.
Unfortunately, this is also where the environmental layout of crumbling eight-story prefabricated concrete boxes surround high-rise housing estates in southwest Moscow. This is a place where volunteer parents could be found painting the school buildings that have sputtering light fixtures, bad plumbing, and over grown grounds. This is also a place where the teachers earn less than 50 dollars a month (Woodard p25). For example, the teachers are constantly reminded that pencils can be used right down to their stubs, a piece of paper has two sides, and lessons written on a blackboard can be left for the next class to save chalk. .
Russian institutions had insufficient funds; and only 3.65% of the national budget were allocated for education in 1995, so that meant that over 80% of the country's schools lacked proper experimental facilities (Joel L .Burdin; Robert Murray Thomas). Therefore, the number of students in specialized programs declined, while skilled personnel also declined, which showed sings that a reformation was desperately needed.
A reformation was to begin with the elementary schools. This is so that the change could work itself out from the bottom to the top. The first change was a reduction of class size, such as reducing the teacher-pupil ratio to 1 student for every 22 children by the year 1996(Britannica Online). The next step was then to provide 500 more remedial teachers, and to offer psychological services for all schools. Prior to the early 1990s, education in the USSR was highly centralized, and through this educational reformation Russia wanted to move away from the old way and consummate the reformation of education. .
Once the Elementary School reformation began, the higher education system became the next focus. Higher education in Russia was in need of reformation too, due to the fact that they were dealing with the competence of the teacher at the low standard university level.
