Financing for equity
1. Overall Education Financing Mechanisms
2. Policies and Programmes to Provide Resources to Schools
3. Education Policies and Programmes to Provide Resources to Students and Families
4. Social Policies and Programmes to Provide Resources to Students and their Families
Education is compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 15, and until grade 11. Access to general education is a guaranteed right of every Russian citizen and schooling is provided free of charge at public schools.
Private schools are also available, although in limited numbers. Educational institutions can be funded by legal entities and individuals, by providing paid services. Attracting additional funds does not affect funding from federal and state budgets. Household expenditure in education represented 0.1% of the GDP of 2008 (US$1.66 billion). In 2012, 65% of university freshmen in private and state universities paid fees.
The Government of the Russian Federation determines the financing standards for federal state educational institutions. Local governments can also set standards for financing municipal and state educational institutions from local budgets in accordance with federal state educational standards.
Each school formulates its budget estimate by norms based on inputs such as classes per topic, class sizes, size of building, etc. For individual educational institutions (small and/or rural), funding standards are provided independently of the number of students. Financial management of schools falls under the school director who is accountable to a Board of trustees.
Education funding is based on the capacity of regional budgets. Regions determine the size of the allocation through a formula or a block grant. Some regions, as the Chuvash Republic (Samara and Yaroslavl) have implemented reformed financing for schools depending on factors or adjustment coefficients other than number of pupils, such as location, school size, type of education (vocational or general), and special needs.
On 2016, the Russian Federation spent 3.74% of their GDP on education (US$ 48.01 billion). The education sector is financed as part of the national and municipal budget.
In 2014/2015 the Russian school system covered 14.4 million students: 98.6% in public, 0.7% in private, and 1.4% in evening schools. The country has approximately 7.4 million school aged children in pre-primary school, 6.8 million in primary, 10.2 million in secondary, and 7.2 million in tertiary school. According to a statistical report on education, general education represents 48% of the total expenditure on education in 2016, while pre-school represents 23% (RUB 3100 billion, or US$ 50 billion), and higher education represents 16.3% (RUB 505 billion, or US$ 8 billion).
Since 2016, 26 federal, 85 regional and over 2000 municipal roadmaps for gradual development have been implemented to ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities. In 2018, the Ministry of Education provided 65 schools, lyceums, and gymnasiums with RUB 1m each (US$ 16,000) or RUB 65 million (0.002% of the education expenditure) in total, to support five large projects that involved reading, extracurricular activities in rural schools, digital education, and others.
The Russian government spent 9.8% of its 2008 GDP on social protection[1], including:
There are several programs, including benefits provided by the Russian Government to students in dire need of financial support and low-income/unemployed families with school-aged children (2019): a children grant (RUB 423 per child per month or US$ 5.7) a single-parent families grant (RUB 846 or US$ 11.4), and a grant for large families (3 or more children) for RUB 423 per child or US$ 5.7 per month. Children from large families have also access to different benefits related to education, such as free travel on intercity transport, free meals (breakfast and lunch) or free provision of a school uniform.
Provided by the Russian Government to students in dire need of financial support, disabled people, orphans and children left without parental care, social scholarships provide a minimum payment established by the government for students in colleges and vocational schools: RUB 809 (US$ 13.03) per month and RUB 2,227 (US$ 35.88) for university students. An increased scholarship can be paid if a student of the first or second year has excellent performance, or if a student under the age of twenty has only one parent and is a disabled person. The amount given by these scholarships can differ by state, some amounting to RUB 7,000 (US$ 112.76).
Each region in the Russian Federation provides scholarships and grants to talented students linked to high-performing achievement, three of these are directed to students with disabilities:
- Moscow
RUB 50,000 a year or US$ 804, for 300 (0.001% of school-aged children) children with disabilities, who study at educational institutions (0.001% of education expenditures).
- St. Petersburg
RUB 4,000 or US$ 64 monthly for 948 students (0.004% of school aged children) who are disabled, orphans, were left without parental care (0.002% of the education expenditures).
- Ufa
RUB 2,000 or US$32 to disabled students who are successful in their studies. No information on beneficiaries is available.
Students with disabilities with category I or II are given preferential access to higher education and related preparatory courses. Likewise, they receive preferential access to State funding and special stipends for their studies. During elementary education, students with disabilities receive free support services, such as special educational programs, special learning materials, assistants and sign language interpreters. Twenty-two thousand teaching staff and 17,000 parents of children with disabilities have received training regional distance-learning centers for children with disabilities.
Scholarship of the President of the Russian Federation
The scholarship provides assistance to higher education students in financial need. The program allocates 460 (0.006% of tertiary school aged population) scholarships annually (3000 grants were approved by decree in 2012) of between RUB 2,200 (US$ 35) and RUB 7,000 (US$ 113) per student per month, amounting to 0.001% of the education expenditures for 2016.
There is no publicly available information on this topic.
