CARTOGRAPHERS AND SCHOOL REFORM

Abstract

The current status and future goals of “school cartography” (the provision of maps, globes, and other geographic teaching aids) in Soviet elementary and secondary education are outlined in a paper prompted by the adoption of a general educational reform package by the 27th Party Congress. The use of maps as tools for broadening student analytical skills rather than as simple illustrations of course themes is emphasized. Major problems to be addressed during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (1986-1990) include the inadequate cooperation between the Main Administration of Geodesy and Cartography (which, among other things, oversees the publication of all school maps) and the USSR Ministry of Education (which approves all new maps and atlases and coordinates their introduction into the school system), a certain lack of attention to the needs of students in non-Russian [language] schools, and the need to upgrade technologies for the production of film transparencies, photomaps, and other products derived from remot...