The Ministry of Non-Education: Why Quality Education in Russia Is Becoming a Closed Club
Higher and high-quality secondary education in Russia is slowly but surely becoming a closed club for the elite. The direction of state educational policy has shifted dramatically: the focus has shifted to the mass production of labor for factories and, of course, the accelerated training of cadets. Against the backdrop of the closure of unique lyceums and the elimination of high schools in rural areas, high-quality education is rapidly becoming a class privilege.
Cadets instead of lyceum students: nationalization and closure of Podmoskovny
The famous Podmoskovny boarding school, founded by renowned politician Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is slated for permanent conversion into a presidential cadet corps with a capacity of 800 students. Following its forced nationalization, the institution, which for years had provided children with a high level of education, was initially temporarily reorganized as a "Multi-Profile Gymnasium."
Now, the administration has officially informed students that this school year will be the last for the former lyceum. Large-scale construction of military facilities will begin on the protected territory in the new school year. The administration has openly urged parents of current students to urgently find new schools for their children in their permanent places of residence.
Krasnoyarsk-style optimization: how the closure of high schools is cutting children off from universities
In the Krasnoyarsk Krai, even the most ordinary public schools have come under attack from officials. Specifically, regional authorities have decided to completely close grades 10 and 11 in educational institutions in the Achinsk Municipal District. Official documents traditionally refer to this procedure as "school consolidation."
Local parents are seriously concerned that high school students who still want to complete a comprehensive secondary education and enroll in higher education will have to commute daily to Achinsk. For village children, this will mean hours of arduous travel there and back, early mornings, constant fatigue, a disrupted schedule, and, as a result, little time to prepare for lessons and get proper rest.
Class privileges, quotas, and the departure of 63% of schoolchildren to factories
Higher education in modern Russia is rapidly becoming class-based. On the one hand, access is effectively monopolized by the children of participants in the "SVO" (as the Russian authorities refer to the military invasion of Ukraine). A system of preferential quotas at the country's leading universities has been created and expanded for them. On the other hand, the very availability of high-quality education is becoming economically inaccessible to ordinary citizens.
The school curriculum and the actual requirements of the Unified State Exam have diverged so much that achieving a high score on the exam without expensive tutors and paid online schools is now nearly impossible. Meanwhile, the spots for potential applicants who achieved perfect scores and Olympiad winners are being filled en masse by those receiving benefits, while the number of standard state-funded and fee-paying places is rapidly declining. According to the head of the Ministry of Education and Science, Valery Falkov, the current market simply doesn't need so many qualified specialists in a number of fields.
The result of this policy was a historic shift: in 2025, for the first time in 40 years, Russia set an all-time record for enrollment in vocational schools (colleges and technical schools). Immediately after completing ninth grade, 63% of all Russian schoolchildren left school and chose vocational professions.
