Features of the North Ossetian Primary School in the Context of Reforming the Soviet Education System in the 1950s and Early 60s

Abstract

The article examines in detail the peculiarities of the North Ossetian primary school in the context of the reform of the Soviet education system in the 1950s and early 60s. The reform of education in the USSR in the late 1950s was aimed at optimizing the learning process and strengthening the link between education and practical activities. The study is devoted to analyzing the peculiarities of this reform; the main attention is also paid to the changes in the language policy in the schools of North Ossetia. The relevance of the topic is determined by the need to understand the historical context of modern educational policy and to preserve the cultural heritage of a multinational state. The scientific novelty lies in the comprehensive approach to the analysis of legal and educational initiatives of that period. The methodological basis of the study was the historical analysis of normative-legal acts, as well as retrospective and problem-chronological methods of scientific research. The results show that the introduction of compulsory study of native and Russian languages, as well as changes in the structure of foreign language study, were aimed at reducing the burden on students and creating conditions for the all-round development of the individual. The study emphasizes the importance of the balance between national identity and educational standards. It reveals that the main achievement of the reform was to reduce the teaching load on students by optimizing the language programme, which in turn allowed students to focus on learning their native and Russian languages, while ensuring the preservation and development of national identity. This decision was an obvious compromise between the need to maintain high educational standards and the ethno-linguistic specificity of the republic.