Human capital and the problem of inequalities in modernizing education

Reproduction and accumulation of human capital is one of the most important components for success of modernization. The education system produces basic modernization resources, including human capital in the form of knowledge, skills, technologies, competencies, etc. At the same time, inequalities are formed in the sphere of education, and the problem of education availability for country citizens becomes one of the most urgent problems of modernization of Russian society. This article shows what determines educational inequalities and how they are formed, what is their positive and negative role in social and economic transformations of modern Russian society. In Russia today, there are two educational systems in parallel: for the educated and well-to-do (mostly urban) residents and for the undereducated and poor (mostly rural) families. Three types of modern educational institutions are distinguished: elite gymnasiums, lyceums and special schools, schools with partially paid services or individual privileges in education, mass general education schools that provide a minimum educational standard. There developed an inequality in access to vocational education, primarily higher education. Its availability is based on a number of factors, among which are the incomes of the parent family, the parents’ human capital, the place of residence’s level of urbanization, the progress and quality of the potential student’s school preparation, the “right connections” available to him/her. Insecurity and poverty are concentrated today not so much in undereducated strata as in small towns and villages, with their stagnant poverty, narrow and depressed labor market, compelling to accept the job and the salary offered, where the developed human capital (even in the case, if it is present) is not in demand yet on a mass scale. The problem of the discrepancy between the education provided and the market needs is analyzed. The conclusion is made that there are two differently directed tendencies: the increase in the volume of human capital obtained within the framework of the basic formal education system and the decrease in the proportion of the population taking to real actions to update it in the course of additional, informal or informational education.

modernization, human capital, education inequalities, quality assurance, access to education.

1. Bekker G. S. Chelovecheskoe povedenie: ehkonomicheskiy podkhod. Izbrannye trudy po ehkonomicheskoy teorii [Human behavior: an economic approach. Selected works on economic theory]. Moscow, GU‑VSHE, 2003, pp. 49–155 (in Russ.).

2. Mincer J. Schooling, Experience and Earnings. New York, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1974.

3. Schultz T. W. The Economic Value of Education. New York, Columbia University Press, 1963.

4. Schultz T. W. Investment in Human Capital: the Role of Education and of Research. New York, Free Press, 1971.

5. Telegina G. V. «Obrazovanie v techenie zhizni»: institualizatsiya v evropeyskom kontekste i eyo otsenka ["Lifelong education": institutionalization in the European context and its evaluation]. Nepreryvnoe obrazovanie v politicheskom i ehkonomicheskom kontekstakh. Ed. by G. A. Klyucharev. Moscow, IS RAN, 2008, pp. 22–30 (in Russ.).

6. Rossiyskiy monitoring ehkonomicheskogo polozheniya i zdorovʹya naseleniya (REHMZ–RLMS) [Russian monitoring of the economic situation and public health (REMMS–RLMS)]. 2008‑2009. URL: http:// www.hse.ru/rlms [date of visit: 25.11.2011]. (2.12.11) (in Russ.).

7. Rossiyskiy monitoring ehkonomicheskogo polozheniya i zdorovʹya naseleniya (REHMZ–RLMS). 2008‑2009 [Russian monitoring of the economic situation and public health (REMMS-RLMS)]. URL: http:// www.hse.ru/rlms [date of visit: 25.11.2011]. Dostupnostʹ vysshego obrazovaniya v Rossii. Responsible ed. S. V. Shishkin. Moscow, Nezavisimyy institut sotsialʹnoy politiki, 2004 (in Russ.).

8. Konstantinovskiy D. L., Vakhshtayn V. S., Kurakin D. Yu. Beg s prepyatstviyami. Komu dostupno kachestvennoe obshchee obrazovanie [Running with obstacles. Who can get a high-quality general education]. Rossiya reformiruyushchayasya. Ezhegodnik. Responsible ed. M. K. Gorshkov. Release 7. Moscow, IS RAN, 2008, pp. 142–158 (in Russ.).

9. Cherednichenko G. A. Shkolʹnaya reforma 90-kh godov: novovvedeniya i sotsialʹnaya selektsiya [School reform of the 90s: innovations and social selection]. Sotsiologicheskiy zhurnal, 1999, no 1/2, pp. 18–19 (in Russ.).

10. Vishnevskiy Yu. R., Shapko V. O. Student 90-kh – sotsiokulʹturnaya dinamika [Student of the 90's ‑sociocultural dynamics]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya, 2000, no 12, pp. 57 (in Russ.).

11. Roshchina Ya. M. Komu v Rossii dostupno vysshee obrazovanie? [To whom is higher education available in Russia?]. Dostupnostʹ vysshego obrazovaniya v Rossii. Moscow, Nezavisimyy institut sotsialʹnoy politiki, 2004, p. 72 (in Russ.).

Dubin B. V., Gudkov L. D., Levinson A. G., Leonova A. S., Stuchevskaya O. I. Dostupnostʹ vysshego obrazovaniya: sotsialʹnye i institutsionalʹnye aspekty [Accessibility of higher education: social and institutional aspects]. Dostupnostʹ vysshego obrazovaniya v Rossii. Moscow, Nezavisimyy institut sotsialʹnoy politiki, 2004, pp. 24–71.

13. Obrazovanie i obshchestvo: gotova li Rossiya investirovatʹ v svoyo budushchee? [Education and society: is Russia ready to invest in its future?]. Doklad Obshchestvennoy palaty RF Ed. by E. I. Yasin, Kuzʹminov Ya. I., 2008. URL: http://www.hse. ru/temp/2007/files/20071220_report.pdf [date of visit: 25.11.2011] (in Russ.).

14. Konstantinovskiy D. L., Voznesenskaya E. D., Cherednichenko G. A., Khokhlushkina F. A. Obrazovatelʹnye i zhiznennye traektorii molodyozhi: 1998‑2008 gg. [Educational and life trajectories of youth: 1998–2008]. Moscow, FGNU TSSI, 2011, p. 123 (in Russ.).

15. Dobrynina E. Nauchi uchyonogo: Sotsiologi vyyasnili, kakie pretenzii vyskazyvayut drug drugu vypuskniki vuzov i ikh rabotodateli [Teach the scientist: Sociologists have found out what complaints the graduates of universities and their employers say to each other]. Rossiyskaya gazeta – Federalʹnyy vypusk, 2017, 17 Noyabrya, no 4521 (in Russ.).

16. Pokrovskiy N. E. Khram nauki ili optovyy rynok znaniy? [The Temple of Science or the wholesale market of knowledge?]. Filosofskie i sotsialʹnye nauki v universitete. Moscow, GU–VSHE, 2002 (in Russ.).

17. Sheregi F. E. Faktory, protivodeystvuyushchie moderni­zatsii rossiyskogo professionalʹnogo obrazovaniya [Factors that counteract the modernization of Russian vocational education]. Modernizatsiya rossiyskogo obrazovaniya: problemy i perspektivy. Moscow, Tsentr sotsialʹnogo prognozirovaniya, 2010., pp. 212–216 (in Russ.).

18. Durakov net. Rossiyskie PTU i tekhnikumy pustuyut, tak kak vse abiturienty‑2009 predpochli vuzy [There are no fools. Russian vocational and technical schools are empty, since all applicants-2009 prefer universities]. Novye izvestiya, 2009, September 21 (in Russ.).

19. Vakansii po ukrupnennym gruppam professiy i spetsialʹnostey (iz banka vakansiy Moskovskoy sluzhby zanya­tosti, sentyabrʹ 2009 g.) [Vacancies for enlarged groups of professions and specialties (from the bank of vacancies of the Moscow Employment Service, September 2009)]. URL: http://www.labor.ru/pics2/ marketstat142.htm [date of visit: 25.11.2011] (in Russ.).

20. Tikhonov A. V. Rossiyskoe obshchestvo kak novaya sotsialʹnaya realʹnostʹ i metaproekt otechestvennoy sotsiologii [Russian Society as a New Social Reality and Metaproject of Russian Sociology]. Rossiya reformiruyushchayasya. Release 8. Moscow, Institut sotsiologii RAN, 2009, p. 26.

21. Sotsialʹno-ehkonomicheskoe neravenstvo i ego vosproizvodstvo v sovremennoy Rossii [Socio-economic inequality and its reproduction in modern Russia]. Ed. by O. I. Shkaratan. Moscow, CUIMA, 2003. 560 p. (in Russ.).

22. Gorshkov M. K., Klyucharev G. A. Nepreryvnoe obrazovanie v kontekste modernizatsii [Continuing education in the context of modernization]. Moscow, IS RAN, TSSI, 2011 (in Russ.).

23. Anikin V. A. Povedenie po otnosheniyu k svoemu chelovecheskomu kapitalu osnovnykh sotsialʹno-professionalʹnykh grupp rossiyskogo obshchestva [Behavior in relation to its human capital of the main social and professional groups of Russian society]. X Mezhdunarodnaya nauchnaya konferentsiya po problemam razvitiya ehkonomiki i obshchestva. Book 3. Responsible ed. E. G. Yasin. Moscow, Izd. dom GU‑VSHE, 2010 (in Russ.).

24. Raspredelenie chislennosti zanyatykh v ehkonomike po urovnyu obrazovaniya i otraslyam v 2002 g. (po materialam vyborochnogo obsledovaniya naseleniya po problemam zanyatosti; na konets noyabrya) [The distribution of the number of employed in the economy by the level of education and branches in 2002 (based on the sample survey of the population on employment issues at the end of November)]. Federalʹnaya sluzhba gosudarstvennoy statistiki. URL: http://www.gks.ru/bgd/regl/b03_33/ IssWWW.exe/Stg/d010/i010080r.htm [date of visit: 25.11.2011] (in Russ.).

25. Ovchinnikova Yu. V. Dinamika nakopleniya raznykh vidov resursov naseleniem Rossii: vliyanie na osobennosti mo­dernizatsii strany [Dynamics of the accumulation of different types of resources by the population of Russia: the impact on the characteristics of the country's modernization]. Sbornik statey aspirantov – 2009. Release 2. Moscow, GU‑VSHE, 2009 (in Russ.).

26. Ovchinnikova Yu. V. Dinamika nakopleniya chelovecheskogo kapitala na fone drugikh resursov [Dynamics of the accumulation of human capital against the background of other resources]. Narodonaselenie, 2010, no 1 (in Russ.).