Education is the key to shaping future elites

The role of children's education in the value system of wealthy parents

The role of education for wealthy parents is no longer limited to their child receiving a simple amount of knowledge, even extensive and high-quality.

Every time when choosing a school or university, parents are primarily guided by the potential for a social lift for their children provided by this educational institution.

The level of material resources, quality of food and other services are important when comparing the potential of a social lift and tuition fees in different schools.

This motivation of parents can be compared with the motivation of investing in the fixed capital of a company for its owner.

The predicted role of education in the system of development priorities of modern Russian society for the next 20 years

The “school-university-top career” elevators, which have a future in the present tense, are determined by the social and professional structure of the elite of society in the coming decades. Therefore, for the optimal construction of such elevators, it is necessary to predict the structure of society in the coming decades.

The central point of view in modern society is that in the coming decades, the political and economic systems of the leading developed countries of the world will inevitably focus on systemic modernization. This is due to the need for society to respond to the many different challenges and imbalances that have arisen in recent years, both on a national scale and global challenges.

The goal of such modernization should be the prevalence of intellectual policy at the state level, ensuring an intellectual economy.

The importance and inevitability of such modernization is also due to the fact that during this period of time revolutionary breakthroughs are not excluded and are expected in such key areas for the life of society as alternative energy, biopharmacology, process automation systems in the industrial and social spheres.

It is likely that this progress can lead to a new technological structure of society and an associated political and economic structure.

Therefore, countries with a strong emphasis on the development of hi-tech industries and stable political systems will have a competitive advantage.

In particular, for Russia it will necessarily be a more complex and technologically advanced political system than the current one, using not only vertical political mechanisms and a raw material economy, but also balanced horizontal mechanisms and an intelligent high-tech economy.

Thus, modernization should become a natural mechanism for balancing a system of challenges for the struggling economies of leading countries and problems with the flexibility of political systems in a number of these countries.

Corresponding modernization must also occur at the institutional level, including the school and university education systems.

Economic, fundamental, technological and humanitarian education will be forced to interact harmoniously, producing the elite of a new level of society. The society of the new generation will need a smart elite that develops and applies global, synthetic, systemic and responsible methods in politics and economics. The degree of intelligence of the elite will be based on the synthetic structure of education.

The key links in the chain of high-quality synthesis of knowledge in Russia in this optimistic logic will be schools and universities of international level. They will be attributes of the competitiveness of Russia’s own education system - an integral component of a competitive economy.

The central outcome of this knowledge synthesis process should be a sustainable process of transforming knowledge into technologies useful for the development of society. The elite of the future must ensure this complex process.

Optimal structuring of the educational environment

The most natural way to train top-level personnel for the intellectual economy and policy of the future is to create links of flagship schools, universities and global private and public structures that provide this personnel foundation and a system of professional elevators for young people.

Such connections of schools, universities and supporting structures of society must synthesize fundamental, technological, economic and humanitarian knowledge and produce top-level specialists.

The modern system of connections of specialized schools and highly specialized universities (in terms of the scale of the markets for which their teachers and staff work) works largely “bypass” the top labor market, if these universities are not associated with global market operators or government agencies.

The specialized school-university link does not cover the entire range of competencies necessary for integration into the global economic and political structures of society. In order to be in demand in the top labor market today, graduates of such courses usually need to obtain another higher education.

Therefore, the most promising model of universal education at the School is designed to be integrated into connections that provide maximum professional advancement to its graduates. This will allow us to begin as accurately as possible the construction of individual educational trajectories at the School that have prospects in society in the coming decades.

Predicted image of a representative of the social elite in 10-20 years. optimistic scenario

The predicted economic and political structure of society in 10-20 years gives an image of a successful person in Russia in 10-20 years. This:

- a successful technological entrepreneur who has created a large high-tech business based on the discovery and technological implementation of new ideas that promote the progress of society, and their technological implementation;

— an effective top manager who has built a career in a company operating in the global market;

— a scientist who has achieved the implementation of the results of fundamental science in new generation technologies;

— a high-level civil servant who creates and implements programs for the sustainable development of sectors of the country’s economy;

— a politician who ensures the country’s socio-economic progress and its competitiveness at the international level;

- a recognized figure in science, culture, media or art.

From this follows a system of values, life priorities and human characteristics of a representative of the elite of society in the coming decades:

— balanced fundamental, technological and business education;

— status of a professional in a specific field;

— additional education or work experience in several industries;

— knowledge of several major foreign languages;

— understanding of global trends in society, science, technology, economics, art and politics, philosophical thinking;

— putting forward new original points of view;

— the ability to predict the complex development of the situation and formulate key tasks for long-term planning;

— high management skills, the ability to make decisions and achieve goals;

— creativity of thinking;

— motivation to achieve high results;

— sustainable psychology;

- good health;

- high communication skills;

— systematic, efficient and analytical work;

— a structured and balanced approach to solving problems;

- developing your own and respecting other points of view;

- integrity and responsibility.

Dmitry Abrarov,
Researcher at the Computing Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
chief infrastructure specialist
projects of the Russian Venture Company