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Soviet Union [USSR] Special Education
Special schools included those for physically and mentally
handicapped children as well as those for intellectually and
artistically gifted youth. They also included military schools for
secondary-level cadet training.
In 1987 about 500,000 youngsters with mental and/or physical
impairments were enrolled in 2,700 schools designed to meet their
special needs. Schools for the mentally retarded strived to help
children acquire as much of a general or vocational education as
their abilities permitted and also encouraged them to become as
self-reliant as possible. The blind and those with partial sight
could complete the regular secondary program and/or vocational
training in schools with a modified curriculum and special physical
accommodations. There were also schools for deaf children,
deaf-mutes, and the hearing impaired.
Universities operated a small number of advanced academic
programs for exceptionally bright children who demonstrated
outstanding abilities in the sciences and mathematics. Schools also
specialized in a specific foreign language, for example, English or
German. About 50 percent of all subjects were taught in the given
language. These highly prestigious schools provided complete
secondary schooling, and their graduates were guaranteed entrance
into institutions of higher learning.
The Ministry of Culture operated a small network of schools for
artistically gifted youngsters, which combined regular secondary
education with intensive training in music, ballet, or the arts.
These special schools were located primarily in Moscow, Leningrad,
and other large Soviet cities.
First established during World War II, military boarding
schools continued to provide free care and education to war orphans
of military personnel and to train future officers of the armed
forces. With enrollments of between 150 to 500 students, the eight
Suvorov military schools and the Nakhimov Naval School offered a
regular, general school curriculum supplemented by a heavy load of
mathematics, political and military training, and physical
education. Most graduates of these schools entered higher military
institutions
(see Soviet Union USSR - Officers
, ch. 18).
Data as of May 1989
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