FEATURES

New steps in Soviet education
made in 1984 Reform Program

The system of public education in the
Soviet Union — the education of all
people — has played a key role in raising
the Soviet people to the summits of world
culture and in the rapid economic and social
progress of the world’s first socialist state.
No other social system could have done so
much for the education and the intellectual
and cultural development of the people in
such a short space of time.

The current reform of the education sys-
tem is a logical progression from the first
reform in 1918. At that time, a few months
after the establishment of Soviet rule, 79 per
cent of the people were illiterate. A new
school system with heavy emphasis on
vocational training was introduced.

The second landmark came in 1930 when
universal, compulsory four-year education
was instituted.

By the end of the ’30s, there was seven-
year compulsory: schooling for all, with
vastly increased opportunities for secon-
dary and higher education. Further pro-
gress was disrupted by the Great Patriotic
War of 1941-1945.

In 1958, following the restoration and
refinement of the education system, com-
pulsory eight-year education for all children
was launched, with a renewed emphasis on
work skills as prerequisites for college.

By the mid-’70s, a program for 10-year
compulsory education was completed.

Education in the rural areas is rapidly
catching up to the level of towns and cities.
In non-Russian areas, the schools use essen-
tially the same syllabus, with special atten-
tion to such subjects as local history,
geography and literature. The Soviet school
system is multi-ethnic, with teaching in 52
languages.

_ In 1984, after a wide, public debate
involving nearly half the population, a new
education reform program was enacted by
the Supreme Soviet (parliament). Said Edu-
cation Minister Mikhail Prokofiev: “We
plan to put all branches of the economy on
the technology frontier, to radically boost
Productivity and to produce goods of world
standard. This implies highly educated peo-
Ple capable of independent thought and
with high working skills.”

Compulsory education will be extended
from 10 to 11 years. Children will be
enrolled at age six, instead of age seven,
although not all schools are equipped yet to
take in six-year olds.

In September, 1984, 1,200,000 six-year-
Olds enrolled. In years to come, enrollment

Will reach nearly four times that number.

The structure of the compulsory school
System will be as follows:

© Primary — four years;
15). Basic Secondary — five years (to age

© Advanced Secondary — school child-
Ten will have the choice of finishing classes

Inthe 10th and 11th grades, or at vocational |

and technical schools.

Individual talents of pupils will be deve-
loped through the re-introduction of
Optional, extra lessons involving advanced
Studies in mathematics and physics, chemis-
try and the social sciences.

The school-leaving certificate will give
17-year-olds a choice between higher educa-
ton, further vocational training or work in
the economy with skills gained at school.

The key concept of the reform is the idea
of improving work studies and vocational
8uidance at schools, of combining produc-
tive work with study. The plan is to give
young people the basic skills of a job by the
time they leave the secondary school.

Children will be acquainted with methods
Used in all the most important forms of

Work, both in workshops and in real life.

is method has been in effect since 1918,

but it will be further refined. a

From Moscow
Jack Phillips

A special program will give all school
children certain basic work skills. Senior
grades will have a slightly reduced summer
vacation to enable them to receive more
work experience.

Usefulness of real work done will be
stressed, with due allowance for age and

local conditions. Emphasis will be placed on —

the work being rational and in line with
modern technology. The first four grades
will teach basic methods of manual work
involving various materials, through per-
forming minor repairs to textbooks, grow-
ing plants and making toys and other items
useful at school, kindergarten or in the
home.

The fifth to ninth grades will give stu-
dents a general foundation in metalwork,
woodwork, technical drawing, the main
economic sectors and environmental legis-
lation. This will provide a basis for work in
the mass trades during the 10th and 11th
grades. Consideration will be given to the
urban or rural situation, male and female
favored jobs and state manpower needs.

Such a vast program could not be under-
taken by the school system alone. The
involvement of industry, agriculture and the
service sector is essential and these must
consider the schools as affiliates for which
they are responsible. Enterprises paired
with schools are obliged to provide work
equipment and space and to fit out work
studies classrooms and workshops in
schools.

Each school-leaver will have both a
secondary education certificate and a voca-
tional certificate. The reform aims to reverse
current ratios of two to one in favor of
remaining at school for finishing classes
(grades 10 and 11) over taking two years of
vocational training.

Eleventh-grade school-leavers, in order
to improve their skills or to learn a more
complicated trade, can enroll in the relevant
department at a vocational secondary

school with a term period of up to one year. .
Others after completing the ninth grade,

will be encouraged to study at a vocational
secondary school for a period of three years.

Specialized seocndary schools for teacher
training, medical trades and medium-level
specialists and executives for industrial pro-
duction, public health services, cultural
institutions and the service industries will be
enlarged in scope. It will be available to
both ninth-grade and 1 1th grade graduates.

Teachers’ qualifications are to be up-
graded and teaching methods are to be
modernized by the increased use of compu-
ter and microprocessor technology.

The new requirements born of the
reform, will include more studies of the
humanities and physical training and will
mean more jobs for teachers, kindergarten
works and work instructors. The problem is
not merely one of substantially increasing
the number of teachers from the current
number of three million; there will also have
to be a refinement in teacher training practi-
ces.
That will involve changes at the various
higher education institutions and colleges.
For example, trainees will have to study
industry as it is today, its future needs and
career guidance. The guidelines for the
reform also stipulate that teachers must be
equipped with a more extensive back-
ground in ethics, aesthetics, logic and law.

Steps will be taken to attract more men to
the teaching profession, especially for the
general education schools. At this time, the
teaching profession at that level is predomi-
nantly staffed by women.

The higher demands placed on teachers
will be matched with higher pay and
improved housing and social benefits. Since
September last year, there has been a round
of pay increases for teachers and other edu-
cation staff. The average salary supplement
will eventually reach 30 and 35 per cent.

As the construction industry is able to
cath up with the demand for new school
buildings and extensions of existing schools,
the ratio of pupils to teachers will be
reduced.

Aside from salary increases for teaching
and other education staff, the state will pro-
vide 11 billion rubles to finance the reform.
This does not include the sums that will be
spent by industry, collective farms, co-
operative organizations and public institu-
tions in organizing and equipping work
places for senior students.

Some 800 vocational training establish-
ments and new schools, with a total capac-
ity of seven million students, will be
provided between 1986 and 1990. Such
rapid rates of construction are made neces-
sary by the extra grade for six-year-olds and
cuts in pupil-teacher ratio.

The vast scope of the reform must be seen
against the background of the great
achievements of socialist construction in the
Soviet Union. There has been full employ-
ment for more than 50 years and, instead of
a shortage of jobs, there is a shortage of
labor. Education, including the provision of
school textbooks, is free of charge at every
level.

No one here claims that the guidelines
laid down for the reform are the last word
on the subject. Experience will dictate any
changes that may have to be made. But one
thing can be said without fear of contradic-

tion: the reform is a reflection of the fact

that Soviet society is moving boldly into the
21st century and aiming for the highest
world level of productivity in every field of
industrial and agricultural endeavor.
When the Soviet leaders say that their
country wants peace and the reduction of
armaments in order to devote a much
greater share of the national product
towards improving the social, cultural and
aesthetic lives of the people, they mean just

~ that.

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