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Soviet Union [USSR] Preschool
In 1986 the Soviet Union operated approximately 142,700
preschool institutions on a year-round basis, with an enrollment of
over 16.5 million; this represented 57 percent of all preschool-age
children and was 1.6 million below demand. To eliminate this
shortage, as well as to encourage women with infants or toddlers to
return to the work force, the government planned to make available
new preschool facilities for another 4.4 million youngsters during
the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (1986-90).
Preschool institutions included nurseries (iasli) and
kindergartens (detskie sady), often housed in the same
buildings and located in urban and suburban neighborhoods, as well
as at factory sites and on collective farms. Nurseries accepted
children between the ages of six months and three years, but the
percentage of youngsters under two years of age was typically low.
Many mothers preferred to stay home with their infant children
through the first year (working women were granted a full year of
maternity leave), and frequently a grandmother or another family
member or friend provided child care to toddlers. (In 1979, for
example, 8 to 9 million preschool children were cared for by
grandmothers.) The more common practice was to enroll children of
about three years of age in preschool. The government subsidized 80
percent of preschool tuition, requiring parents to pay fairly low
fees of 12 rubles (for value of the
ruble--see Glossary) a month
for nursery care and about 9 rubles a month for kindergarten; in
certain cases--for example, for children from large families--
enrollment was free. By freeing women for the work force, the
preschool system was economically beneficial both to the state and
to the family, which generally needed two incomes. Kindergarten
combined extended day care (as a rule, from 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.)
with some academic preparation for entry into the first grade (the
starting age was gradually lowered to six years of age in the
mid-1980s).
In addition to providing children with a head start for regular
school, preschools began the important process of instilling
societal values and molding socialist character. The children's
daily activities, which included story-telling, drawing, music,
games, and outdoor play, were highly structured and consistently
conducted in groups, fostering a sense of belonging to the
collective, the primacy of the needs of the group over those of the
individual, and the preference for competition among groups rather
than individuals. Political indoctrination at this level consisted
of songs and slogans, celebration of national holidays, and stories
about Lenin and other heroes of the Bolshevik Revolution.
Preschoolers were also taught respect for authority, patriotism,
obedience, discipline, and order. Children were provided hot meals
and snacks, child-size beds for nap time, and basic health care.
Western visitors to Soviet preschools in the 1970s and early
1980s reported seeing children who were happy, healthy, and well
cared for. But this positive image was sharply contradicted in 1988
with the publication in a Soviet newspaper of an article titled
"Attention: Children in Trouble!" The article was endorsed by a
group of specialists (including R. Bure, doctor of pedagogical
sciences and head of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences Preschool
Scientific Research Laboratory) who participated in a seminar
called "Kindergarten in the Year 2000." According to the newspaper
piece, a crisis in preschool education was emerging: the ratio of
twenty-five children per teacher was far too high; teachers and
other staff were poorly trained; and children's health was
suffering because of inadequate medical care. Children were
entering first grade unprepared intellectually and physically. More
than 50 percent were "neurotic," two-thirds suffered from
allergies, 60 percent had poor posture, and 80 percent suffered
from upper-respiratory infections. The large majority had not
mastered the most basic norms of conduct and social interaction.
Data as of May 1989
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