There are about 1700 high schools in Moscow, as well as 91 colleges. 222 institutions offering higher education in Moscow, including 60 state universities. Russia has a free education system guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution, and has a literacy rate of 99.4%.

Public

Public schools are still greatly influenced by the county's Soviet past. In those times, the Soviet government operated virtually all the schools in Russia. The underlying philosophy of Soviet schools was that the teacher's job was to transmit standardized materials to the students, and the student's job was to memorize those materials. In 1992 a reform philosophy was put together to change the laws on Education. The fundamental principle of that law was the removal of state control from education policy.

Russian parents have the option of sending their children to preschool until age seven, when enrolment in elementary school becomes mandatory. In the mid-1990s, Russia had five types of secondary school: regular schools featuring a core curriculum; schools offering elective subjects; schools offering intensive study in elective subjects; schools designed to prepare students for entrance examinations to an institution of higher education; and alternative schools with experimental programs.

For listings of public schools, www.infoservices.com/moscow/.

Private

There are many private schools within Moscow. Many are focused on the language subjects are taught in, but there are many other types of schools. The growth of this market is mostly due to address the need for a skilled work-force for high-tech and emerging industries and economic sectors.

The International School of Moscow is an English Curriculum school, delivering high academic standards and levels of spoken/written English in classrooms. As a member of The British Schools Development Board, the school aims to provide the same education as any top UK school. Located inside an Olympic park, the school is conveniently near international residential areas.

LychiK and Vesnushki has a Kindergarden and K-12 School in Russian. The school has a number of foreign students

Slavic-Anglo-American School "Marina" is a Russian-English elementary, middle and high schools.

British International Schools offers education according to the British National Curriculum, in English.

Hinkson Christian Academy Elementary and secondary school that primarily provides education for the children of Christian missionaries and other Christians working in Moscow.

For more listings, try www.infoservices.com/moscow/.

Libraries

There are 452 libraries throughout the city, including 168 especially dedicated to children.

The Moscow State University library contains over nine million books. It is one of the largest libraries in all of Russia.

The Russian State Library was founded in 1862 and is the national library of Russia. This library holds over 275 kilometres of shelves and forty-two million items. Over 247 languages can be found here.

The State Public Historical Library, founded in 1863, is the largest library specializing in Russian history. Its collection of four million items contains 112 languages (including 47 languages of the former USSR.

Research Centers

Moscow has long been dedicated to the art of science and is known as one of the most important science centers in Russia.
The headquarters of the Russian Academy of Sciences are located in Moscow. The Academy consists of a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals.
The Kurchatov Institute is Russia's leading research and development institution in the field of nuclear energy. This is where the first nuclear reactor in Europe was built.
Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics is a research facility just outside of Moscow.
Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics was established December 1, 1945 and is a community of people studying topics ranging from theoretical physics and mathematics to biology and chemistry.
Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems was founded in 1934 with a focus on low temperature physics, such as superconductivity and superfluidity.
Steklov Institute of Mathematics specializes in mathematics. It was established April 24, 1934 by the decision of the General Assembly of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Leningrad.