Career Plans of 8th and 9th Grade Students and their Realization

Abstract

The upper grades of secondary school are, on the one hand, the source of replenishing higher educational institutions and, consequently, of the intelligentsia; on the other hand, they are the source of young replacements for the working class. This process is inextricably linked with the strivings of some students to complete secondary school and enter higher educational institutions, and with the strivings of others to begin work either immediately after school or via the vocational-technical educational institutions which draw their students from among schoolchildren. Finally, there are also the secondary specialized schools (technicums). While admission to a higher educational institution requires a graduation certificate [from the 10th grade], admission to a technicum is available after the 8th grade, and to a vocational-technical school, even earlier for some, although as a rule also after the 8th grade. The first time a choice must be made is after the 8th grade. But we shall be concerned here with both the 8th and 9th grades for a good reason, namely, the decision is frequently delayed for a year until a passport can be obtained (at age 16).