Education under Lenin

• • Red Army literacy campaign, literacy increased by 36% from 1918-21.
  • Literacy rose from 32% in 1914 to more than 86% in 1928.
  • 6 week literacy courses set up.
• Education under Lenin overview

  • Unified Labour Schools.
  • Education under the NEP.
  • Reduction of illiteracy.
  • Lenin's goals for education.
• Unified Labour Schools

  • Free polytechnic education to all children aged 8-17.
  • Banned religious teaching, banned single-gender schooling, abolished corporal punishment, free breakfast and free medical examinations, education made compulsory.
  • Students would spend 4 hours a day in a factory, and 4 hours a day at school.
  • However; due to Civil War there were insufficient resources to invest in education, free compulsory education up to 16 not achieved until 1950s, teachers continued to use traditional teaching methods.
• Education under the NEP

  • Period of compromise; fees introduced for all except poorest students, scrapped plans to house 7 million orphans.
  • In first 18 months of the NEP, number of schools halved.
  • From 1927, primary school fees were abolished. By 1928, 60% of primary age children in education.
  • Gymnasium schools; 97% of students paid fees so dominated by wealthy, teachers taught students about Tsarism.
  • Only 3% of working-class students finished secondary schooling.
• Reduction of Illiteracy

  • Decree on Illiteracy; all citizens aged 8-50 must learn to read and write.
  • Red Army literacy campaign; literacy increased from 50% in 1918 to 86% in 1921. By 1925, 100% of Red Army soldiers were literate.
  • Civil War; 6.5 million textbooks published with simple pictures - people could identify letters but were not genuinely literate.
  • Literacy Campaign; teachers went on strike, military victory prioritised, in 1920 there was one pencil for 60 students.
  • NEP; 55% literacy in 1928, Transport Worker Union achieved 99% literacy in 1928, 90% of reading rooms closed.
• Lenin's goals for education

  • High level of education and literacy was essential to build socialism.
  • Socialism required industrialisation; industrialisation required an educated workforce.
  • Other communists such as Lunacharsky; the revolution should liberate the students, rather than education serving industrialisation.