nh

|

1917-1969

is wi
very be the foundation for raising

igh level of labor productivity.

| ees
Cont €thods are succeeding, and

Z indy a

hu
Uggpe © Succeed. The report of the

ticates otal Statistical Board in-

Pareg io Industrial production, com-

anced ; © same period in 1968, has
In 1969 by 6.9 per cent.

an
Pi 4 atst-rate machines aud mech-
iY Years : been supplied in the past
inning © heavy industry. Since the
Ves of of the 5-year period, 260
: rela pcaines and equipment have
atictieg vcd by new models, and 266
"mized, Cf goods have been mod-
Tent ere is a substantial improve-

0 :
ras tases tality of machinery and
Om Spoilage, reclamation and losses

Y the :
fNter,« Chd of 1968, 26,300 industrial

stem, Baoere operating by the new
went the re accounted for 76 per
968 Biae S.S.R.’s entire output. The
Natio, ‘ae have been met. The
Cent Come increased by 7.2 per

agai
the Plan, Ast 6.8 per cent projected by

Itrep
asses eae because of the suc-
aoe ah Socialist countries, it is
7 cussing cuss a single one witnout
“onomic Se Committee fe. Mutual
handlist ¢ id, to whick. all European
ee peuntries velong. There has
eee annual increment of
f put for all of them, on an

» OF 10.3 per cent.

. Vithj

a C eh CMEA, the socialist coun-
ptual Bee in a relationship of
Story. Reece hitherto unknown in
ached apn Socialist countries have
0 the age when further increases
ecome aS of each nation has
*Pansion ectly dependent upon the

aera al

, nal ci Of economic ties with frat-

Its re alist countries.
it a Meetings did not have the
it’? oe “stagnation” or “‘cris-
tig is aes propagandists claim.
Th = of intensifying produc-
@ a aising labor productivity.

im
ee to Se between 1966 and 1970
ey. are it by 33 to 35 percent and
ell on the way.

1 the
metleve aoe of these stupendous
Dle’s - made possible by

been under way — the crea-
Ew Socialist Man.

is a
Plex probe more difficult and com-
Bee questions than dealing with econ-
cess ns, because it involves the

Widening man’s horizons,

IMMUNISM

Wl the Tsars
I, that we might pass.”

—J.C. Wallace

changing his outlook, overcoming the
mass philistine attitude of not caring
about what’s going on, or about any-
one else. It was the lot of the Soviet
people to blaze the way to* socialism,
and history has placed them in the fore-
front of building the new Communist
society. In solving these tasks, the new
man is taking shape.

Education lights
way for youth
to happy lives,
valiant deeds

In a_ socialist country education
takes on a truly universal character
because every citizen is regarded as a
co-owner and producer, responsible for
himself and for his fellow man.

To achieve this, to begin with, each
child must receive a good, basic, scien-
tific education, a progressive outlook
in life and vocational training in keep-
ing with the rapidly developing science
and technology.

This has to be done in strict accord-
ance with the needs of society and the
capabilities and inclinations of the
child. In order to achieve the highest
social results, the schools must pay
special attention to moral, aesthetic
and_ physical training of the young
generation.

The Soviet educational system has
this year introduced a new curriculum
to meet the new conditions of the scien-
tific, technological revolution of the
20th century.

Today larger and larger sections of
society are involved in this progressive
trend which requires that scientific
discoveries must be rapidly applied to

everyday usage. Unless the school sys-

tem constantly up-dates its scientific
training, the majority of people would
become unfamiliar with scientific ter-
minology, let alone the nature of new
discoveries.

All over the world experiments are
being conducted to find the best meth-
ods of educating young people, and
Soviet educators have not been lagging
in this field.

The new curriculum is designed to
bring the subject matter taught in
schools to meet the present level of
scientific, technological and cultural
advance, so that the young people will
be better able to meet the challenge of
their future careers.

To achieve this, the Joint Committee
of the Academy of Educational Science
and the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences,
after much experimentation drew up a
draft curriculum which has been thor-
oughly discussed in all branches of the
education system, and by other repre-
sentatives of public opinion. Only after
having been tried and tested was the
new curriculum passed by the Soviet
Ministry of Education. Naturally, it
cannot be introduced in its entirety at

once, but by next year the change-over
will be completed.

The research on this program for
education has produced some remark-
able discoveries, as the experiments by
Soviet (and other) scientists have
shown that children possess greater
psychological-intellectual capabilities
than previously believed. It has been
proven, for instance, that young chil-
dren in primary school are capable of
grasping concepts, ideas, which were
previously thought to be comprehen-
sible only to secondary school children.
The new math now introduced in our
schools is an illustration of this fact.

As a result, the period of primary
education has been reduced from four
to three years, and similarly in the
Secondary Schools. Thus there will be
the possibility of increasing the num-
ber of weekly lessons in Russian lan-
guage, mathematics — and other sub-
jects.

This will not increase the so-called
“work load” pressure on the pupils,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 7, 1969—PAGE 7

but ‘will! ‘on the contrary, reduce the
number of lessons in their compulsory
studies. It will give them more oppor-
tunity for independent work according
to their own preferences and capabili-
ties.

This is done by various means. First,
the level of generalized information is
raised: pupils are taught to reason and
work out problems, rather than to me-
morize formulas, dates, etc. Secondly,
the teaching of certain subjects will
be revised. History, for example, will
no longer be taught in two separate
years, but in one year, in greater
depth and detail. -

Lest there be some worries about
the “humanities,” it will be noted that
art subjects will account for 40 percent
of the hours, considerably more than
before. (In Russian schools in the na-
tional republics where pupils also stu-
dy their own language and literature
the percentage -is 47). ;

Despite this, the number of scientific
lessons has also risen by over 6 per-
cent of the total study time. The provi-
sion of more laboratory and practical
work will give broader and more varied
training. For instance, the 9th and
10th year includes technical drawing,
electrical engineering, applied chemis-'
try, machinery, plant growing and
stock-breeding.

The-supplying of technical aids and
new textbooks for the almost 50 mil-
lion Soviet school children, and the
added 80 million studying in different
branches of education, will make great
demands on the educational, scientific
and publishing resources. But the pub-
lishers who now, yearly, put out 300
million textbooks in 47 languages, will
certainly be able to meet the challenge.

This switch over to universal /secon-
dary education in the Soviet Union sig-
nalizes an important advance toward
the development of the “new man” of
Communist society. People will be
trained to be good specialists, with a
good scientific education, and at the
same -time the arts in education will
become more, not less, important. Lit-
erature, history and the arts are the
“spiritual antidotes which prevent peo-
ple from becoming mere producers and
consumers of material affluence.”

: The changes which are taking place
in secondary education are already be-
ginning to bear fruit. Those who seek
entrance to colleges and universities
are considerably better qualified than
a few years ago, and without a lower-
ing of the general level of knowledge.

The Soviet school will continue to
provide a broad education in. order to
train citizens who, whether ‘they be
engineers, scholars or factory workers,
will have breadth of vision, the inspira-
tion to work well and hard, and a high
sense of social responsibility.

ie

a