Between School and College: Is the Gap Getting Wider? Thoughts of a Sociology Instructor

This article focuses on the difficulties afflicting the system of higher education as a result of the decline in the overall level of student training and the "gap between the level of education of secondary school graduates and historically established requirements of higher education in Russia." The author has been teaching sociology majors in a number of the higher educational institutions of Moscow since 1989, the year in which higher sociological education was institutionalized in the country. With the decline in the overall training of the graduates of secondary school, the author examines secondary school graduates' knowledge in two disciplines that are of fundamental importance for future sociologists--history and mathematics. The author presents a wish list to the schools. The article further focuses on a number of the factors that account for secondary school graduates' lack of the knowledge and the ability to read and analyze texts that are necessary for success in institutions of higher learning. Drawing on his personal pedagogical experience, the author also examines a number of facts that reflect the statistical trend and presents conclusions. (Contains 5 notes.)