Changes in educational policy in Russia will affect the proportion of young people who obtain their occupational qualifications in a university and in secondary-level professional training schools. There is currently a shortage of skilled blue-collar workers in Russia, and more needs to be done to ensure high-quality training for this sector of…

Data from a comparative study of the educational, career, and migration strategies of rural school students in Russia, China, and Kazakhstan show high levels of educational aspiration. This is likely to increase the flow of population to urban areas, to increase the rate of urbanization, and to have demographic and economic consequences that will…

Sociological surveys have shown that education in Russian society today still remains a valued priority to young people. It is in demand by a substantial portion of secondary school graduates who are hoping to continue their education in an institution of higher learning. The modernization of graduation and entrance tests, associated with the…

This article was prepared on the basis of materials from four regional survey projects conducted in Krasnodar krai in 2005 through 2009 at the behest and with the support of various municipal and regional bodies of authority: (1) "Problems of Today's Schools" (2005-6, a survey of students in the ninth through eleventh grades in twenty schools in…

The younger generation of Russians is entering adult life at a time in which the information society is being formed, where education, knowledge, and the possession of information are coming to be key resources to ensure success. As previous studies have shown, most young people place a high value on getting a good education. Young Russians also…

This article discusses why it has become considerably more difficult for the rising generations to enter the system of social and civic relations in today's Kazakh society. This situation is due to the transition from the Soviet model of socialization (which was unitary in terms of its normative character, with equal starting social opportunities…

Under the conditions of the sociocultural situation in Russia today, the teaching of literature is going through a crisis. The students are no longer reading as much and are no longer motivated to acquaint themselves with literature of high artistic quality. To address this crisis, the author says that what is needed is a search for effective ways…

The abbreviation USE, which stands for the unified state examination, is known to most Russians these days. Many people think that it is something new, but it has a certain amount of history. The first attempts to adopt the American system of education in Russia were made by A. Lunacharskii as far back as the 1920s and 1930s. One of the main…

Recognizing that education is an important condition necessary for the development of public life and the economy, the author examines elite education in the natural sciences, its criterion represented by ability and talent rather than social origin or economic status. Education of such students, advocates the author, can ensure the training of a…

This article discusses the findings of a sociological survey carried out by the Institute for Comprehensive Social Research and the Academy of Modern Humanities in November and December 2004. The survey was designed to determine people's goals on enrolling in an institution of higher learning, to discern the basic motives that guide a secondary…

This article presents a survey that was carried out in 2004 to assess the level of migration mobility on the part of young inhabitants in the small cities of Russia. The survey was participated in by eleventh-grade (senior) students. The total number of respondents was 500 (100 in each community); 61% were girls and 39% were boys. The statistical…

This article discusses the personal plans of secondary school seniors. The author discusses the research projects concerning problems of young people's orientation and choice of profession. Furthermore, the author examines the role played by objective and subjective factors in the shaping of the personal plans of senior students in secondary…

In debates about the adoption of the unified state examination, evaluations have ranged all the way from "a key direction in the modernization of education" to "a three-letter outrage," while those who are support it and those who oppose it have probably done more to accuse their opponents of all the deadly sins than to persuade them that they are…

In this chapter, the authors attempt not only to discern aspects that relate to age, place, and the amount of time devoted to playing computer games in adolescence, but also to study content characteristics of their attitudes such as: the developmental dynamic in the change of their genre preferences in computer games, changes in factors that…

In this article, the authors attempt to discern the characteristic features of social inequality that are manifested with respect to the access that students from the different social strata have to the new information technologies. They analyze the characteristics of the use of the new information technologies by eleventh-grade students and…