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Education in the Soviet Union was guaranteed as aconstitutional right to all people provided throughstate schools anduniversities. The education system that emerged after the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922 became internationally renowned for its successes in eradicating illiteracy and cultivating a highly educated population.[1] Its advantages were total access for all citizens and post-education employment. The Soviet Union recognized that the foundation of their system depended upon an educated population and development in the broad fields ofengineering, thenatural sciences, thelife sciences andsocial sciences, along with basiceducation.[2]
InImperial Russia, according to the 1897Population Census,literate people made up 28.4 percent of thepopulation. A mere 13% of women were literate.
In the first year after the 1917Bolshevik revolution, the schools were left very much to their own devices due to the ongoingcivil war of 1917–1923. ThePeople's Commissariat for Education directed its attention solely towards introducingpolitical propaganda into the schools and forbiddingreligious teaching. In the autumn of 1918 theUniform Labour School Regulations were issued for theRSFSR.[3]From October 1, 1918, all types of schools came under Commissariat for Education and were designated by the name "Uniform Labour School". They were divided into two levels: the first for children from 8 to 13, and the second for children from 14 to 17. During the8th Party Congress in March 1919, the creation of the newsocialist system of education was said to be the major aim of theSoviet government.[4] After that, Soviet school policy underwent numerous radical changes.
The period of theFirst World War (1914–1918), of theRussian Civil War (1917–1923) and ofwar communism (1918–1921) led to sharp drops in the number of schools and of enrolled students. Whereas in 1914, 91% of the children were receiving instruction in schools, in 1918 figure dropped to 62%, in 1919 to 49% and in 1920 to 24.9%.[5] As a result, illiteracy grew rapidly.
In accordance with theSovnarkom decree of 26 December 1919, signed by its chairmanVladimir Lenin, the newpolicy oflikbez (Russian:ликвидация безграмотности,romanized: likvidatsiya bezgramotnosti,lit. 'liquidation of illiteracy'), was introduced. A new system of universalcompulsory education was established forchildren. Moreover, millions of illiterate adult people all over the country, including residents of small towns and villages, were enrolled in specialliteracy schools.Komsomol members andYoung Pioneer detachments played an important role in the education of illiterate people invillages. In theAzerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, the women's literacy campaign was largely carried out by members of theAli Bayramov Club, a women's organization founded by Azeri Bolshevik women in Baku in 1920.[6] The most active phase oflikbez lasted until 1939. In 1926, theliteracy rate was 56.6 percent of the population. By 1937, according tocensus data, the literacy rate was 86% for men and 65% for women, with a total literacy rate of 75%.[7]
An important aspect of the early campaign for literacy and education was the policy of "indigenisation" (korenizatsiya). This policy, which lasted essentially from the mid-1920s to the late 1930s, promoted the development and use of non-Russian local and regional languages in the government, the media, and education. Intended to counter the historical practices ofRussification, it had as another practical goal assuring native-language education as the quickest way to increase educational levels of future generations. A huge network of so-called "national schools" was established by the 1930s, and enrollments continued to grow throughout the Soviet era. Language policy changed over time, perhaps marked first of all in the government's mandating in 1938 the teaching of Russian as a requiredsubject of study in every non-Russian school, and then especially beginning in the latter 1950s in a growing conversion of non-Russian schools to use Russian as the main medium of instruction.[8] However, an important legacy of the native-language and bilingual education policies over the years was the nurturing of widespread literacy in dozens oflanguages of indigenous nationalities of theUSSR, accompanied by widespread and growing bilingualism where Russian was said to be the "language of internationality communication"[9][10](Russian:язык межнационального общения).
In 1923 a new school statute and curricula, based on theDalton plan[1], were adopted. Schools were divided into three separate types, designated by the number of years of instruction: "four-year", "seven-year" and "nine-year" schools. Seven- and nine-year (secondary) schools were scarce, compared to the "four-year" (primary) schools, making it difficult for the pupils to complete their secondary education. Those who finished seven-year schools had the right to enterTechnicums. Only nine-year schooling led directly to university-level education.[citation needed]
The curriculum was changed[citation needed] radically. Independent subjects, such as reading, writing, arithmetic, the mother tongue, foreign languages, history, geography, literature or science were abolished. Instead school programmes were subdivided into "complex themes", such as "the life and labour of the family in village and town" for the first year or "scientific organisation of labour" for the 7th year of education. This system proved a complete failure, however, and in 1928 a new programme completely abandoned the complex themes and resumed instruction in individual subjects.
All students were required to take the same standardised classes. This continued until the 1970s, when older students began being given time to take elective courses of their own choice in addition to the standard courses.[11]
From 1918 all Soviet schools wereco-educational. In 1943, urban schools were separated into boys' and girls' schools.[12] In 1954 the mixed-sex education system was restored.[13]
Research and education, in all subjects[14] but especially in thesocial sciences, was dominated byMarxist-Leninistideology and supervised by theCPSU. Such domination led to abolition of whole academic disciplines such asgenetics.[15] Some scholars were purged as they were proclaimedbourgeois during that period. Most of the abolished branches of learning wererehabilitated later inSoviet history, in the 1960s–1990s (e.g., genetics in October 1964), although many purged scholars were rehabilitated only in post-Soviet times. In addition, many textbooks - such as history ones - were full of ideology and propaganda, and contained factually inaccurate information (seeSoviet historiography).[16] The educational system's ideological pressure continued, but in the 1980s, the government's more open policies influenced changes that made the system more flexible[17]. Shortly before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, schools no longer had to teach subjects from the Marxist-Leninist perspective at all.[18]
Another aspect of the inflexibility was the high rate at which pupils were held back and required to repeat a year of schooling. In the early 1950s, typically 8–10% of pupils in elementary grades were held back a year. This was partly attributable to the pedagogical style of teachers, and partly to the fact that many of these children haddisabilities that impeded their performance. In the latter 1950s, however, the Ministry of Education began to promote the formation of a wide variety of special schools (or "auxiliary schools") for children with physical or mental handicaps.[19] Once those children were taken out of the mainstream (general) schools, and once teachers began to be held accountable for the repeat-rates of their pupils, the rates fell sharply. By the mid-1960s the repeat-rates in the general primary schools declined to about 2%, and by the late 1970s to less than 1%.[20]
The number of schoolchildren enrolled in special schools grew fivefold between 1960 and 1980. However, the availability of such special schools varied greatly from onerepublic to another. On aper capita basis, such special schools were most available in theBaltic republics, and least in theCentral Asian ones. This difference probably had more to do with the availability of resources than with the relative need for the services by children in the two regions.[21][need quotation to verify]
In the 1970s and 1980s, approximately 99.7% of Soviet people wereliterate.[22]
The Soviet educational system was organized into three levels. The names of these levels were and are still used to rate the education standards of persons or particular schools, despite differences in the exact terminology used by each profession or school. Military,militsiya,KGB andParty schools were also graded according to these levels.[citation needed] This distinguishes the Soviet system from the rest of the world, where educational levels of schools may differ, despite their similar names.
Elementary schools were called the "beginning" level (Russian:начальное,nachalnoye), 4 and later 3 classes. Secondary schools were 7 and later 8 classes (required completing elementary school) and called "incomplete secondary education" (Russian:неполное среднее образование,nepolnoye sredneye obrazavaniye). This level wascompulsory for all children (since 1958–1963) and optional for under-educated adults (who could study in so-called "evening schools"). Since 1981, the "complete secondary education" level (10 or, in some republics, 11 years) wascompulsory.[citation needed]
10 classes (11 classes in the Baltic republics) of an ordinary school was called "secondary education" (Russian:среднее образование—literally, "middle education").[citation needed]
PTUs, tekhnikums, and some military facilities formed a system of so-called “secondary specialized education” (Russian:среднее специальное,sredneye spetsialnoye). PTU's were vocational schools and trained students in a wide variety of skills ranging from mechanic to hairdresser. Completion of a PTU after primary school did not provide a full secondary diploma or a route to such a diploma. However, entry to a tekhnikum or other specialized secondary school could be started after either 8 or 10 classes of combined education in elementary and secondary school.Graduation from this level was required for the positions of qualified workers, technicians and lowerbureaucrats (see alsovocational education,professions,training).
“Higher” (Russian:высшее,vyssheye) educational institutions includeddegree-level facilities:universities, “institutes” and military academies. "Institute" in the sense of a school refers to a specialized "microuniversity" (mostly technical), usually subordinate to theministry associated with their field of study. The largest network "institutes" were medical,pedagogic (for the training of schoolteachers), construction and various transport (automotive and road, railroad, civil aviation) institutes. Some of those institutes were present in everyoblast capital while others were unique and situated in big cities (like the Literature Institute and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology ). Colloquially these universities and institutes were all referred to by the acronym "VUZ" (ВУЗ – высшее учебное заведение, "higher educational institution").[citation needed]
There was also a category of secondary schools specialized in advanced teaching of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and foreign languages. Advanced teaching of sciences started in the upper grades, while advanced teaching of languages could start from the first grade.
Students who wanted admission to a VUZ had to have graduated from either a general secondary school (10 or 11 years) or a specialized secondary school or a tekhnikum. Those who completed only vocational school (PTU) or "incomplete secondary school" were not certified as having completed secondary education (they lacked anаттестат зрелости – maturity certificate – or equivalent diploma from a specialized secondary school) and were thus not eligible to attend a VUZ.[citation needed]
Military andmilitsiya (police) schools (Russian:высшее училище/школа,vyshee uchilische/shkola) were on the same higher level. Note that Soviet military andmilitsiya facilities named "Academy" (Russian:Академия,Akademiya) were not a degree-level school (like Westernmilitary academies such asWest Point), but apost-graduate school for experienced officers. Such schools were compulsory for officers applying for therank ofcolonel. (seeSoviet military academies)
KGB's higher education institutions were called either "schools" (like "Higher School of KGB") or "institutes" (like "Red Banner Institute of KGB" - training specificallyintelligence officers).[citation needed]
CPSU's higher education institutions were called "Higher Party Schools" (Russian:Высшая партийная школа,vysshaya partiynaya shkola).[citation needed]
The spirit andstructure of Soviet education is mostly inherited by manypost-Soviet countries despite formal changes and social transitions.[citation needed]
Russian was the language of public business, the official language of 'internationality communication.'
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