Shadow education on the rise in Russia - same pattern as in Soviet times

A new study shows how private education - so-called shadow education - emerged quietly during the Soviet era.

Researcher Tatiana Mikhaylova at the University of Gävle now sees how the same pattern is repeated in today's Russia: the state sees private education as a threat because it risks spreading undesirable ideas.

"We often think that public schools stand for democracy, but in authoritarian regimes it is the opposite. In some cases, it is precisely in informal or private education that critical thinking takes place," says Tatiana Mikhaylova, Senior Lecturer in Education.

The study by Tatiana Mikhaylova and Mark Bray (University of Hong Kong) is published in the European Journal of Education and is based on a historical analysis of shadow education in Russia and the Soviet Union and the period after its collapse. Tatiana Mikhaylova started work as a PhD student in 2017, with a particular interest in how the state manages education that it does not control.

By examining advertisements for private education in newspapers, the public debate on education, and policy documents in Russia from the 18th century onwards, the picture of the state's approach to private education and its expansion is emerging.

The results became even more relevant with the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

"It is frightening how similar today's Russian rhetoric on private education sounds to that of the 19th century. It's about suspicion of foreign ideas, control over the writing of history, and limiting dissent".

The shadow of education hides resistance

Mikhaylova's research shows that private education has existed on a large scale even when it was formally banned. During the Soviet era, private tutors existed in both natural and social sciences, often informally and hidden from the authorities. In today's Russia, the focus is more on concerns about the content of teaching than the private funding that was banned during the Soviet era.

"Today, it is not the money that worries the authorities, but the ideas. It's about subjects like history and civics, where private actors can choose to call the war in Ukraine a war rather than a military special operation, which is forbidden in state schools. "Obviously, the state is worried about it," says Tatiana Mikhaylova.

According to her, in many cases there is a tacit agreement between teachers, parents and children in private education to avoid propaganda, unlike in state schools, where "discussions on important issues", which are essentially pure propaganda, have become a compulsory part of the weekly curriculum.

"A silent resistance"

Following the 2020 presidential elections in Belarus, there were attempts to restrict private education there too. There have been discussions about banning groups larger than five people, or distance learning that does not follow the state curriculum.

"The state is trying to control the content of education by banning the "dissemination of destructive information", which includes knowledge that the regime considers contrary to the traditional values of the Belarusian people - in practice, Western ideas. But there is a kind of silent resistance in private education", says Tatiana Mikhaylova.

Tatiana Mikhaylova is clear that she does not know exactly how widespread shadow education is in Russia today - there are no reliable statistics. But according to her research, since the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine, private tutoring has increased again.

"When I grew up in Russia in the 1990s, almost everyone had some kind of private tutor. It was no big deal, it was the norm. But today, the climate is much more controlled. Some parents pay for private tuition to increase their children's chances of going to university and thus avoiding military service - others to avoid brainwashing their children".