In Russia, the share of schoolchildren who continue their education in high school after the 9th grade fell to 42.7% in the 2025/2026 academic year, compared to 55.7% ten years ago. This was reported by UNN with reference to the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
Details
According to Ukrainian intelligence, the Russian Federation is deliberately reorienting teenagers towards vocational schools, where they quickly acquire practical skills and enter the labor market. At the same time, the Russian authorities are consistently narrowing access to higher education: increasing tuition fees, reducing state-funded places, and complicating admission.
Particularly indicative is the focus on the defense industry. Graduates after the 9th grade are actively involved in technical specialties, including drone production. In February-March 2026, a large-scale campaign was launched on Russian social networks in support of the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan: teenagers reported that they were studying at the Alabuga Polytechnic College and were already working at a drone factory with the prospect of earning up to 150,000 rubles in one or two years. Famous bloggers were paid from 250,000 to 1.5 million rubles for posting such videos, which indicates a coordinated state PR operation, not spontaneous audience interest.
The intelligence agency notes: the result of this policy may be the formation of an entire generation of Russians with limited access to full-fledged education - prepared not for development, but for performing specific production tasks, primarily in the military-industrial complex.
Recall
Since the beginning of the full-scale aggression against Ukraine, Russia has been rapidly losing foreign business and investments. In particular, the number of companies with foreign capital in the Russian Federation decreased by 35.5% - to 14.3 thousand as of April 2026.