A PROGRESS REPORT ON THE SOVIET SCHOOL REORGANIZATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T01003A001000150002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 27, 2000
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 15, 1961
• Content Type: BRIEF

Approved For Release 2R08/(/g7-_~IF?~7?TR1003A001000150002-2
CIA/RR CB-61-15
Copy No.
15 March 1961
/00
CURRENT SUPPORT BRIEF
A PROGRESS REPORT ON THE SOVIET SCHOOL REORGANIZATION
OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND REPORTS
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This report represents the immediate views of the
originating intelligence components of the Office
of Research and Reports. Comments are solicited.
W-A-R-N-I-N-G
This document contains information affecting the national defense of
the United States, within the meaning of the espionage laws, Title 18
USC, Sections 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which
in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-T-I-A-L
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A PROGRESS REPORT ON THE SOVIET SCHOOL REORGANIZATION
A major reorganization of the Soviet school system was begun in
the 1959/60 school year and is scheduled for completion between 1963
and 1965. In addition to adding "labor training" to the curricula
of all Soviet schools, the law on education passed in December 1958
provided for `(1) extension of compulsory education from 7 to 8 years,
(2) conversion of the general academic high schools into labor-poly-
technical high schools, and (3) expansion of evening and correspond-
ence schools at the high school and college levels. These goals were
elaborated further in the Seven Year Plan (1959-65) and supplemented
by decrees providing for an expansion in the network of child-care....
facilities--nurseries, kindergartens and boarding schools.
In the past two years the USSR has proceeded vigorously in ex-
panding the network.of child-care facilities and, also in increasing
the enrollment in evening schools and correspondence courses. On the
other hand, the extension of compulsory 8-year education is apparently
behind schedule, and high school enrollment has continued to decline
more rapidly than the population of high-school age. This uneven prog-
ress in carrying out educational goals evidently was dictated in large
part by the need for additional workers during years when the number
of persons reaching working age was still declining sharply. Thus,
those programs that would increase labor force participation among
teenagers and mothers have been stressed, and programs that would put
teenagers in school instead of in jobs have been permitted to lag.
In the next several years, as the number of persons reaching working
age rises sharply, these lagging programs probably will receive new
emphasis. The need to expand school facilities also will become criti-
cal because of the expected rapid rise in the school age population.
Educational Plans and Progress
Child-care .facilities--According to the Seven Year Plan, the
network of nurseries n kindergartens is to be expanded to accom-
modate more than 6 million children in 1965 compared to about 3.5
million in 1958. Since the population of pre.-school age (less than
7 years) probably will not increase much during that period, this
program will provide facilities for at least 18 percent of the chil-
dren in these ages compared to about 10 percent in 1958. By the end
of 1959, facilities had expanded to accommodate an additional 400,000
children 1/, about the average annual increase required to meet the
planned goal. In 1960 more kindergartens and nurseries were built
than in 1959. 2/ Seeking to use available facilities more effectively,
a 1959 decree ,provided for the merging of nurseries and kindergartens
into unified institutions, 3/
The Seven Year Plan also called for an expansion of enrollment
in boarding schools from 180,000 in 1958 to 2,500,000 in 1965. These
schools were first established in their present form in 1956, and
have been widely acclaimed by the Soviet leadership as the ultimate
and ideal institution in which to prepare the "New Soviet Man." During
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the current school year, however, only 540,000 students are attending
these schools. 4/ In an attempt to overcome the lag in this program,
the 1960 decree transferring budgeted funds from housing construction'
to school. construction singled out the boarding schools for special
consideration. 5/
Compulsory Eight-Year Schooling--The transition from seven-year
to eight year compulsory schooling is scheduled for completion by the
fall of 1962. 6/ It is unlikely that this schedule will'be met, since
the problems of high dropout rates and inadequate school facilities--
problems that have kept about one-fifth of all Soviet children from
completing the seventh grade nine years after it became compulsory--
have apparently yet to be solved. During the past two years, enroll-
ment in the first seven grades has barely kept pace with population
growth in these ages. In extending compulsory schooling an additional
year, the USSR is faced with the large problem of finding the physical
facilities to add an extra grade to the existing schools in the face
of a rapid increase in the number of children eligible for these schools.
The population age 7 through 14 currently is increasing by about two
million annually, after declining during most of the 1950s because of
the low birth rates of World War II. (See Table page4.4)
Labor-Pol technical High Schools--The conversion of the general
high .sc ools gra es -1 into a or-polytechnical high schools (grades
9-11) was scheduled to begin in the 1959/60 school year and to be com-
pleted in 3 to 5 years. At the beginning of the current school year,
15,000 high schools--about half of the total--provided production train-
ing for their students. 7/ High school (day) enrollment has continued
to decline rapidly, however, and now constitutes only one-fourth of
the population 15 through 17 compared to one-third in 1958 and almost
one-half in 1955. The conversion process thus has been eased consider-
ably by the relatively small student body currently attending the high
schools. Soviet plans call for a reversal of the current downward
trend in the proportion of high-school age youth enrolled in full-time
high schools.
Work-Study Programs in High Schools, Tekhnikums, and VUZes--As
planne , enro ment in evening schools an correspondence courses at
high schools, tekhnikums , and VUZes has increased rapidly--from 3.7
million in 1958 to 5.0 million in 1960. Most of this increase has
occurred in the high schools. The USSR plans to increase enrollment
in evening and correspondence courses to almost 9 million by 1965.
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School-Age Population and Population Reaching
Working Age in the
1958-65
Million Persons
School-Age Population
Population
7 - 14
15
- 17
Reaching
Age 15
1958
26.4
1959
28.1
9.4
2.7
1960
30.2
8.3
2.3
1961
32.4
7.4
2.3
1962
34.3
7.4
2.8
1963
35.6
8.6
3.5
1964
36.4
10.3
4.0
1965
37.1
11.7
4.2
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Analyst:
Coord :
Sources:
25X1A
1. Tsentralnoye statisticheskoye upravleniye pri sovete
ministrov SSSR. Narodno a khozyaystvo SSSR v 1959 godu
(USSR National Economy in I V09), Moscow, 19
STATSPEC 793. U. pp ?
2. Pravda, 26 J
4. Pravda, 26 Jan 61. U.
5. Trud, 10 Aug 60. U
.
6. Kunov, I. "The Law on Compulsory Universal Education
Must be Enforced Everywhere" Narodnoye obrazovaniye
(National Education), No. 5,' 1960
,
7. Pravda, 26 Jan 61. U.
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