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THE CONDITIONS OF MODERNIZATION OF EDUCATION IN CIS COUNTRIES
V. А. Myasnikov
N. V. Moiseeva
This article deals with the specific features of the socio-economic conditions that affect the implementation of reforms, and the course and rate of economic reforms, designed to ensure the best efficiency of educational systems' modernization in CIS countries, as a global trend in education.
Key words: Modernization of education, globalization, the CIS countries, development features.
In December 2002, the General Assembly of the United Nations decided to hold the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development from 2005-2015, to draw the attention to important issues and to promote international actions on the issues of global importance. The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development confirms the need to integrate education systems at all levels, to develop new educational policies, programs and practices of education in a changing world. These conditions include, above all, a radical contrast to the existing system and a focus on innovations, as well as other features: (a) the prevalence of innovation over tradition; (b) progressive (non-cyclic) development; (c) mass education; (d) the predominance of the universal over the local.
For the CIS countries, the problem of finding adequate responses to the global challenges of the new era has a special character. Firstly, the CIS is a young regional association of sovereign states, and many of the processes (including education) are still in the formation stage, and the stage of development of mechanisms of harmonization of their interests. Secondly, because of the scope of this association, the natural geographic and demographic conditions, as well as geopolitical and economic circumstances, the choice by the CIS countries of a particular variant of the strategic response will inevitably be perceived as a challenge to the rest of the world. Thirdly, the transition to the XXI century for the CIS countries coincided with the catastrophic completion of the planetary-scale social experiment on finding the path and type of civilization development, during which, in the second half of XX century, a major part of the population was involved one way or another. Fourthly, it is clear that the period of modernization of education is a long one, and to make the reforms productive, it is necessary not only to find out the conditions in which this process will be carried out, but also to elaborate basic ideas, on the basis of which more frequent problems will be solved, as well as best practices, on the basis of which more specific issues will be addressed. Fifthly, the domestic socio-economic conditions in the CIS countries in the recent years have changed so rapidly that it was difficult to identify the dominant trends of development. Sixthly, changes in the sphere of culture and their impact on the development of education. According to O.E. Lebedev, education cannot be seen solely as a means of preparing for the future. Education must allow learners to find meaningful solutions to their problems here and now.
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Analysis of the situation in which the formation of separate independent states of the former Soviet republics took place, shows that it is necessary to distinguish the features of the socio-economic conditions (unstable and accompanying circumstances) that define not only the choice of a path of development, but also its stability. These include: (a) the particular economic development of a country; (b) the degree of ethnic homogeneity or heterogeneity of its population; (c) level of political culture and the presence or absence of democratic institutions; (d) the size of the territory; (e) the level of social and political polarization in the society; (f) migration, resources and other factors. The study of the changing perceptions of the socio-economic transformation of the former Soviet Union in the globalizing world is very relevant, and crucial for the understanding and forecast of further development and modernization of education in CIS countries.
Analysis of the specificity of the formation of the CIS shows that if, for example, the formation of the European Union was under the influence of the strengthening regular unifying tendencies and required a long period of time, the formation of the Commonwealth was a consequence of the collapse of the superpower. What is more, it took place in a short period of time, almost instantaneously, without new theoretical study of political and economic reality, and in the absence of an effective concept of interstate integration. The socio-economic situation in the CIS countries had a number of features - there had been a continuous influence of the adverse conditions prevailing in the Soviet period and arisen in the course of reforming of the economy. They included: low technical level of productive capacity and its inefficient use, the economy and export based on the raw materials strategy, a large share of military-industrial complex; inherited imbalance between the production of means of production and production of consumer goods and the service sector; high level of depreciation of fixed assets.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to the destruction of the current single, and to some extent unique system of education. The establishment of national educational systems with their own regulatory framework - states of the Commonwealth, the emergence of different types of non-state educational institutions of different levels (including grammar schools, high schools, and colleges, both public and mixed).
Education as a special field of socialization is very sensitive to changes in the world. It can reflect and demonstrate the quality of the transformation of our lives. In other words, education in these circumstances not only recognizes, but also affects the development of the processes. Through education, it is possible to organize the most secure and reliable way of progress and reforms in social development. This fact requires us to ensure the proactive influence of education compared to other measures, facilitating development of the integration processes in the CIS countries, and the preservation of common educational space of the Commonwealth. Thus, the level of development of national education becomes not only the main condition of the economic and political independence of countries, but also a prerequisite for their effective connection to the world economic community.
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Today it is obvious that it necessary to find a cardinally new approach to education, as a highly complex self-organizing system that interacts with other social systems and is a single organism with them.
The collapse of the Soviet Union was the evidence of weakness of the dialogue interpenetration of the former republics, the predominance of antagonism, the break of cultural (in a broad sense) space. It shows that none of the elements of the accumulated moral schematics, being the basis of the state policy, created a solid foundation for mass development of abilities of people, without which the effective solution to all complex problems is not possible. All elements of moral schematics needed critical re-evaluation, possibly, in the system of stimulation of some ideals and alienation of others, in in-depth understanding of how the cultural foundations of the society dynamics and state reproduction are being formed. The specific feature of the post-Soviet period was the complete bankruptcy of the utilitarian-motivated change of forms of the forced ideology system.
The changes taking place in education in the CIS countries create the necessary prerequisites to determine and identify the main conditions for the development of education to meet the global trends of social and economic transformations, their common understanding, and strategic focus on the development of global educational space.
Thus, the analysis of the revealed conditions of the modernization of education in the CIS countries shows, on the one hand, significant differences and peculiarities of the reforms which reflect not only the natural specifics of national educational systems, cultivated public interest and the goals of certain social groups, but also the strategic focus on change in the current situation. These circumstances give a peculiar uniqueness to the transformations in the countries of the Commonwealth, largely explaining the difficulties and contradictions, and the slowness and unevenness of modernization of education. On the other hand, despite the importance of the independent educational policy carried out by the states, for many decades in the post-Soviet space there have been formed many common organizational elements, many invariant characteristics, uniform laws and principles, and scientific and methodological approaches and values, which allow us to speak about the internal consolidation of the educational potential of CIS countries.
Bibliography
1. Контакт. Международный бюллетень ЮНЕСКО по научно-техническому и экологическому образованию. - Т. XXVIII. - № 1-2. 2003.
2. Лебедев О. Е. Образование в условиях формирования нового типа культуры. - СПб., 2002. - С. 6-7.
3. Запесоцкий А. С. Образование: философия, культурология, политика. - М.: Наука, 2002. - С. 164.
4. Демографическая ситуация и формирование общего рынка труда государств-участников СНГ. - М., 2001. - С. 6.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translastions Bureas
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