Abstract:

This research is an integrated analysis of the current education system in the Yenisei District, Krasnoyarskiy Krai, Russia. Such subject is suggested, since up to 2024 – 2025 $2.75 billion will be invested in the Angara-Yenisei region as part of the “Yenisei Siberia Integrated Investment Project”.

Under the Project, new assets of zinc, antimony, talc, bauxite, etc. will be explored, and a large-scale reconstruction of the road network, including the bridging across the Yenisey, will be completed. Apart from that, a significant expansion of gold mining and wood-proceeding industries with more than 3000 extra-jobs is expected.

Regarding this, the Project implementation pursues skilled professionals and workers of different majors and requires expansion and streamlining of the regional education system, as well as upgrade qualifications and labor retraining. The latter, in turn, is a landmark when a new region is being formed in terms of the Russian collaborative economy.

The Yenisei District is one of the Far North’s regions, which includes 65 settlements, inhabited by 22,599 people (as of 2019). There are 13 pre-school and 14 general education institutions (excluding the branches and primary schools).

This work is grounded on the field complex research, which involved in-depth interviews with the heads of education departments and school directors, observation of the facilities, and analysis of annual reports and other documents. The focus is put on the state of pre-school and general education in the region and to the material and financial safety of educational institutions, to the dynamics and coverage of educational services.

The findings show that for the Project-oriented territory, the possibilities to get education and choose a profession are very limited – there are Lesosibirsk Pedagogical Institute (Siberian Federal University (a branch in Lesosibirsk)), Vocational Lyceum No. 5 (Podtesovo settlement), Vocational School No. 13, and Vocational Training Center in Yeniseisk – even though, almost all the schools cooperate with these institutions to create a network interaction model.

In the Yenisei District, the education system literally lacks the creation of a digital educational environment that ensures high quality and availability of learning and training. In this area, educational institutions are expected to be provided with the 50 Mbit/s Internet by 2024 only. This fact has directly damaged the quality of education during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also necessary to point out an unacceptable state of some facilities (buildings) used the Far North. Thus, this research suggests some ways to improve the education system of the Yenisei District.

Keywords:

Education, Far North, Russian District, network interaction model.