ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE BEST UNIVERSITIES AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE MACROREGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
The article examines the distribution of schools and higher educational institutions included in the TOP-100 lists by macroregions of the Russian Federation. Each macroregion and cities equated to macroregions (Moscow and St. Petersburg) are characterized by the number of points scored by these educational institutions. It is noted that the strongest positions in both schools and universities are held by Moscow Urals, the Volga region, St. Petersburg, Central Non-Black Earth Region and Western Siberia. Two macroregions were identified that scored high scores in universities and low scores in schools - South-West and Central Black Earth Region. There are no macro-regions that combine strong positions in schools and weak ones in universities. It was found that the North-West, North-East of the European part, the North Caucasus, Eastern Siberia and the Far East have weak positions both in schools and universities. It is noted that the weakness of the eastern macroregions of Russia (Eastern Siberia and the Far East) in terms of these indicators is combined with the numerous and systemic elements of the socio-economic lag of these macroregions. In this context, the prevalence of protest electoral behavior, which manifested itself in particular in the results of the All-Russian vote on the approval of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and the proximity to these macro-regions with strong geopolitical and geo-economic actors (China, Japan, South Korea, the United States), matters. It is assumed that overcoming the backlog of the eastern macroregions in the field of education should be one of the directions of the state’s regional policy. In our opinion, the «growth point» in Eastern Siberia is Irkutsk, in the Far East - Vladivostok.