The best schools in Russia 2024-2025, RAEKh rating

What is the best way to assess the quality of education? The RAEKH rating agency decided to approach this issue from a practical perspective.

The company's experts have compiled a list of the 100 best schools in Russia in 2020, whose students have the greatest chance of entering the country's 48 most famous universities.

Here is the ranking of Russian schools in 2020 that made it into the top ten of RAEKh.

10. Moscow School in the South-West No. 1543, Moscow

From its very foundation, back in Soviet times, this school was considered special. The school's director, Yuri Zavelsky, recruited talented teachers there and created specialized classes specifically for them - math, biology, chemistry.

During his more than 40 years as director, Zavelsky produced many talented students and simply well-connected students (among them, for example, Maxim Galkin). However, it is not easy to become one of them – as parents say, a child should start preparing with a tutor a year or two before entering school.

9. Vologda Multidisciplinary Lyceum, Vologda

A rare "northern bird" among Muscovites, the Vologda Lyceum was originally created with the expectation of working with gifted and talented children. And how to separate a gifted person from a mere mortal? That's right, by holding exams.

To get at least a chance for an elite education, a child should be prepared with tutors or sent to a preparatory, fee-paying school at the lyceum. And then comes the selection, comparable in its rigor to admission to the astronauts.

However, graduates of the Lyceum have repeatedly achieved the 100-point mark on the Unified State Exam, won numerous Olympiads (more than 500 people completed the regional Olympiad with the maximum score) and entered the country's leading universities.

8. School No. 2007, Moscow

Since its inception, this educational institution has focused on elite education, and getting in was not easy. To enter the holy of holies of physics and mathematics education, a child must not only pass exams, but also provide diplomas of a winner (or at least a prize winner) of Olympiads.

But after admission, you won’t be able to relax – as the teachers and former students themselves say, all the time (both academic and free) will be devoted to mathematics and/or physics. Hobbies? You’ll have to forget about it. Weekends? That’s what clubs are for. School holidays? The math school in Crimea awaits your child with open arms. But the Unified State Exam results at School No. 2007 are among the best in Moscow (and in 2018 they were the highest).

7. Phystech Lyceum named after Kapitsa, Dolgoprudny

Seventh place in the ranking of the best Russian schools is located in the Moscow region city of Dolgoprudny. This Phystech Lyceum is dominated by the natural sciences - physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics. In recent years, fashionable programming has also been added.

Children from the street will not get here - they need to be specially prepared for the requirements of the school. And in 2019, the chances of "ordinary" people for an elite education fell even lower. It was announced that the school was changing its state status to private and becoming an autonomous non-profit organization. In honor of which, parents began to be charged a tuition fee of 10 thousand rubles per month.

6. Presidential Physics and Mathematics Lyceum No. 239, St. Petersburg

In terms of the number of elite schools, the northern capital follows the all-Russian capital (9 schools in St. Petersburg versus 50 schools in Moscow). And one of them is school No. 239, and not just any school, but one with traditions. It recently celebrated its centenary.

Since the early 60s of the last century, the lyceum began to specialize in the physics and mathematics direction, and so successfully that since then it has been consistently among the top schools in Russia. From 2015 to 2019, it generally occupied first place. And the number of winners of Olympiads in this educational institution is measured in hundreds.

As parents say, the reason for the school's success is the strict selection of the most talented children, from whom the "random" ones are then methodically weeded out for better results in the report. High competition, strict requirements, and exhausting workloads lead to a high degree of stress in children. But knowledge requires sacrifice.

5. Republican Lyceum for Gifted Children, Saransk

Among the old-timers, Saransk Lyceum is a newcomer (it is only 9 years old). However, over the years, students have earned 20 Olympiad medals, and not regional ones, but international ones. For several years in a row, the Lyceum has been among the top ten most prestigious schools in all of Russia.

The school's director claims that the purpose of its creation was to give talented Mordovian children a start in life, to provide starting conditions for young minds, especially those inclined to natural and exact sciences. And the republican authorities can both pay extra to the teachers who trained the medal-winning Olympiad participants and provide cash prizes to the children themselves.

True, Moscow is not asleep – it is already luring talented Olympiad winners, promising them a “salary” ten times bigger (300 thousand rubles for winning the All-Russian Olympiad versus 30 thousand rubles that the republic can pay). Several children have already “changed their residence permit” in this way. How the battle of wallets for the opportunity to attach a winning Olympiad star to the school flag will end – we will find out in a few years.

4. University Gymnasium of Moscow State University, Moscow

This educational institution opened just four years ago, in 2016. "MSU Gymnasium" is not an empty phrase; classes at the school are taught by teachers straight from the University. Gifted schoolchildren from all over Russia are recruited there for grades 8-11. To be among the chosen 350, schoolchildren must pass entrance exams in several stages.

But then everything around will contribute to the awakening of their creative thoughts – starting from teaching according to a special plan, combining the traditional lesson system with non-linear (whatever that means) classes and ending with original premises.

According to the founders of the educational institution, the original design of the institution should inspire students to original thinking. And apparently, this is true, because the school is considered one of the best in Russia in terms of the number of Olympiad winners and graduates.

3. Physics and Mathematics Lyceum No. 31, Chelyabinsk

Siberians are not far behind Tatarstan in terms of the number of the best schools in Russia in terms of graduates' competitiveness. If there are five such schools in Kazan and the region, then there are four in the Novosibirsk and Chelyabinsk regions. One of them is the lyceum in Chelyabinsk.

As the director says, the reason for the success of the institution entrusted to his care is the high quality of teaching, a close-knit team and the continuation of the traditions of Soviet education.

As usual, to continue the traditions of an elite school, students of the appropriate level are required. Therefore, the school recruits through exams starting from the 5th grade. To be among the chosen ones, the child will have to make serious efforts: attend courses, study with tutors and pass the screening of tough entrance exams. And then study. But for those who have completed the school training, there is a real chance to enter out of competition based on the results of the Olympiads won.

2. Lyceum "Second School", Moscow

Like many other top schools in Russia in 2020, the lyceum has a long and glorious history in the physics and mathematics department, to which chemistry, biology and the humanities were later added.

The lyceum accepts students from grades 6 to 8, based on exam results. In addition to the daytime, basic school, there is also an evening school (something like an expanded system of clubs), where children from grades 2 to 7 study.

In terms of the number of Olympiad winners and those who scored 100 points in the Unified State Exam, "The Second School" is among the best in Moscow and the region. Its program has nothing in common with the school program - everything is its own, based on its own materials. The workload on students is high, they have to study at least six out of seven days a week. At the same time, a four is considered a very good grade, and to get an A, you need to study according to an extended program.

1. SUSC MSU, Moscow

SUNC is one of four schools founded in the 60s of the last century by a special resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR with the purpose of replenishing the physics and mathematics personnel for the country. Academician Kolmogorov, who stood at its origins, saw the awakening of the creative spirit in talented youth as his main and fundamental task.

It is difficult to say anything definite about this most elusive creative spirit, but at the moment SUNC is one of the strongest schools in Russia in terms of the level of preparation of its students. They select there, of course, on a competitive basis, in two rounds. Moreover, as they say, connections do not play any role. The main selection criterion is the child's level of knowledge.

Even at the most competitive school in Russia, there is a special version of it, the summer one. It is something between exams and trial training, so that the child and parents can understand whether they need it at all. Based on the results of training, the child is awarded points, and the higher their number, the greater the chance of getting into the school-scientific elite of the country.