Changes in the pre-school education: is Russia headed in the right direction?

The article deals with one of the basic elements of the education system - pre-school education. It examines the impact of institutional changes on the main characteristics of pre-school education - its quality and availability. The urgency of the issue is determined by the vast scale and systematic character of the carried out innovations including: emphasis on development of the private sector, changes in the legislation increasing the «carrying capacity» of institutions, changing the conditions for economic management of budgetary institutions and introduction of the normative per capita funding, transition to a new system of payment and introduction of the institute of «effective contract», passage of the new law «On Education» providing for new forms of pre-school education and changing the order of payment for services of pre-school institutions, approval of the state standard for pre-school education, etc. Credibility of the conclusions is connected with the choice made in favour of the qualitative methods of sociological research - a series of interviews and focus groups, making it possible to reflect the expectations and settings of the main participants of educational relations - parents of pre-school children, teachers and managers of pre-school institutions, government officials, as well as the first results of the reform that can be seen only by studying the actual practice of the various parties in educational relations faced with the need to organize their activities under the new conditions.