Social management of the elderly education system: case of Russia

Abstract

In the context of population ageing, it is expedient for the state to manage the national systems of elderly education. The current article studies the management issues of elderly education programs. Using the case of Russia, it addresses the elderly education projects implemented in four main forms: clubs, lecture courses, educational courses and third age universities. The specific features of each form make it optimal to perform a certain range of educational tasks. The benchmark of the elderly education practices allowed us to identify the classification attributes of the organization forms of educational programs, outline the typology of these forms and determine the scope of their application. The research results show that the form in which the project is implemented is largely determined by the type of organization on the basis of which it operates. The focus area and the main social function of the project’s parent organization significantly affect the effectiveness of educational programs. The paper substantiates that it is feasible to distribute the tasks of elderly education between various agents considering the specifics of their activities and priority forms of educational projects implementation. To do so, the research proposes a management principle for differentiating the functions of the elderly education system. The paper presents recommendations for optimizing the mechanisms for managing the elderly education system and increasing its performance, which can be of use to public authorities.