleges carry out educational programs of both basic and advanced levels. Higher educational institutions can also implement educational programs of secondary vocational education.

Educational programs of secondary vocational education include both the federal component, which determines the state requirements to the minimum level of training graduates of an educational institution, and the national-regional component.

Applicants enter secondary special educational institutions on the basis of entrance tests and on their results.