THE STRUCTURE AND SPECIFICS OF FINANCING SECONDARY VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN RUSSIA AT THE TURN OF THE 19TH – 20TH CENTURIES

Abstract

Research purpose is to analyze the structure and specifics of financing secondary vocational education in Russia in the late 19th – early 20th centuries.

Method or methodology for work performance: the main method is a historical-genetic one; descriptions include quantitative indicators identified in statistical sources.

Results: the practice of multi-channel financing of secondary vocational schools in late imperial Russia was based on the state-public principle through co-financing, taking into account an organizational-legal form and departmental affiliation of different types of schools, which was reflected in the introduction of public financial reporting of educational institutions. As a result, residual school funding was more sustainable, which was also supported by the high share of tuition fees in school budgets. Acting as a mechanism of social segmentation, it largely hampered the search for external financial resources in the state school, weakening the interaction between the school and the local society and, on the contrary, activating these processes in the non-state school, at the same time it strengthened market mechanisms for relationships with customers of educational services, reducing the quality of education for the future by increasing and maximizing the retention of the contingent of students. The stability of tuition fees, partly regulated by direct state intervention, but restrained by the growth of competition to a greater extent, along with the expansion of charitable practices by transferring them to support not only schools in general, but also individual students, weakened the social segmentation of the school institution, creating conditions for the growth of human capital. The sources of self-sufficiency for production-type schools were insignificant, even in agricultural schools, which training farms could not be converted to a commercial footing. The dominance of items for salaries and maintenance of the material base in the structure of school budget expenditures emphasized the lack of school funding, the problems of teaching staff competitiveness and the usefulness of the material base.

Practical implications: the historical experience of multi-channel financing can be used in modern practices of replenishing school budgets, including by improving the ways of interaction with local and regional society and the general public.