Recent changes in Soviet Secondary Schools

Abstract

Change in the structure of educational systems is now an international commonplace; but in the U.S.S.R., where the system is more centralised and sensitive to government policy than most, changes can take place with a rapidity often startling to western observers. The latest develop? ment was in August, 1964, when the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. adopted a resolution altering the length of the secondary school course. This, in the words of E.I. Afanasenko, Minister of Education of the R.S.F.S.R., "will bring about many changes in the work of the secondary school" l) which proves to be a considerable understatement. In order to examine these latest measures, it is necessary to put them in context by outlining briefly the Soviet School system as it was before and after the changes of 1958, known generally as the "Khrushchov reforms,\ Under the old system, compulsory schooling began for all at the age of seven, when children went to general educational schools. These were of three types 4-year, 7-year and 10-year schools. They differed only in length of course, not in content or standard; one could proceed directly from a 4-year school to the fifth form of a 7-year school, and so on. By 1958, it was claimed, no child had to make do with 4-year schooling only. The 7-year school was standard for most Soviet children. Before the war, the aim of the authorities was to make 10-year schooling compulsory for all eventually, and although a host of practical difficulties (notably the terrible losses during the war 2) made this impossible, there was considerable expansion, especially in the major cities. The 10-year school and its shorter versions were comprehensive, unstreamed and unified, with no major break at 11 or 12. There was a transition from general primary to specialist secondary teaching at about the age of 11, but this took place within the school, and did not involve seiection and transfer after the fashion of the English "11 plus". The curriculum taken by all children was formal and academic, with a heavy emphasis on the sciences. Pupils who successfully completed the 10-year course were awarded the school certificate or "Attestation of Maturity", and could then seek admission to institutions of higher education. Winners