Eradicating Illiteracy: How to Create the World's Most Perfect Education System

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

An amazing thing: the key word "honor" in publications about modern liberal reality, for some reasondoes not occur at all. Whereas in texts about the Soviet era, it may well be encountered, and it fits in there completely organically. As in the one suggested below.

The republics of the USSR had the most advanced education system in the world. She differed from the Western not only in the highest level of knowledge of school graduates, but also in that her task included the formation of a personality.

The task of the teachers was to educate a strong-willed, courageous, purposeful and tactful person.

Along with this, the education system in the republics of the USSR sought to educate a person who can understand and appreciate the beauty in nature and society, a person who understands and appreciates art, has aesthetic judgments, and strives for artistic creativity.

It should be noted that such a person was brought up before the war. A whole generation of courageous citizens was prepared, passionately loving their homeland, ready and able to defend it from enemies, people of public duty, disciplined, persistent, strong-willed, truthful, honest and hardworking.

Great attention was paid to physical education, and it is no coincidence that the soldiers of the Red Army turned out to be physically more prepared, enduring than the soldiers of all states that fought with the USSR in 1941-1945, including Germany.

The right to free education was guaranteed by the constitution. The education system was based on the principle of complete equality of all peoples of the USSR in the field of education (as in other areas of public life), the development of national cultures.

In preschool institutions, schools and cultural and educational institutions for adults, each of the numerous peoples of the USSR used their native language. In non-Russian schools, along with teaching students in their native language, the Russian language was studied without fail.

Rural teachers were provided with apartments, heating and lighting free of charge. During the Great Patriotic War, Soviet teachers received food and industrial supplies on an equal basis with industrial workers.

The first task in the field of education in all the republics of the USSR was the task of eliminating illiteracy. The percentage of literacy among the majority of the peoples of the East and among the peoples of the North was very low. The union republics, especially the Central Asian ones, had to develop the rate of opening of new schools many times more than, for example, the RSFSR, in order to catch up with it in a short time.

The elementary school of the non-Russian peoples of the USSR, in particular the peoples of the East, developed especially strongly.

The peoples of the North and some other peoples who did not even have their own written language before, it was created for the first time.

The number of secondary schools in the 1938/39 academic year in comparison with 1914/15 increased in the RSFSR 1.5 times, in the Turkmen SSR - 23 times, in the Uzbek - 29 times, in the Kirghiz - 16 times, and in the Tajik SSR - 462 times. The number of students in the first and fourth grades of primary, seven-year and secondary schools has increased in the Uzbek Republic by 70.8 times, in the Tajik Republic - by 587.5 times.

The task of eliminating illiteracy was accomplished even before the war. The literacy rate of the population of the USSR at the age of nine years and above in 1926 was 51.1%, and in 1939 it was already 81.2%. From 1920 to 1940, that is, in 20 years, about 50 million illiterate adults were taught to read and write. By 1940, only those aged 50 to 80 were mostly illiterate.

The literacy rate across the republics is almost equal. By the beginning of the 1950s, all the peoples of the USSR had become literate, they had their own intelligentsia, literature and art flourished. And this despite the fact that at the time of the formation of the USSR, up to 40 peoples did not even have their own written language.

During the Great Patriotic War, a number of activities for universal compulsory education were carried out. In 1943, control was tightened: local public education leaders and school inspectors were required to monitor school attendance and to fight student dropout. Households were required to submit, within three days, information about the school-age children who arrived at the residence.

From the beginning of the 1944-1945 school years, the age of children obliged to attend school was lowered to seven years (previously, universal compulsory education began at the age of eight). One of the reasons for this decision was the need to eliminate the annual gap that existed between the kindergarten and the first grade of school.

Carrying out this event required a new large appropriation, since the number of students in the first grade since the fall of 1944 has increased, not counting the usual increase, by several million. It took a lot of methodological work from teachers, since when teaching it is necessary to take into account the age characteristics of children.

It is characteristic that such an important event as the coverage of seven-year-old children with universal compulsory education, which required multimillion-dollar additional costs for public education, was carried out at the height of the Patriotic War.

This is reflected once again the tremendous concern of the state for culture and education and firm confidence in victory over the enemy.

The German invaders in the RSFSR alone destroyed and ruined over 20 thousand schools

The report of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the Atrocities of the German-Fascist Invaders indicates that in the territory subjected to the German-fascist occupation, by the beginning of 1941 there were 82 thousand primary and secondary schools with 15 million students.

The German fascist invaders burned, destroyed and plundered these schools with all property and equipment. After the expulsion of the occupiers, classes in schools resumed immediately, albeit in premises that were not suitable for teaching. The schools were restored in the shortest possible time.

The number of schools, property and equipment in schools grew from year to year. Until August 1, 1952, printed: in the RSFSR 90 million 451 thousand textbooks, in the Ukrainian SSR - 16 million 371 thousand and a large number of textbooks for primary and secondary schools in all other Union republics (for example, 2 million 763 thousand in the Azerbaijan SCP, 3 million 925 thousand in the Uzbek SSR, etc.), and in total for the union republics of the USSR - 132 million 519.5 thousand textbooks.

On August 2, 1945, the "Rules for Students" were approved, mandatory for all students of all types of school (elementary, seven and secondary). These rules are of interest and give an idea of the schools of the republics of the USSR after the war.

They define the responsibilities of the students of the Soviet school in relation to their studies and behavior at school, in relation to teachers, parents and elders. They set standards for student behavior outside of school and at home. The content of the rules is as follows:

“Every student must:

1. Persistently and persistently to acquire knowledge in order to be an educated and cultured citizen and to bring as much benefit to the Soviet Motherland as possible.

2. Study diligently, attend lessons carefully, and do not be late for the start of school.

3. Unquestioningly obey the orders of the school principal and teachers.

4. Come to school with all the necessary textbooks and writing materials. Before the teacher arrives, prepare everything you need for the lesson.

5. Show up to school clean, well-combed and neatly dressed.

6. Keep your classroom tidy and tidy.

7. Immediately after the call, enter the classroom and take your place. Entering and leaving the classroom during the lesson only with the permission of the teacher.

8. During the lesson, sit upright, without leaning back or falling apart; listen carefully to the teacher's explanations and the students' answers; do not talk or do other things.

9. When entering the classroom, teachers, school principals and when they leave the classroom, greet them by standing up.

10. When answering the teacher, stand up, keep straight, sit down only with the teacher's permission. Raise your hand if you want to answer or ask the teacher a question.

11. Accurately write down in a diary or a special notebook what the teacher has given for the next lesson, and show this note to parents. Do all homework yourself.

12. Be respectful of the school principal and teachers. When meeting on the street with teachers and the headmaster, greet them with a polite bow, while the boys take off their hats.

13. Be polite to elders, behave modestly and decently at school, on the street and in public places.

14. Do not use swear words and rude expressions, do not smoke. Do not play cards for money and things.

15. Protect school property. Take good care of your belongings and the things of your comrades.

16. Be attentive and considerate to the elderly, small children, the weak, the sick, give them way, place, provide all kinds of help.

17. Obey parents, help them, take care of little brothers and sisters.

18. Maintain cleanliness in the rooms, keep your clothes, shoes, bed in order.

19. Have a student card with you, keep it carefully, do not pass it on to others and present it at the request of the school principal and teachers.

20. Cherish honor your school and your class as your own.

For violation of the rules, the student is subject to punishment, up to and including expulsion from school."

From the fall of the 1943/44 academic year in 76 cities (in the capitals of the union and autonomous republics and in large cities), separate education of boys and girls in secondary schools was introduced. Separate (male and female) secondary schools were created.

The level of educational knowledge and, consequently, the curricula and programs for male and female schools remained the same, the requirements for students, boys and girls, in terms of knowledge, as well as the rights of school graduates, remained the same.

By the end of the 1944/45 school years, separate education for boys and girls was already carried out in 146 cities, and in 1952 - in 176 cities. It goes without saying that no isolation of students, boys and girls, was introduced with the introduction of separate education. Extracurricular activities were carried out with children of both sexes.

The joint secondary school has survived in small towns and rural areas. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of seven-year and secondary schools in the USSR and in 1952 were joint.

Separate education was not fully introduced in the USSR, since such an introduction could not be carried out without a significant investment of state funds: in many localities it was necessary to build additional schools.

In the period from 1948 to 1951, the teaching of psychology and logic was even introduced in secondary schools.

The course in the history of the USSR contributed to the development of love for the Motherland, fostered a sense of pride in the heroic past of the Russian people, acquainted with the enormous achievements of the USSR in the field of political life, economic development and culture, showed the USSR as a country leading the movement of all countries for peace.

During the reign of N. S. Khrushchev, the product of the United States about mass repressions in Soviet times, and later the myth of the Holodomor, entered all school textbooks, and pride in their country was replaced, as planned in the West, by disappointment, or even hatred of the Soviet past. Schools and institutes, willingly or unwillingly, began to foster an inferiority complex in young people.

The heroic past of the Russian people was covered with black paint. Russian people have lost faith in themselves, in their strengths and capabilities. The unrivaled successes in economic construction of the 1930s, the war and the post-war period, and even the Victory of 1945 were discredited by the West, its henchmen in the echelons of power and loyal servants - dissidents who, for money or unknowingly, continued to stigmatize the heroic Soviet past …

But in the 1940s and early 1950s, schoolchildren, without any reservations, were proud of the great history of their beautiful homeland. The high school graduation certificate was called the matriculation certificate at the time.

The instruction on the conduct of matriculation exams was approved by the People's Commissar of Education on October 9, 1944. As you can see, during the Great Patriotic War, the state paid great attention to education and invested considerable funds in its development in all union republics.

It was a concern for the younger generations, for the future of the country after the Victory.

And in the difficult post-war period, schools remained the focus of the state's attention. In particular, large funds were spent on the construction of school buildings.

The buildings of secondary schools, built in the war and post-war times, were a kind of school palaces with light classrooms, classrooms and laboratories arranged in compliance with all the requirements of school hygiene.

The exterior and interior decoration of these buildings was distinguished by beauty and, at the same time, graceful simplicity. In the 11 post-war years alone, 23,500 school buildings were built. Since 1951, the country has gradually moved to universal secondary education. This was a huge achievement for a state that had survived the hardest war.

The pioneer and Komsomol organizations, which existed in the schools of all the republics of the USSR, were of great importance in the upbringing of children. Already in 1941 there were over 12 million children in the pioneer organization, in 1952 - 19 million.

The pioneer organization accepted children from nine to 14 years old inclusive. The central place in it was the struggle for the quality of study, conscious discipline, technical and artistic creativity, the development of children's physical education, the correct organization of children's leisure, organized by the children themselves under the leadership of the Komsomol in close connection with school organizations and public education authorities.

In the summer, pioneer camps were organized, a month-long stay in which several pioneer shifts over the summer made it possible for city children to get a summer vacation in nature.

A lot of social work was carried out in the camps, the students rallied closer in a comradely life together and showed their initiative in various camp activities. Even in the summer of the difficult post-war 1946, 1 million 480 thousand schoolchildren visited general and sanatorium camps in the RSFSR alone.

There were palaces and houses of pioneers in all cities of the republics of the USSR. In the design of the houses of the pioneers, one could feel a great love for children, care for them, an understanding of children's interests and the desire to develop children's creativity.

An idea of the Palaces of Pioneers in large cities and capitals of the Union republics is given, for example, by the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers, which since February 12, 1937 was housed in one of the former imperial palaces - Anichkov Palace.

At the beginning of World War II, a hospital was located within the walls of the Anichkov Palace, and in May 1942 the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers resumed work with children.

It had departments: technology, science, art education, physical education, library and political mass.

The engineering department of the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers consisted of the following departments and laboratories: aviation technical with laboratories - aerodynamic, aircraft engine, aircraft and gliders; transport with laboratories - automotive, railway, shipbuilding, urban electric transport; photo and film departments with laboratories - photography, film, photography and filming; liaison offices with laboratories - radio,telephone, telegraph; energy-electric with five laboratories; a mechanics office; cabinet graphics; carpentry and mechanical laboratory; locksmith and mechanical laboratory; laboratory of painting equipment; machine-assembly machine-design laboratory.

Primary Komsomol organizations were created in secondary schools (general and professional) and in higher education.

The Komsomol was an organization that raises the ideological and political level, knowledge and discipline of young people, develops their creativity and initiative, involving young people in public life, educating young people on the basis of their participation in practical work.

The Komsomol members made a huge contribution to the development of the country and victory in the war.

Back in 1928, speaking at the VIII Congress of the Komsomol, Stalin said, addressing the youth: “To build, you need to know, you need to master science.