ABSTRACT
Introduction A ‘living laboratory’ of change (Polyzoi and Dneprov 2003, 14), Russian education modernisation reform, which commenced in 1991 and is ongoing, is a contested domain where educational ideologies and pedagogical traditions are intertwined and conflicted. It has been argued that neoliberal globalisation has played a determinant role in shaping the direction of education reform in postSoviet Russia (Birzea 1994; Bray and Borevskaya 2001; Gounko and Smale 2007; Bain 2011; Collier 2011; Silova 2011; Minina 2013; Minina 2015). The bulk of reform measures implemented in post-1991 Russia conforms to what has been labeled in comparative education a ‘post-socialist educational reform package’ (Silova 2011) designed by international financial organisations, mainly the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The standard reform package is based on the concepts of cost-effectiveness, market-driven quality control, educational standardisation, outcome-based education, decentralisation of governance and privatisation of higher education. For instance, the new financing scheme introduced into Russian education, a subsidisation mechanism based on individual student performance, directly corresponds with the World Bank’s and the OECD’s policy recommendation to introduce the ‘money follows the student’ principle in order to enhance consumers’ freedom of choice and ensure the effective use of financial resources (World Bank 2004; Gounko and Smale 2007). Russia’s Unified National Test, an external tool for school leavers’ performance assessment, complies with the World Bank’s demands for an independent quality control mechanism aimed at enhancing school-leavers’ mobility and eliminating corruption (World Bank 2004; Gounko and Smale 2007). The Bologna Declaration and the introduction of the two-stage system of higher education conform to the international agencies’ recommendation to foster competitiveness of Russian education on the global market (Gounko and Smale 2007). Besides providing regular policy recommendations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have directly sponsored major reform initiatives, most notably the design and implementation of the Unified National Test. Over the period from 1991 to 2005, the World Bank alone provided the Russian government with a 71-million USD loan to facilitate the modernisation reform (World Bank 2004).
