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Soviet Union [USSR] Secondary Education
In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union had in place a vast and
complex network of secondary schools comprising general secondary
schools (grades one through eleven), secondary vocational-technical
schools, specialized secondary schools, special education schools,
and extramural schools (part-time, evening, and correspondence
programs). In 1970 compulsory secondary education was extended to
ten years from eight. The 1984 reform of general secondary schools
and secondary vocational-technical schools lowered the starting age
for first grade from age seven to age six and increased compulsory
schooling to eleven years.
In 1987 the Soviet Union operated 138,000 general secondary
schools, with a total enrollment of 43.9 million students. There
were roughly three phases to the general secondary program of
study, reflecting differences in curriculum and total time in
class: the primary grades, one through three; intermediate, four
through eight; and upper secondary, nine and ten. The 1984 reform
added a year at the beginning level, modifying these grade
groupings as follows: one through four, five through nine, and ten
and eleven. As a rule, secondary schools in urban areas combined
all grades, but rural schools were small, with only four or eight
grades in the same building.
The school year ran approximately from September 1 (the
official Holiday of Learning) to June 1. Classes were held Monday
through Saturday, and total class time ranged from about twentyfour hours a week in the primary grades to thirty-six at the upper
levels (following the reform, the range of class time was reduced
to twenty to thirty-four hours). At all levels, class periods
lasted forty-five minutes, with ten-minute breaks and a half-hour
for lunch.
The 1986-87 school year marked the wide-scale entry of
six-year-olds into secondary schools; by September 1987, an
estimated 42 percent of all six-year-olds were enrolled in first
grade. In some republics, e.g.,the Georgian, Lithuanian, and
Belorussian, the transition was nearly completed; but because of
lack of space and school equipment (a chronic problem), many
schools had to operate on double and even triple shifts to
accommodate the additional new entrants.
The primary curriculum emphasized reading, writing, and
arithmetic. Children spent from ten to twelve periods a week
learning to read and write in Russian or the native language and
six periods a week on mathematics. The curriculum was rounded out
with art and music classes, physical education, and vocational
training. Children attending non-Russian schools--representing a
total of forty-four different Soviet nationalities in 1987--began
learning Russian, the lingua franca in the Soviet Union, in the
second grade, resulting in an even heavier academic load for them
(see Soviet Union USSR - Nationalities of the Soviet Union
, ch. 4).
Foreign language study, with English the most popular, began in
the fifth grade. The curriculum in the intermediate and upper
classes included courses in literature, history, social studies,
geography, mathematics, biology, physics, chemistry, and technical
drawing. Consistent with the 1984 school reform's call for
achieving computer literacy, the schools introduced computer
training in the upper grades in the mid-1980s
(see Soviet Union USSR - Computers
, ch.
9). Vocational counseling was also introduced in the upper grades
in an effort to direct more students to pursue training in
technical areas requiring high-level skills. The new curriculum for
grades ten and eleven included courses called "Ethics and
Psychology of Family Life" and "Elementary Military Training." From
one to four hours per week of "socially beneficial" labor was made
compulsory for grades two through eleven.
General secondary schools emphasized mathematics and science;
science courses were designed not only to teach the fundamentals
but also to develop the official scientific-materialist worldview.
Teaching of history and literature was particularly politicized and
biased, through selection and interpretation, toward inculcation of
communist values and ideology. As an outgrowth of the
de-Stalinization effort under Gorbachev, the official Soviet press
denounced elementary and secondary school history books as "lies,"
and, to the students' glee, school authorities canceled final
history examinations in the spring of 1987.
On the whole, final examinations were rigorous and
comprehensive, and they included both written and oral parts.
Performance was graded on a number scale of one (failure) to five
(outstanding). The general secondary school diploma was roughly
equivalent to a high school diploma in the United States.
Completion of this program offered the most direct route to
entrance into an institution of higher learning.
After the eighth or ninth grade, students who chose not to
finish the final two years of the general secondary school had
several options. The most popular in the 1980s was enrollment in
secondary vocational-technical schools or specialized secondary
schools. In 1987 nearly 25 percent of students chose the former and
almost 13 percent the latter route (more than 60 percent continued
in the general secondary school).
The secondary vocational-technical school (srednee
professional'no-tekhnicheskoe uchilishche--SPTU) combined a
full secondary education with training for skilled and semiskilled
jobs in industry, agriculture, and office work. In 1986 more than
7,000 such schools were in operation; the period of instruction was
two or three years. Graduates received diplomas and could apply to
institutions of higher education. An incomplete secondary education
trade school variant, vocational-technical schools
(professional'no-tekhnicheskie uchilishcha--PTU), numbering
about 1,000 in the mid-1980s, provided training in skilled and
semiskilled jobs.
At the beginning of the 1986-87 school year, 4,506 specialized
secondary schools (srednie spetsial'nye zavedeniia),
commonly called technicums (tekhnikumy), had an enrollment
of nearly 4.5 million students (2.8 million in regular daytime
programs and 1.7 million in evening or correspondence schools). The
course of study lasted from three to four years and combined
completion of the final two grades of general secondary schooling
with training at a paraprofessional level. Technicums offered over
450 majors, most of them in engineering and technical areas, as
well as paraprofessional-level training in health care, law,
teaching, and the arts. Graduates received diplomas and could
obtain jobs as preschool and primary school teachers, paramedics,
and technicians; they could also apply to higher education
institutions. A technicum education corresponded roughly to an
associate degree or two years of study in an American junior
college or community college.
In 1986 another school reform stressed the specialized
secondary school system and higher education. The qualitative
improvement of the technicums, which traditionally had served as an
important source of technically trained workers, was a key
component in providing skilled, technically qualified manpower
required for the success of economic restructuring and
modernization. To this end, the reform called for revamping both
technicums and secondary vocational-technical schools to train
specialists with diverse technical skills and hands-on experience
with computer technology and automated production processes, as
well as a more independent, creative, and responsible approach to
their jobs.
Data as of May 1989
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