45 per cent of respondents say there are far more good schools than bad in their places of residence. 20 per cent are of a contrasting opinion.
However, 42 per cent say there were more good schools in the Soviet years than now. A mere 18 per cent think otherwise. Another 13 per cent say the number of fine schools has stayed unchanged.
What does it take to make a school good? was one of the questions. Good tuition, say 41 per cent. Sophisticated curricula, say 21 per cent. Technical equipment and comfort come third with 19 per cent.
Teacher-student friendliness, which accounts for a beneficial psychological climate, has won a mere 9 per cent. Next come order and discipline, 6 per cent; free tuition, 5 per cent; and hobby circles, 4 per cent.
Some respondents mention teachers' good earnings, student uniforms, an absence of social barriers between pupils, and reliable security. "A good school is a private school," say 1 per cent of pollees.
A bad school has inefficient teachers (28%), inadequate equipment (10%), poor tuition (9%), absence of discipline and control of students (7%), loosely organised tuition (5%), a bad psychological climate (4%), absence of extracurricular work (1%), and underpaid teachers (1%).
Overt and covert bribes extorted from pupils' parents is another salient feature of a bad school, say 7 per cent of respondents. "A bad school? That's where kids smoke and take drugs," said 3 per cent. "All schools are bad now," snapped 1 per cent.
National average expenditures to prepare one child for the new academic year, opening September 1, are 3,879 roubles, roughly US$130, the foundation concluded from its probe.
The probe had 1,500 respondents and based in a hundred urban and rural settlements of 44 constituent entities-regions, territories and republics, which represented Russia's every economic and geographic zone.
