InRussia, the preference of the educational policy for market paths has been being formed for nearly thirty years. The mechanisms, consequences and prospects of so called marketization have not been yet studied. The article considers the marketization of education, including higher education, as a scientific and social problem. Basing on foreign and domestic sources, the author proves that the marketization of education is generated by neo-liberal attitude of the financial and economic elites seeking to reduce state budget expenditures in the social sphere and keep up the disintegration of society and to secure their future domination. The state, the bureaucratic apparatus of the education system, educators’ and researchers’ communities do not take up the problem of education marketization and its consequences. The marketization strategy along with its derivatives is taken in society as an axiom, without special studies and research. Due to this education is being dysfunctional, it experiences a protracted institutional crisis, social tensions and losses, whilst the search of ways out of the neoliberal deadlock is postponed up to uncertain future.

The redundancy, intensity and formalization of paperwork in education have become its painful feature: educational bureaucracy and evaluation mania ignore the social mission of education, paper pressure and paper genocide are barriers to its progress and manageability. The article presents the results of an interregional study of managerial information flows in the Russian education system: it analyzes data of representative surveys and timing of the workloads of the main personnel groups, expert assessments, document flows in the education system in the perspective of the theory of bureaucracy and institutional functions of education. Thus, the redundancy of information flows in the school system exceeds the functional needs of management by more than 20 times. The number of the types of documents written by the teacher reaches 95 on average, and their labor intensity is comparable to teaching. Most of the collected information is not reliable and is not used for educational purposes; it is rather a means to ensure the managerial omnipotence and excess personnel. The key source of paper pressure and paper genocide in the education system is the management strategy that ignores the social mission of education and its social efficiency. This strategy expresses bureaucratic distrust to educators and to the possibilities of public-private administration. Practices based on this strategy lead to irrelevant, unreliable and ineffective information flows, deformed social relations and professional culture of teachers, their widespread burnout and outflow from education. The identified management strategy is a dead end for the Russian education system and an obstacle for preserving its potential and development under the growing global competition.

No abstract

The article considers theoretical aspects for the study and understanding of contemporary educational policies with the application of the concepts of bureaucracy. It also presents the results of an interregional study of information flows in the Russian education system. The redundancy, intensity and formalization of these flows constitute one of the painful aspects of work in this sphere, along with unfairly low wages. The article analyzes the materials of extensive sample surveys and the timing of the loads of the main job groups in the education system, data on document flow in institutions of various types and levels, and expert assessments in the three regions of the country. The amount and structure of information flows and paper work lead to institutional dysfunctions, they serve as a means for administrative pressure and imitation of manageability in education system. The article considers their impact on the social and professional well-being of educators. The author concludes that the main source of paper pressure and paper genocide in the education system is a management strategy that ignores the public mission of education and its multifaceted social effectiveness. This strategy expresses distrust of educators, contains ignorance towards public-state governance and has become a dead end for the Russian education system, a major obstacle to maintaining its potential, development and progress in view of growing global competition.