Education of the handicapped in the USSR: Exploration of the statistical picture

Abstract

The Soviet Union provides special schooling for physically or mentally handicapped children. Data on schooling for handicapped children was the only kind of systematic data found by the researchers on the provision of services for the handicapped in the USSR. The regional distribution of schooling for handicapped children is inconsistent with any plausible pattern of need. The number and regional distribution of disabled adults without public sector jobs may reflect the availability and effectiveness of vocational rehabilitation programs or other institutional factors more than it does the distribution of people with particular work-limiting conditions. Sources of systematic evidence of disabilities include journals and education statistics found in numerous volumes of statistical handbooks for the USSR and Soviet republics as well as related compendia of education statistics published by the Central Statistical Board. The published data on children in schools for the handicapped are not broken down by grade level or by king of handicap. In the USSR special schools have existed since the 1920s. After 1958-1959 there was an expansion of enrollments in special schools partly because of the 1959 Soviet Education Law. The availability of places in special schools tracks very closely the relative economic development levels of Soviet regions. 4 explanations which could account for these regional differences are 1) differential screening for learning disabilities; 2) differential selection criteria; 3) elaborateness of networks of schools; and 4) differential budgetary strain. The varied regional patterns show how diverse the Soviet Union is and warn of the danger of assuming that social policy in application follows the prescribed rules or that prescribed policy is implemented to the same extent in all regions of the country. It is important to distinguish the need for services for the disabled. Regional differences in resources and state budgets or regional differences in how disabilities are defined perhaps partly due to differences in the occupational makeup of the labor force are likely to affect both the need for services and how completely that need is satisfied.