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Soviet Union [USSR] Teacher Training
Soviet society generally held the teaching profession in high
esteem, continuing the long prerevolutionary tradition, although
teacher's salaries were not commensurate in this regard. With
starting pay as low as 140 to 150 rubles per month (compared with
the average worker's salary of 200 rubles), teacher's salaries,
especially at the primary and secondary school levels, were on the
lower rungs of the pay scale. The most common Western explanation
for this disparity was the preponderance of women in the field. In
1987 nearly three-fourths of the more than 2.6 million secondary
school teachers and school directors were women. Among secondary
school teachers, 77.7 percent had completed higher education, 16.3
percent had completed secondary school teacher training, 3.5
percent had completed a portion of their higher education, and 2.5
percent had completed specialized or general secondary education.
In the 1986-87 school year, more than 2 million students were
enrolled in teacher training programs in about 400 specialized
secondary-school teachers' schools and more than 200 pedagogical
institutes. Teacher training focused on the chosen specialty; a
significant amount of time was devoted to the study of
Marxism-Leninism, as well as courses in education and applied
psychology. Because the university curriculum included courses in
teaching methodology, university graduates also often taught upperlevel secondary grades.
The salaries and prestige of teachers at universities,
institutions of higher learning, and specialized secondary schools
were considerably higher than those of general secondary-school
teachers. About 750,000 professors and instructors, of whom only
about one-third were women, belonged to this elite group of
professionals.
Data as of May 1989
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