The issue of restructuring of educational institutions in Moscow

• In Event: A sustainable university in challenging circumstances. A case from Russia.

Proposal

I have applied to MA study program at the department of education management of MSSES because I wanted to learn about public accountability and school governance, its purpose and principles.
My dissertation at The Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences addressed the issue of legislative regulation and practices of state-community school administration through the example of restructuring of educational institutions in Moscow. The work also presented an analysis of the ‘democratic school’ notion from the historical perspective. I have studied the school governance legislation in Russia and UK and then analyzed more than 500 samples of internet forum replicas of parents who were discussing the work of their schools’ governing boards.
My conclusions were the following:

1. The notion of public-state school administration originally emerged in modern Russia as a part of a more complex notion of democratic student-centered school exercising rule of law.
2. The school administration in Moscow violates democratic principles:
• The responsibility for administering education has been transferred from the local (municipal) level to the level of subjects of the Federation (regions);
• the legal description of rights and responsibilities of school governing boards and their relationship with state administration organs is missing .
3. The school board election procedures are not clearly defined, therefore fraud and voter intimidation becomes possible.
4. Any legal regulation of school boards’ activities by the current Moscow administration is potentially dangerous, since the level of independence of school boards might drop even lower, schools now being heavily dependent on their constitutors. A school board is typically nothing more than an advisory organ to the head of an educational institution,.
5. The current practice of the Moscow administration of restructuring educational institutions defies the principles of democratization and public-state administration stipulated by the Education Law, violates human rights, and prevents community involvement in school decision-making.

After I have done my research I started working at enhancing community involvement in education administration in Moscow along the following lines:
1. Adopting the regional law of public-state administration in education, which would clarify rights and responsibilities of school governing boards.
2. Returning the state functions of education administration back to the level of municipalities.
3. Introducing a fair, competitive and transparent election process for members of school boards;
4. Specifying the responsibilities of a school board; abolishing personal responsibility of members; establishing legal control over possible intimidation of school boards by state organs;
5. Empowering school boards with the right to hire and fire school principals; and veto any restructuring of their educational institution.
6. Carrying out a careful inspection of all cases of state power abuse and human rights violation in the course of reform implementation in Moscow.

Last year I was elected to a municipal council of one of the Moscow region winning over the representatives of the monopolist party “United Russia”. On top of my other duties I hope to continue working at school governance issues in this capacity.

Author

• Yuliya Galyamina, MSSES