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ANALYSIS OF SOME NEGATIVE FACTORS OF THE INVOLVEMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN LIFELONG EDUCATION
L. D. Tyulicheva
The increasing involvement of people in lifelong education is usually regarded as an undoubted benefit. Meanwhile, we must acknowledge that the involvement of people in the process of lifelong education is influenced not only by positive factors, such as an increase in demand for selfdevelopment, professional development and career growth, but also by negative factors. These are primarily social phenomena and processes that complicate the achievement of a person's life goals through the education system, forcing them to act by trial and error. The student returns to the education system, not because of they have advanced to the next level, but because they could not get the required training in the previous period.
Let us look at an example of one of the most important contemporary trends, i.e. transformation of higher education into a typical Russian educational. A significant proportion of graduates seek to enter higher educational establishments. It is noteworthy that the percentage of those planning to proceed with higher education among students of vocational schools has gradually reduced. But among graduates of secondary schools this proportion has remained stable and even the economic crisis has not changed the situation (see Table 1.).
Percentage of students of educational institutions intending to enroll in college after graduation (%)
Tablel
Students Years
2006 2007 2008 2009
Systems of secondary vocational education 79.4 76.3 71.3 65.4
Systems of basic vocational education 50.6 49.0 45.7 30.0
Senior school 73.6 72.7 74.3 73.3
Based on http://education-monitoring.hse.ru/part2.html
This general trend is accompanied by a number of additional trends. For example, the changing role of higher education in the professional development of secondary school graduates, which is associated with a change in high school selection strategy.
According to the conventional scheme, as previously practiced in Russian society in terms of free higher education, the choice of the profile (namely, the university and the faculty) stood in for, as a rule, the choice of
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a future career. It worked like this: under the influence of family and other social influences a person (usually a teenager) formed a set of ideas about his of her abilities in regard to different kinds of work, on the one hand, and an understanding of exciting, profitable and prestigious career possibilities, on the other. A profession was chosen by comparing these ideas and a educational institution was then selected. But currently, the key point for many applicants is not the choice of profession and educational institution. They primarily assess their ability to enter and study in one or another university. Since education is now associated with significant financial expenditures, the choice actively involves the family and determines the costs of different courses. In addition, the choice of university by the family is often based on useful social relations.
Table 2
Main differences between two clusters of students
Sociological questionnaire The share of students correlated to the statement (the range from minimum to maximum values is an average for all cities)
1st cluster 2nd cluster
1. I am sure about which profession to pursue 63.4% - 73.3% 12.7 - 49.7%
2. I entered high school by chance 1.2% - 2.9 % 6.3% - 36.8 %
3. I entered the high school that I initially intended to enter 93% - 96.8% 40.0% - 90.6%
4. I entered the faculty that I initially intended to enter 92.4% - 99.7% 23.2% - 91.2%
5. I received the qualification that I initially intended to get 82.1% - 99.5% 5.,8% - 81.8%
6. I was completely informed about the list of high schools of the city 55.8% - 82.1% 28.3% - 58.1%
7. I was completely informed about the list of qualifications 50.3% - 88.6% 21.3% - 51.2 %
8. I was completely informed about the form of the entrance exams 70.2% - 93.5% 25.2% - 62.0%
9. I was completely informed about the requirements of entrance exams 62.6% - 87,1% 27.3% - 61.6%
10. I was completely informed about the prospects of further employment 38.2% - 52.4% 11.9% - 22.1%
It may seem that this lack of direct vocational self-determination leads to a passive position on the part of an applicant when the educational pattern is formed under pressure from the family and young people act as pieces on a chessboard being moved without any distinct wish to study or work. However, research shows that the relationship between the choice of
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a place of study and the type of professional activity is equally unclear for young people who are motivated to enter and study further. Research conducted in 36 high schools in five Russian cities (1,500 students were interviewed), helped to distinguish two clusters of students: the first cluster is made up of students motivated to acquire higher education (from 68.2% to 81.9% in different cities); the second cluster is made up of students enrolled in higher education mainly under the pressure from their parents (from 18.1% to 31.8% in different cities).
The survey also revealed that the main differences in the degree of their commitment to higher education between the two clusters of students lie in their awareness about various aspects of education, not future work (see Table. 2). The authors of this study indicate that even students in the first cluster are "select, rather than being interested in, their profession due to the resources that they can use to enter university, or because of their families»1.
This suggests that higher education is associated with purely educational functions, and professional development is associated with the following stages of lifelong education. It is not surprising that the "pending” process makes planning further professional determination the next stage of the educational pattern in the course of acquiring higher education (see Table 3).
Table 3
Future plans by university students to participate in lifelong education
(% of respondents)
Sociological questionnaire "I plan to...” Years
2006 2007 2008 2009
Get a second degree 46.3 43.7 45.8 47.5
Get a master's degree in Russia 8.7 8.2 10.0 12.10
Get a postgraduate degree in Russia 22.3 19.4 20.8 19.9
Study at professional courses, etc. 46.8 47.8 51.8 54.8
Study abroad 16.1 16.6 16.8 19.3
Work abroad 24.2 23.2 25.0 27.2
Based on http://education-monitoring.hse.ru/part2.html
1 Могильчак Е.Л. Влияние родительской семьи на поступление в вуз. - In the magazine «Социологические исследования», 2009, № 9, p. 126.
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Thus, the factors of people’s participation in the process of lifelong education may be related not only to positive but also to the negative processes of personal and social development, among which should be primarily mentioned the high uncertainty of future employment and late professional self-determination of young people.
Bibliography
1. Материалы Мониторинга экономики образования, http://education-monitoring. hse. ru/part2. html
2. Могильчак Е. Л. Влияние родительской семьи на поступление в вуз // Социологические исследования. 2009. № 9. С. 126-133.
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