Education: Market Of «Disservices»?

Abstract

A person does not «get» an education, he «takes» it, and not from someone in particular, but from life itself. At the same time in the education itself two aspects always coexist and interact: the comprehension of the outer world and its usage by a person, communication and activity, training and education. According to the traditional educational technology of industrial type the process of education itself includes three stages in the acquisition of the new material: 1) its presentation (teaching); 2) mastering (learning), which has always been and will always be only education per se, i.e. self-education; 3) control of the result of the second stage and the process as a whole (testing, controlling). The second main stage is not an educational service and it can not be a service by its nature. In contrast to it, the first and the third stages may be an educational service at least partly. As a whole, speaking about the change in the character of education in the industrial society in contrast to the traditional one, one can say that market character of this society requires gradual formation of various markets of numerous educational services. Besides services of teaching and checking the results, which in their turn begin to be divided into elaboration of computerized complexes and their direct servicing, one can name consulting on the formation of individual educational program, on use of different technical facilities (from books in the libraries to multimedia internet resources). One can name at least three different types of the subjects of educational services: teachers, institutions and societies (countries). At each of these markets there are different laws, which are not always described in elementary textbooks of economic theory. The market of teachers in an organized form exists only in the framework of separate institutions on condition that there is a choice of a teacher, rendering services on this or that subject. Not every university or school can afford this, but it is a common practice in large institutions. One of the forms of the feedback is the rating of teachers among students. The quality of this rating in many respects depends on the quality of the students, and to be more precise on the level and quality of their motivation. The market of institutions is the main market, to which the graduates of the previous stage (level) of education come. Nowadays even in official publications such expressions as «economy based on knowledge», «society based on knowledge» are more and more often used. It is likely that in the industrial society where the economy pressed down the society itself and transformed from the instrument into the goal such a complete coincidence in formulating the «grounds» is justified. However in a more developed society knowledge can only be a basis for economy, while the society, in our opinion, must again be based on culture, to be more exact on interaction and complementation of cultures, the integral part of which beliefs, which by no means can be restricted to knowledge. Though Europeans continue to repeat the stereotyped expression «society based on knowledge», in actual fact Bologna process declared that cultural diversity of European space is a strong, attractive side of this continent in its competition in the sphere of education. Most likely until Russia obtains its former attractiveness for the people»s from other countries as a society, which confidently creates its own bright future as a part of the secure future of all the mankind, created by common efforts, setting the task of considerable expansion of the export of educational services will remain only a good wish for our universities. All the above mentioned concerning education and its problems in our country makes it possible to outline several top-priority measures. First of all it is necessary to introduce into laws on education norms which guarantee that budget expenses on education as a whole and higher education in particular will not be decreased, and to cancel quazi-norms which don»t guarantee anything. It is also necessary to return into higher education the Soviet practice of free education on condition of further work, to be more exact of natural exchange «higher education - paying by work» in the scale necessary for the activity of the society and functioning of the state: it is necessary to preserve unconditionally free education only for a very small number of young people and to give all the others an opportunity to get state educational loans. If contemporary Russian legislation prevents it, it is necessary to make changes in the budget law and any other laws, except the Constitution to make possible the practice of all countries with which we are willing to cooperate in higher education. It is also necessary to do two things: firstly, to provide a special legal status of state and municipal educational institutions, as well as medical institutions, stated in the Constitution, and secondly, to change legislation in education expanding it to the whole sphere of real education, embracing by state educational standards the key factors of influence on people of all ages. Finally, before the next elections of federal legislative authorities and president, it is necessary to elaborate a program of the development of education in Russia for the next 50 years, during which all the known deposits of natural resources will be fully exhausted. In this program our society should put forward clear strategic goals (which should be annually corrected) not so much to the officials but to the society itself. There are two key aspects of this program: an industrial and a territorial one. Considering that Russia will occupy a specific place in world economy as a source of natural resources in the first place those that are not reproduced — fuel and mineral materials, education should be different from the «average world» standard, it should be focused on a more complex approach to all problems and avoid narrow specialized thinking typical of economies with a high level of division of labour in manufacturing industries. It is in line with the traditions of fundamentality of our education and a complex character of natural economy which was preserved ti a certain extent in the period of planned economy and strengthened in recent years. The territorial aspect of this program is a special section devoted to the development of the Far East region, in which the most active migration of population is observed; this migration is in many respects connected with the fact that average expenditure on one student are lower than those in Russia as a whole, and the price of a return flight to the European part of Russia is higher than the annual income of a school teacher and university lecturer. That is why access to high quality education, which in many respects is associated with the capitals remains a myth.