In Russia, a transition is underway to results-oriented management and budgeting. One of its signifi cant components is the development of indicators of eff ectiveness and effi ciency of government bodies and government-managed organizations. International practice demonstrates that the degree of satisfaction of customers is an important indicator of the eff ectiveness of central and local government bodies. In numerous countries, data of sociological surveys in particular are extensively used in education management. The article presents the results of a survey conducted by the HSE jointly with the Levada Center. The survey was conducted at the request of the Federal Education Agency. On the whole, the Russian education system received suffi ciently high scores from a representative sample of its customers, the Russian population. On the other hand, the respondents negatively evaluated the measures taken by the authorities towards the education system. The next stages of the project are scheduled to include the polling of heads of enterprises and organizations.