social revolution

letter from saratov

In the first article of a fortnightly series from overseas social workers, Valentina Yarskaya looks back over the first 10 years of social work education in Russia

Last year social work as a profession and educational programme celebrated its 10th anniversary in Russia. The transition to a market economy has led to radical changes in former Soviet society including the emergence of educational programmes and caring professions.

This 10-year period has been a time of growth for social services. Education and professional training of social workers is now established in over 100 higher education institutions all over Russia.

Students who took social work at a university in 2001 differ from the class of 1991. Undergraduates are now more informed about social work's significance. However, almost all of these students come from middle-class urban families and their motivation for helping those in need is rather vague. At the university it is possible to challenge students' views of social problems and those of practical social work through their placements.

However, graduates rarely take up social work jobs because of extremely low pay. The state's inadequate wage policy has only succeeded in reinforcing society's assumption about cheap women's labour.

In general, a social work degree is useful for any career that involves working with people. While social work education is an important background for management or administration in central or local government or welfare services, there is a serious gap between aspirations of students, academic teaching, social policy and practical social work. A national survey shows that only 30 per cent of students find work directly linked to their diploma, while only 10 per cent of social services employees possess relevant qualifications.

In spite of many achievements and good experiences accumulated in social services and academic learning in Russia, there is still a long way to go. For example, social work is widely held as something suited to certain female characteristics (such as kindness and patience) and not something requiring professional education, knowledge of ethics and skills based on theories. At the same time, there are similarities between social work in Russia and that in the West. While many societies benefit a lot from social workers there is a shared low prestige and low pay in the profession.

One of the main differences, however, is that while in the West the rise of the welfare state is usually seen as emerging from grass-roots activism and other civic initiatives, today's Russia has had to deal with the post-Soviet issue of a weak civil society, because during the socialist regime, activism was prohibited because of the ideology of "democratic centralism" focused on the all-encompassing state.

Today there are hundreds of independent and charitable organisations focused on direct services and advocacy throughout the country. They work on issues ranging from human rights and freedom of the press to environmental protection and improved health care. However, their voice is still weak in the public arena where statutory social services are trying to build a new system of community care.

Valentina Yarskaya is part-time professor consultant at the Volga training centre of the ministry of labour and social development, and is full professor of social work affiliated to the department of social anthropology and social work at the Saratov state technical university

Background

l Russia (Rossiya), the largest country in the world in terms of area, covers 17 million square kilometres - about 70 times the size of the UK - and has a population of 146 million.

l Ethnic groups: Russian 81.5 per cent; Tatar 3.8 per cent; Ukrainian 3 per cent; Bashkir 0.9 per cent; Byelorussian 0.8 per cent; Moldavian 0.7 per cent.

l Saratov is a city with of one million people and is the capital of the Saratovskaya region. It is 1,000 kilometres south east of Moscow in the European part of Russia.

l The network of social services in Saratov includes more than 130 agencies. There are 42 community centres of social services in the regional towns and districts of Saratov (compared to just 20 in 1993). The total number of social services staff in the region is about 6,200 - including almost 5,000 social workers and specialists in social care.