Chapter 1. Basic Directions in the Development of the Contemporary Soviet School

Abstract

The Twenty-sixth Congress of the CPSU summed up our country's economic, political, and social development in the period since the Twenty-fifth Congress [1976-1980] and focused special attention on the development of culture and education and on the ideological education of the working people, of youth in particular. It was noted that the country reached an important frontier during those years of the Tenth Five-Year Plan: completion of the transition to universal compulsory [ten-year] secondary education. While formerly only a little more than half the blue-collar workers [in the USSR] had a secondary (complete or incomplete) or higher education, the present figure is three-fourths. The congress articulated basic directions for the further development of the teaching and upbringing of the younger generation and emphasized the decisive role of the teacher in all school activity and the need to pay more attention to the teacher's work and to upgrading the teacher's skill level.