Education as a Start in Life: Life Plans of Rural High School Students in Russia

Abstract

Tatyana Abankina, Ph.D. in Economics, Director of the Center for Applied Economic Research, National Research University —Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: abankinat@hse.ru 

Anna Krasilova, Ph.D. in Economics, senior researcher at the Laboratory for Comparative Analysis of Post-Socialist Development, National Research University —Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: akrasilova@hse.ru 

Gordey Yastrebov, Ph.D. in Sociology, junior researcher at the Laboratory for Comparative Analysis of Post-Socialist Development, National Research University —Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: gordey.yastrebov@gmail.com 

The paper presents results of the first phase of an international project on comparative study of rural education in Russia, China and Kazakhstan. The research of educational, migration and career strategies of rural high school students, as well as of factors underlying these strategies, is based on an empirical model of intergenerational social mobility which reveals the way elements of social and cultural environment influence formation of life trajectories. The research used results of a total survey of rural schools in five regions of Russia differing in climatic, environmental and transport conditions, levels and patterns of socioeconomic development, demographic trends, and types of rural settlements. All regions involved in the survey evidenced absolute prevalence of the strategies to continue learning, mostly in higher education institutions or in colleges, and then to get a job in the city. As rural students find the ‘social parachute’ educational, career and migration strategies very attractive and workable, Russia might soon suffer a significant drain of youth from the country to the city and another wave of urbanization. Early admission to labor and chances to inherit parents’ business are the only factors that can correct the overwhelming aspiration of rural high school students to get higher education and to move to the city and make them stay in the country.