Post-communist trends in education : Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States

The education systems of EE/CIS countries have undergone negative changes during the past 16 years. My paper examines these changes, identifies their causes and proposes solutions for improvement. I find that improved educational quality is the key for raising students’ enrolment and achievement. A number of strategies are available to improve quality: at the higher education level, rely to a greater extent on student fees to finance educational costs, while reducing the amount of public support and allocating this support on the basis of academic merit, rather than based on the number of students; at the pre-tertiary level, increase public spending on education and create incentives to efficiency by transferring more decision-making responsibilities to local governments, parents and schools. All these strategies, however, should be implemented with care to protect the children at risk.