On September 1st Russia celebrates the Knowledge Day /День Знаний/. On this day all Russian students return to schools, universities, and other educational institutions. On this day you can see many schoolchildren with flowers for their teachers, that go to school after long summer holidays. So Let’s talk about Russian school education in today’s article.
School system
Russian children are normally go to school when they are 6 y.o. The school period consists of 3 steps: primary school/начальная школа (1-4 grades), secondary school (5-9 grades)/ средняя школа, and high school (10-11 grades)/старшая школа, so it takes 11 years to get the full school education. Primary and secondary school is obligatory in Russia.
After completing secondary school students can go to college/колледж, that in the Russian education system is not higher education, but vocational. It takes 3 years to graduate from college.
If a student prefers to go to a university, they should complete the high school and successfully pass final exams that are called ЕГЭ in Russian (Unified Public Exam). There are two obligatory exams – Russian and mathematics. Other exams students choose depending on the university and profession they are aiming at.
Typical school life
The school year in Russia starts on September 1st and finishes in the end of May. Children in Russia usually study 5 or 6 days a week (Saturdays are not always weekends!). Children usually have 5-6 lessons a day, 1 lesson lasts 45 minutes. Between lessons there are usually small breaks, the longest is about 20 minutes. There is 1 week of autumn and spring holidays, 2 weeks of winter holidays, and 3 months of summer holidays.
Students typically have homework to do, so after school, they have to spend a couple of hours preparing for the next school day.
Subjects
Russian school covers many subjects, the basic subjects are: Russian language, literature, mathematics, history, natural sciences, arts and crafts, physical education, and a foreign language. In most public schools children cannot choose subjects they study, but after a certain grade, many schools offer to choose a specialization and focus on certain subjects.
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