The development of public education in Bashkortostan in the 1950-1960s: the history of the reformation

The article is devoted to the development of education in the USSR in the 1950s-1960s on the example of Bashkiria and is based on documentary materials and statistical data. The authors focus on the difficulties in school education and the measures taken by the local party and Soviet bodies to improve the material, technical and educational base of schools in the Bashkiria, and to eliminate the problem of children remaining out of school. The authors pay attention to the policy of the Soviet state of supporting school education, in particular, the allocation of budget funds for the construction of new schools, the repair of school buildings, etc., which contributed to the important task of introducing universal secondary (7-year), then the transition to 8-year education, and creation of the basis for the subsequent implementation of general secondary education. They also pay attention to the difficult way of reforming the school education and introduction of polytechnics and new programs in the educational process of schools in Bashkiria. They prove that industrial enterprises, collective farms, and state farms of the republic provided great assistance in carrying out polytechnic and school education connection with practice. The implementation of polytechnics in schools and the creation of student production teams in urban and rural areas contributed to the successful career guidance among school children. Much attention was paid to the creation of opportunities for young people engaged in the production who wanted to get secondary education. Therefore, the number of schools for working and rural youth increased in the republic in these years, new schools and courses were created at the enterprises. The authors showed not only the positive aspects, but also the difficulties and contradictions in the conduct of polytechnical education in schools. They have concluded that important task set by the state in the field of public education, despite the complexity of its implementation, had been completed in Bashkiria in these years.