Teaching and educational work in the Ural parish schools in the late XIX - early XX centuries

The educational activities of parish schools played an important role in the primary education system of Russia in the late XIX - early XX centuries and were regulated by the Synod-approved curricula which arbitrarily divided the study process into the following components: the pedagogical (studies of religion, dogmata, instructions, etc.) and the educational (general studies). Religious Studies were aimed at raising a conscientious, obedient, honest individual who would respect the elders, the church, the Tsar and the state. The subjects with a major religious and pedagogical load in parish schools included God's Law, Reading and Writing in Slavonic, Religious and Civil History (taught in two-year schools). General studies included Russian, Spelling, Arithmetic along with Military Line-Up and Gymnastics which were taught in the Ural eparchy from 1908 till 1912. Sketching and Drawing, Geography and Nature Studies were added to general subjects in 1902 in two-year schools. Besides the above-listed subjects the primary church schools of the Ural region taught Handicrafts and Home Economics as well as Carving and other subjects which were meant to give students skills to attend to their domestic chores. In comparison to primary schools of other types, parish schools devoted much more time to Religious Studies, therefore general studies, such as reading and writing, were often in the background. The Ural sources show that due to this fact, the level of education in parish schools was often lower than the one in primary schools of other depart­ments, first of all, the Zemstvo schools. Outdated teaching techniques, based on learning of sacred texts by heart, were another factor conducive to that. Teaching flaws were also caused by the insufficient preparation of church school teachers as compared to the teachers of other departments. Finally, education drawbacks in parish schools were explained by the short period of studies - five to seven months per academic year.