Problems of family education in Karelia: why children are left without school graduation documents

In the republic, cases have become more frequent when a change in the format of education turns into an inability for teenagers to obtain a certificate. A striking example is the story of a 19-year-old boy whose education actually stopped in the seventh grade. After his parents transferred him to homeschooling, they did not care about attaching him to an educational institution. As a result, control over academic performance disappeared, and years later it turned out that the guy can neither finish school nor go to college: he is not accepted into ordinary classes because of his age, and there are practically no evening schools in the region.

Gennady Saraev, the children’s ombudsman of Karelia, expresses serious concern. Family education is increasingly becoming a tool for "getting rid of" problem students, he said. Schools are pushing parents to do so in order to improve academic performance and remove responsibility for children who are left behind. As a result, the entire burden falls on the shoulders of the family, which often does not cope with the program.

Statistics confirm the negative trend: if in 2024 73 children switched to family education, in 2025 this figure reached 125 people. The leader in the number of such cases remains Petrozavodsk.