The Preparation of Regulatory and Organizational- Methodological Support for the Activities of the First Kazakh Teachers’ School in the Orenburg Governorate (1870s – Early 1880s)

Abstract

Based on the documentation of the local administration of the Orenburg Governorate, found in the Russian State Historical Archive, the article analyzes the process of establishing the secondary teacher’s education system for the Kazakh population of Turgai and Ural regions. The authors reveal that a decade of preparations held by the Special Commission underlay the opening of the first Kazakh teachers’ school in Orsk in 1883. They concludes that governmental circles of the Russian Empire considered the training of teachers from the Kazakh population for elementary school as an important element of policy aimed to integrate the region in all-Imperial cultural-educational space. More than decade was spend for an organizational and methodical work, formation of the legal basis for the Kazakh teachers’ school, finding of the sources of financing and the first attempt to create the Kazakh alphabet based on the Russian script. The Commission, specially created for completing these tasks, was attended by the Orenburg Governor-General, the governors of the Urals and Turgai regions, the officials of the Ministry of Public Education, the Kazan and Orenburg school districts, as well as representatives of the Kazakh population. Officials of the local administration often had different opinions regarding different problems. The most debatable issue was the language of education in the teachers' school and the relevance of courses of Arabic script and Koran studies. A certain group of officials acted as a conductor of the government policy in the Steppe, aimed at restricting the wooing customs among the Tatar population and the spread of Islam. Therefore, they furiously fought against the introduction of these courses and believed that only Cyrillic-based Kazakh language should be the language of education. Other officials believed that these courses are necessary for more successful adaptation of the Kazakh children to the educational process and popularization of school among the population. Eventually, position of the second group prevailed and adopted Regulations on the Kazakh Teachers’ School turned out to be quite liberal in its content.