EDUCATION IChildren start school at theage of6 and finish at 17 . As a rule, a child attends the school locatedin theneighborhood,the one which is the closes to home . However , therein big cities there are also so-called special schools , offering morein-depth studies of the major European languages English , French, or German ,or the advanced courses in physics and mathematics, and childrenattendingone of these may have to commute from home. There are no schoolbusesin Russia.The first stage of education is elementaryschool for grades 1 through 4.The second is secondary school for grades 5 through 9 . Upon graduationfromsecondary school which is not the equivalent of having completedtheir secondary education , students are given the choice of either continuingto attend the same school high school grades 10 and 11 , orenteringa vocational school or trade school.
Both vocational school and tradeschools are meant to provide one , long with the certificate ofsecondary education, with a number of useful skills e.g those of an electrician,technical, or computer operator .One attends the former fortwoyears, and the latter for three or four. Haveing completed one s secondary education,one can either become partof workforce or go on to college institution of higher learning .Thereare universityes and so-called institutes in Russian . The formerstress a more teoretical , fundamental approach toeducation , while the latterare more practice oriented.
There are no medical schools or departments with in the structure ofRussianuniversitys . Future doctors attend medical institutes.
There are no degrees in Russian equivalent to those of bachelor s ormaster s. Students spend approximately five years incollege or six in a medicalinstitute. To be admited to an institution of higherlearning , one has to pass a seriesof oral and written tests. Grades in the certificate of secondaryeducationare also taken account.Entry to higher education is quitecompetitive.
Some college departments philologist,foreign languages-especially English,law, journalism havedozensof applicants for one prospective student s position. The same istrue ofmedical and theatre institutes.Up to the present, neither college studentsnor schoolchildren have hadany say in the selection of courses they had to take.Everyone has studied according to uniform series of guide lines approved by theMinistery of Higher Education . Evidently ,this situation is going to changein the near future.
Education in Russian has until recently beenfree on all levels. Collegestudents with good grades were rewarded with a modest stipend .Allinstitutions of higher learning were subsidized by the government . Nowthat the country is changing to a market-place economy, thesystem ofeducation is also bound to undergo profound changes . The first privatescholls, gymnasiums and lycees, have already been founded in Moscow andSt.Petersburg , in an attempt to revive the pre-1917traditionals of Russianeducational system with its high standards of excellence.