Complex setup: what will the global reorganization in education lead to?
The authorities of the Yaroslavl region have announced a new wave of associations in the field of education: following the many schools that have turned into education centers, all boarding schools, additional education centers, etc. are being brought under one legal entity. Experts interviewed by Izvestia emphasize that this is not at all the same optimization that led to the closure of many schools and kindergartens in the 2000s, however, there may be losses here too. Izvestia examined the pros and cons of the global reorganization of the education sector using the example of the Yaroslavl Region.
Association of schools in the Yaroslavl region
In January, the Ministry of Education of the Yaroslavl Region announced that the Center for Children and Youth, the Center for Technical Creativity for Children and Youth, and the Center for Children's and Youth Tourism and Excursions would merge into a single Center for Children and Youth. Minister Irina Loboda said that this would "expand the range of additional general education programs."
The Center for Helping Children and the Center for Professional Guidance and Psychological Support "Resource" will also be combined into a single center for helping children "Resource".
The regional educational center "New School", where students were engaged in Olympiad training, and the children's camp "Chaika" will also become one organization. The authorities promise that this will open up "new opportunities for specialized and thematic shifts."
All boarding schools in the region are being integrated into several legal structures, and the Center for Educational Assessment and Quality Control and the Center for Telecommunications and Information Systems in Education will be attached to the Institute for Educational Development.
In each case, as the Ministry of Education emphasizes, the reduction will affect only administrative staff, but not teachers. The merged institutions themselves do not plan to close.
The merger of educational institutions in the region has been going on for a long time. Thus, schools No. 7, 42 and 49, kindergartens No. 37, 75, 102, 124 have become educational complex No. 1. Colleges and institutions of additional education are merging. But, for example, the association of art schools in Uglich with a library and a cultural center was abandoned after appeals from parents: otherwise, schools could lose funding and the right to issue educational documents.
Similar processes are underway in other regions, in particular, in Izhevsk, where schools are being integrated.
How is the school merger going?
Alexey Sokolov, chairman of the Yaroslavl Regional Organization of the All-Russian Trade Union of Education, told Izvestia that the reorganization of educational institutions has been underway since the end of 2024. The trade union is in contact with the regional and municipal authorities on this issue and notes its "readiness to discuss this topic at all interested dialogue platforms."
Alexey Sokolov assured that the process is not accompanied by a reduction in the budget financing of the industry and a reduction in teachers. On the contrary, there is a significant increase in salaries due to a decrease in the number of administrative, training and support staff.
"The following fact is indicative: for the entire time of the reorganization processes, the regional trade union organization has not received a single employee appeal in connection with a violation of their professional or labor rights," he said.
Larisa Kirpicheva, a member of the independent trade union of educational workers "Uchitel", a teacher at a school in the village of Ishnya, said that her organization is also united with five other schools and nine kindergartens from nearby settlements. At the same time, restructuring is taking place in the village administrations, she said. Teachers are keeping their jobs, and the school buildings themselves are not being closed — only some administrative staff, as well as technical services, will be cut. In this situation, she believes, the burden will increase on school principals, who will have to take on additional responsibilities. The school itself is now called the Education Center.
Larisa Kirpicheva stressed that no one has any sharply negative attitude towards the changes taking place yet, but it is too early to draw any conclusions about this.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Education and the government of the Yaroslavl Region, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation did not answer Izvestia's question about the attitude to such a massive reorganization of educational institutions in the regions, emphasizing that this falls within the competence of the authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
What are the risks of school unification?
Natalia Tarasova, a leading researcher at the Higher School of Economics Scientific and Educational Development Center of the Presidential Academy, noted that the unification of educational institutions in the Yaroslavl Region fits into the all-Russian trend of optimizing the education system. Previously, it has already affected a number of subjects of the Russian Federation, including Moscow and the Moscow region.
— Formally, such measures are aimed at improving managerial efficiency, more rational use of resources and equalizing the quality of educational services, — said the interlocutor of Izvestia. — However, this practice has known risks. In particular, enlargement may lead to the loss of the uniqueness of individual institutions, especially in the field of additional education and specialized programs.
She noted that when an independent organization becomes a branch, its symbolic status, recognition, and ability to develop its own educational identity decrease.
This is also happening in the Yaroslavl region in the field of children's recreation. As of October 2025, there were 26 country camps in the Yaroslavl Region, of which 20 were municipal or state—owned and six were private. And most of the municipal and state camps, as reported to Izvestia by the Children's Camps Development Fund, are being optimized.
Among these camps is the legendary International Children's Computer Center in Pereslavl-Zalessky, which was founded 40 years ago by academician Evgeny Velikhov. In 1988, it received the status of a UNESCO Associated School. The camp is due to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2026, and the children who regularly come to the center have been looking forward to this event.
However, in 2021, the MDCC was transferred from the A.K. Aylamazyan Institute of Software Systems of the Russian Academy of Sciences to the Yaroslavl Region for free use and the Eaglet Center was incorporated into the MU. The status and name were retained, but at the end of last year it became clear that the merger would now follow a tougher scenario: several camps would operate under the Perspektiva institution brand, the MDCC would not be an independent structure and would not even retain its name.
According to Izvestia, the fate of the camp is still in limbo. As of January 2026, only the permanent director of the MDCC, Peter Ustyukov, is on staff; he cannot yet recruit a team for the summer period. Meanwhile, half of the tickets for 2026 have already been sold out.
— I was in the administration of Pereslavl-Zalessky last week. Unfortunately, they believe that this is just a camp where children come to relax and breathe fresh air. But this is a camp with its own huge history, unique program and its own methods," said one of the mothers with many children, who annually sent children to the MDCC.
She notes that the city administration explains the desire to change something by saying that recreation in this camp is too expensive for local children (55 thousand rubles). However, students from all over Russia came to the MDCC, not just from Pereslavl-Zalessky: from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl, and even from other countries.
So far, taking into account that the sale of vouchers for the anniversary shifts is already half completed, there is a possibility that the shifts will still take place in 2026.
The administration of Pereslavl-Zalessky told Izvestia before the New Year that children whose parents had already purchased vouchers would be accepted to the Eaglet Children's Recreation and Recreation Center and would "have fun and usefully spend the upcoming holidays." At the same time, they assured that the city would not abandon the MDCC format.
The government of the Yaroslavl Region did not respond to Izvestia's questions about this camp.
What are the advantages of reorganizing
Natalia Tarasova notes that the current reorganization processes cannot be directly compared with the optimization of the 2000s. At that time, this was due to a direct reduction in budget expenditures and the closure of small-scale and rural schools. Modern approaches declare the preservation of infrastructure and its adaptation to new conditions.
— Of course, the risks remain: with insufficient funding and weak quality control, transformations can lead to the same effects as in the 2000s, - said the interlocutor of Izvestia. — Therefore, the key question today is not the fact of the reorganization itself, but whether it will be accompanied by real investments and responsible management, and not just cost reduction.
Irina Abankina, a professor at the HSE Institute of Education, recalled the restructuring process in Moscow, where combining schools into educational complexes had positive effects primarily due to the release of additional resources and new investments in the education system.
— Yes, this integration did not go smoothly and successfully everywhere: there was resistance from families, and schools that had very different potentials were often "leveled," says the Izvestia interlocutor. — But there were obvious positive results. And the results of students of educational complexes — this has been emphasized by many studies and monitoring — are higher one way or another.
In other regions of the federation, such a reorganization of educational institutions is encountering much greater resistance, says Natalia Tarasova. First of all, because the regions do not have the same financial resources, it is also impossible to invest in the development and renewal of personnel. As a result, the restructuring can be reduced to optimizing resources and reducing staff with additional workload.
Igor Murog, a member of the Federation Council Committee on Science, Education and Culture, is confident that now the regions' work to unite organizations in the field of education "is aimed not at reducing, but at improving the efficiency of the system."
— First of all, we are talking about updating managerial and infrastructural approaches so that children and teachers are more comfortable studying and working, rather than mechanical enlargement. At the same time, the decision is not made without taking into account the opinions of parents, the teaching community and the students themselves," the Izvestia interlocutor emphasizes.
And Larisa Solodilova, chairman of the All-Russian Trade Union of Education, calls understandable the anxiety and unrest of residents of the Yaroslavl region, because the reorganization process there is really very large-scale.
"But in the region, the emphasis is not on simple mechanical unification, but on creating synergy between different types of institutions, not on simple consolidation, but on creating a fundamentally new quality of the educational ecosystem," she said. — Much will depend on the quality of management, the flexibility of the model, and the active involvement of the professional community in the decision-making process.
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