Paper short abstract:

The study of the transformation of extracurricular education in post-Soviet countries makes it possible to assess the risks of educational inequality, fix the existing and developing trends and compare national models with the challenges of inequality.

Paper long abstract:

The Soviet ECE system had no analogs in terms of a set of basic characteristics that aspired to provide wide access and quality of services. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in education, including ECE, there have been systemic changes in the network, market development and de-monopolization, as well as diversification of stakeholders. Social stratification leads to increase the inequality of access.

The framework of the study includes wide framework of institutional economic theory (Coase, 1937; North, 1991), as well as neoinstitutionalism (Meyer, 1977; Meyer and Rowan, 1977; DiMaggio and Powell, 1983) in the context of neoliberal transit (Mitter, 1992, 2003; Silova, 2009, 2010) concept of inequality in education (Coleman et al., 1966; Bennett, Lutz, and Jayaram, 2012).

This study includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia. The method of data collection and analysis included expert interviews, analysis of standards and policies, short structured surveys of participants and stakeholders.

The preliminary results of the study allow us to draw conclusions about the institutional diversity of models and approaches in independent republics. The expansion of stakeholders in the sector, as well as the emergence of new players allows for a variety of proposals and the agenda in the response of national education systems to the challenges of sustainable development; it also complicates the communication of sector participants and makes a number of vulnerable groups more vulnerable in the conditions of society’s social differentiation, on the one hand, and market development and paid services, on the other hand.