JPRS-UPS-86-058 5 DECEMBER 1986
USSR Report
POLITICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL AFFAIRS
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JPRS-UPS-86-058 3 DECEMBER 1986
USSR REPORT POLITICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL AFFAIRS
CONTENTS
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS
Yeltsin Speech on School Reform (B. N. Yeltsin; MOSKOVSKAYA PRAVDA, 21 Sep 86)........... 1
Chinese Social Science Delegation Visits USSR (OBSHCHESTVENNYYE NAUKI, No 5, Sep-Oct 86).....cceeeeeees 17
PRAVDA Attacks Corrupt Kazakh Officials (G. Dildyayev; PRAVDA, 11 Oct 86)......ccccccecccccececes 18
KaSSR: Obkom First Secretary on Chimkent Oblast Cleanup (R. Myrzashev; SOVETSKAYA KULTURA, 16 Oct 86)..........-- 23
Kirghiz Officials Cited in PRAVDA Article Punished (B. Artemov; PRAVDA, 23 Sep 86)......ceccccccccsceveeeces 24
Turkmen CP Debates Widespread Malpractices (V. Loginov; PRAVDA, 24 Oct 86).....cccccccccscccccsccecs 25
Peoples Control Groups Urged To Use Full Potential (SOVET TURKMENISTANY, 7 Aug 86)........ccceccceccccceeces 30
RAPO Party Management Criticized (SOVET TURKMENISTANY, 22 Aug 86)......ccceeeccscecceccees 30
Briefs First Secretary Appointed 31 Tselinograd First Secretary Profiled 31 MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA Soviet TV Permits Expressio. of Controversial Views (Svetlana Zhiltsova Interview; ARGUMENTY I FAKTY, FO GES GEE GE) c ccc ccccccss ccc cesesccecssesscccocececces 32
Restrictions on Newspapers, Journal Subscriptions Eased ees Ge GU 665660606 056050050048600600006000666068 35
Kazakhs Planning One-Volume Explanatory Dictionary (Sh. Sarybayev; QAZAQ ADEBIYETI, 25 Jul 86)..........006- 38
Shortcomings Noted in Textbook Printing, Distribution CORGRELTORAR GAZETTE, 3 Aue OE) occ cccccccccccccccccccccens 38
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY
Various Explanations for 1916 Kazakh Uprising (A. Takenov; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN, 27 Jul 86).......... 39
New Series on Marxism-Leninism Produced (OBSHCHESTVENNYYE NAUKI, No 5, Sep-Oct 86)..........000-. 41
RELIGION
Importance of Youth Atheist Education Stressed (Raisa Yegorovna Zlobina; SELSKAYA ZHIZN, 5 Sep 86)...... 42
CULTURE
PRAVDA Editorial Desc'ibes New Cultural Emphasis (PRAVDA, 25 Sep 86).......... secccces Seco ceescccccccccoes 45
Zaytsev Notes Eight Republics Chosen for New Theater Experiment (Ye. V. Zaytsev; SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA, 15 Aug 86).......... 48
Zilbershteyn Describes Russian Theater Art Collected Abroad (I. S. Zilbershteyn; OGONEK, Nas 36, 37, 1986)............ 51
Seven Experimental Studio-Theaters Opening in Moscow (V. Shadrin Interview; IZVESTIYA, 9 Oct 86)..........008- 64
Bulgakov's Writing in Emigration, Support for NEP Described (Mikhail Bulgakov; ZHURNALIST, No 9, Sep 86)........+506- 68
Gumilev's Disciple Described Living in Paris (Anna Kolonitskaya; MOSCOW NEWS, No 41, 19-26 Oct 86)... 69
sh «
SOCIAL
Improper Restoration of Historic Structures Decried (G. Ivanova, Ye. Strelnikova; IZVESTIYA, 13 Aug 86)......
Kazakh Museum Displays Explained Only in Russian (Otegen Abdiramanov; IAZAQ ADEBLY ETI, ll Jul 86) eeceevecese
ISSUES
Kravtsov Touches on Key Issues Facing Justice Ministry (B. Kravtsov; SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA ZAKONNOST, No 6, Jun Ba 6eeesése oe ff feevreeenrererTrteneeeeieeeeseesese re fr eeeeneeeeete *-.
Growth of Lawyers’ Services to Citizens Discussed (Ye. Sekhin; SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA ZAKONNOST, No 6, Jun wa esses “eee eee ee ee
KaSSR: Too Few Doctors in Rural Rayon (T. Ysqaqov; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN, 19 Jul 86)......... °
KaSSR: Misuse of State Vehicles for Private Purposes Protested (N. Khisameddinov, N. Muftakhov; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN, Be SOR BE bbb oo cece eee essseeseccepsdceccecsecescccesosess
KaSSR: No Reason To Rest on Antialcoholism Laurels (SOTSIALISTIK QAZAOSTAN, 18 Jul 86)... ccccccccccccccces
Underground Video Theaters Discovered in LiSSR (V. Vatis; SOVETSKAYA LITVA, 5 Oct 86).......ceeee0. peese
Turkmen Women Not Entering Work Force (S. A. Niyazov; MUGALLYMLAR GAZETI, 27 Aug 86)..........-
Women Drawn Into Bakherden Rayon Work Force (K. Nazarov; SOVET TURKMENISTANY, 20 Aug 86)......2e-ee0-
Teachers’ Conferences To Stress Ideology (MUGALLYMLAR GAZETI, 15 Aug 86)......cccccecccccccccccees
School Food Organization Assailed (MUGALLYMAR GAZETI, 13 Aug 86)....... eceerecceccccccovcce
1985-1986 TUSSR Educational Statistics Published (MUGALLYMLAR GAZETI, 31 Aug 86)......cccccccccccccccccees
Shortcomings in Kirghiz Student Training, Need for Russian Noted (S. Daniyarov; SOVETSKAYA KIRGIZIYA, 16 Aug 86).........-.
Use of Television in Examining Georgian Agroprom Lauded (Eduard Yeligulashvili; LITERATURNAYA GAZETA, 15 Oct 86).
70
75
76
84
89
89
90
94
94
94
95
95
96
96
Concern Expressed for Effects of TV Broadcasting on Youth
CL. Ghbeiatiks IZVESTIVA, 22 Sap 96). cccccccccccccccccses 97 Briefs
Moscow Synagogue Services Disturbed 98
Airport Runway Lights Stolen 98
REGIONAL ISSUES
/12223
KaSSR: Failure To Use [rrigated Lands Fully (SOTSIALISTIK OQAZAQSTAN, 15 Jul 86)........... TYTTiTTitiTy 99
KaSSR: Large-Scale Poaching From Vehicles (N. Sadwaqasov; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAOQSTAN, 16 Jul 86)....... 99
All Poachers Must Be Prosecuted Says KaSSR Fisheries Chief (Y. Oteghaliyev; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAOSTAN, 13 Jul 86)...... 99
KaSSR: Editorial Warns Units Not Heeding New Consumer Goods Goals (SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN, 20 Jul 86)....... cece ecceeees 100
KaSSR: Managers Prosecuted for Product Quality Violations (Q. Dysenbin; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN, 30 Jul 86)......... 100
KaSSR: Herdsmen Shortage Heralds Crisis of Sheep Raising (Sultanali Balghabayev; QAZAQ ADEBIYETI, 18 Jul 86)...... L100
Construction of Hydrosystem for Moscow on Upper Volga (SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA, 12 Oct 86)........cceeeeeeeces ovceee 102
TuSSR Freight Handling Viclations Discussed (N. Yusubov; SOVET TURKMENISTANY, 5 Aug 86).......2esee5- LO9
JPRS-UPS-86-058 3 December 1986
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS
YELTSIN SPEECH ON SCHOOL REFORM Moscow MOSKOVSKAYA PRAVDA in Russian 21 Sep 86 pp 2-3
[Report on speeches of B.N. Yeltsin and others at Moscow Gerkom and Gorispolkom meeting of Moscow's public and vocational-technicz1 education workers }
[Text] In realizing today in practical activity the policy of the Central Committee April (1985) Plenum and the 27th party congress aimed at the country’s accelerated socioeconomic development we must always bear in mind the prospects of this work connected with the training of personnel. The reform of the general and vocational school occupies a special place here. We link with it big hopes in respect of the training and education of the younger generation of Soviet people, who are to be direct participants in the reorganization.
Stepping up the acceleration process and making it stable in the future means raising the younger generation, our replacement and today's schoolchildren and college trainees who think and are prepared to act in accordance with the highest standards of civicism and party-mindedness. It is the accomplishment of this noble task--perfecting the process of education of the young Soviet individual and all his attributes--dilligence, collectivism and devotion to our ideals--which the current reform of the general and vocational school serves.
Does the progress of the reform correspond to the dynamism of the transformations occurring in the country and in Moscow in the economic and social sphere? What is the main thing in the reform? Have we not reduced it merely to a reinforcement of the physical plant? Why has today's teacher, who was deservedly known in earlier times as an enlightener, "gong gray," so to speak, against the backdrop of the capital's intellectual potential? Have not the teachers themselves given rise in Moscow to an erroneous wave of coaching? Is the teacher the central, principal figure of the current reform? Has not the system of his retraining lagged behind? Why are the home and the school at times failing to exert the strongest influence on adolescents? Why in the Moscow school is everything geared to preparing the bulk of students for VUZ enrollmeni:? From where will we supplement the ranks of the capital's working class? How is the large number of special schools formed in accordance with special principles squared with the demands of social justice? How long wil]
some students come to c’asses in their parents’ office cars? Why may a pretty good workman whose childien are learning and behaving in school badly be put among the production pacesetters? Percentage-mania, excessive memoranda, the male teacher, the climate in the teaching outfit, the 6-year old--there are many, many questions on the agenda today.
It had not been the done thing to speak out loud about some of them, unfortunately, in the spirit of now bygone times. But we must speak about this and, what is most important, tackle questions such as to lend new, correct, and strong impetus to the reform in Moscow.
On the threshold of the meeting gorkom officers visited many schools and vocational-technical colleges, talked with various categories of teachers and educators and sat in on classes. The question was asked everywhere: "What has the school reform produced?" The stereotyped answer: "We have increased wages. The physical plant is being reinforced. We are embarking on the teaching of 6-year olds." The question concerning what had changed in the content of the teaching, educational process, and the students’ knowledge level remained unanswered, as a rule.
For fairness’ sake I will say that the meeting in the gorkom with a group of school and vocational-technical college workers showed in this connection that our city has creative, searching people who are boldly taking the path of an upgrading of the educational system. They shared their experience of reform in their outfits. There was much to talk about. Many public and vocational- technical education workers are now working creatively and performing complex work in the search for interesting, new forms of realization of the demands of the reform.
Reconstruction, acceleration--these concepts have now become the main content of our entire work. There is movement in a!l areas. But the pace and scale of school reform in the city cannot be regarded as satisfactory today. In education inertia of thinking does not so much hold back as pull back,
How often do we still hear references to an absence of programs, textbooks, instructions, and directions! We are still waiting. But in this time many regions of the country have long since moved ahead.
School reform implies assertive action, and not only in the sphere of shaking loose capital investments for development of the physical plant. The reform will not be successful without this either. But this takes time. And the reform must be producing results already. Seeking and applying more boldly all that is best end progressive is the main task of the teaching groups.
The basic provisions of the reform were developed with the aid of science. Life compelled this. But it is too early to rest on our laurels. Practical workers are awaiting new methods aids, studies and recommendations from the scientists. But they do not exist in the educational] institutions. Except for some experimental institutions, perhaps.
Everything new and progressive which has appeared in practice and in the minds of scientists must be actively introduced in Moscow. Are the education ministries, vocational-technical education committees and the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences not ashamed at the present standard of education in Moscow? And this is not a localistic approach. Where else, if not near at hand, should an experimental base be? Full use is not being made of the tremendous scientific potential of the city, primarily of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences institutes and the Pedagogical Institute imeni V.I. Lenin.
On the other hand Moscow teachers’ attitude toward science is markedly more skeptical than in the localities. Is this not because they consider themselves omniscient and capable of everything? This is a mistaken opinion. A more sizable step forward in the scientific elaboration of the reform has been taken in many regions of the country.
But there is creative concord in Moscow. After all, Brezhnevskiy Rayon has managed to organize interesting and, as the first results show, efficient work with teaching personnel. The rayon's entire teacher collective is split into three groups. The first are experts, the second, trained teachers and the third inadequate teachers (this is the most populous group, what is more). Microgroups have been set up with regard for this differentiation. Young specialists are incorporated in them. The central figure of such microgroups is the expert teacher. A qualification apprenticeship is served and experience excharged. Results are not to hand immediately. But in 1-2 years they will be for certain. The party Central Committee calls for the reform to be conducted precisely thus, creatively, enterprisingly and in alliance with science, by each collective and each worker. Failing this, we will not take a single step forward in the reorganization of education.
Labor resources are an acute problem for Moscow. Do we have to recount in detail the economic, social, moral, and psychological losses which we are incurring in connection with the fact that in 10 years we have brought into the city 700,000 workers from other cities? The easily acquired work force in the city has deformed the system of training personnel] necessary for the Moscow economy. This has also been reflected at the school and in the vocational-technical college. It is simpler attracting workers from outside than training one's own highly skilled personnel. But the success of such an approach is illusory.
Only 10 percent of 10th grade graduates continues to work per their specialty acquired at school. The proportion of young people entering after school graduation thc sphere of material production and service in the llth 5-Year Plan declined from 23 to 19 percent of graduates. This is the result of shortcomings in vocational guidance, a low level of organization of industrial training in school, a lack of training zones and shops at the enterprises and inattention on the part of enterprise manegers to retraining school graduates on the job. Education in the home should have an important say here also.
Last year 335 sewing machine operators, 200 sales assistants, and 400 fitters were graduated in Pervomayskiy Rayon without regard for the needs of production. And given a shortage of almost 900 workers of construction trades and 340 mechanics, Oktyabrskiy Rayon trained not one. Given a need for an additional 500 construction workers, Lyublinskiy Rayon trained...38!
No one is seriously involved in vocational guidance in the city. It is as yet chaotic. Forty-seven industrial training centers are providing training in 120 occupations. Is such an abundance necessary?
However, strange it may seem, many rayispolkoms are today remaining aloof from the formation of the list of specialties in the vocational-technical schools and exert no influence on this sphere. Departmentalism lies heavy. We need to remove the interdepartmental barriers in the city and train in the schools and vocational-technical colleges people of the specialties which the city needs, making use of all the available facilities for this. The Moscow City Soviet must take all this in hand.
We shall not solve the problem of labor resources in the city unless we change our attitude toward the system of vocational-technical education. The gorkom recently examined and approved, in the main, a program for the development of Moscow's vocational-technical education for the period up to the year 2000. Its principal distinguishing feature is an orientation toward satisfaction of the city’s skilled worker personnel requirements and the training there of predominantly from the ranks of Moscow youth. It is intended in the 12th 5-Year Plan increasing Muscovites’ enrollment in the vocational-technical schools by a factor of almost 1.5 with a simultaneous reduction in the numbers of out-of-town trainees from 16,000 to 10,000. This measure will make it possible to reduce worker personnel] turrover considerably.
Another distinguishing feature of the program is a significant expansion of the training of personnel for the sectors determining S&T progress. For the amachine-building sectors alone there will be an increase of almost 8,000 in the training of workers for the operation and maintenance of automated equipment, robotic engineering complexes, and flexible automated process modules and systems.
What is the main problem of vocational-technical education? Primarily the lack of the necessary facilities and the criminally indifferent attitude here toward the vocational-technical school on the part of ministries and departments and base enterprises. The state of many schools is so wretched that no promises could entice the youth to them. One out of every four vocational-technical schools has unsatisfactory conditions for holding classes (and 18 are in an extremely dilapidated state). One out of every three lacks a gym, one out of every 19, ® library.
The attitude of directors N. I. Pershin of the Second Clock Plant, A. N. Petrov of the "Kompressor" Plant, L. N. Vavilova of the “Raduga™ Garment Associations, T. N. Barkanova of "Zhenskaya moda" and A. N. Ilin of a scientific research institute toward the schools under their jurisdiction is
worse than toward a step-daughter.
It is no accident that in confirming the comprehensive program of the development of vocational-technical education we are not orienting ourselves toward a sharp increase in graduates--they will grow only 3 percent in che 5-year plan. We are investirg almost R/00 million, one-third more than in the preceding 5-year plan, in the construction, modernization and equipping of vocational-technical schools. The ministries and base ent<rprises shovld have a decisive say here.
The task of training apprestices in occupations directly or the ‘fob is being tackled inadequately. Many base enterprises are shirking the conclusion of the corresponding contracts and not making joos available. Whai are ‘he directors of the "Manomet-," "Stankolit” ard "Spetsstanok” plarts, for example, thinking of? Are they hoping that someone will train workers for them? Some 16,000 jobs have not been allocated for seniors in the city as a whole.
The schools are making prectically no use uf the industriai-training facilities of the vocational-technical colleges. Only 2 out of every 1,000 school students on average does practical work here. Only one out of every 10 colleg?s cooperates with the schools in this respect. And this is wrong in principle. The vocational-technical colleges shovid be the school's senior classes. This will bring the youngsters cloger to work.
Departmental discreteness between the «wo systems of education and the lack of due contacts at all levels are reflected as yet.
The experience of the creation of the clothing design center in the industrial-training workshops sponsored by the Experimental Engineering Factory imeni Klara Tsetkin serves as an exampie of how it may be overcome. Instead of monotonous primitive work here--the sewing of sacks--the girls are given a chance to work on their own models, creatively. There is now no end of applicants! And the initiative did not come from the factory's workers--it came from Deputy Minister Vladimir Andreyevich Malvshev, who heads the workshop directors’ pioneering council. A good example for many leaders. If each of the other 29 deputy ministers in the room were to follow his example, it would be simply spiendid.
Sound industrial facilities have been created in some schools today. The students are already manufacturing necessary products and being paid. It would seem that productive labor needs to be stimulated. But our finance worker-dogmatists are a brick wall. What business of theirs is the reform? And the seniors continue to take money from their parents for school neecs and measures.
i.° question legitimately arises today concerning the soundness of the allocation of industrial enterprises in respect of sponsorship relations in the city. They need to be made more even. Rayon boundaries have always been the stumbling block here. Let us overstep this narrow-departmental approach.
This ace not fraternal currently: abundance in the central rayons, paucity in the rayons of the second zone. A clinic (which is itself in need of sponsors) and ineffectual workshops rank among the sponsors. The “Khimreaktivy"™ Store in Krasnogvardeyskiy Rayon "sponsors" as many as five schools! Who needs such sponsorship! It is only for accountability. In conjunction with the Moscow Gorispolkom, the rayispolkoms and the raykoms the main administration should, having carefully considered everything, revise the current system and help the outlying rayons thanks to major enterprises and organizations which are not even on the party register there, perhaps.
It is perfectly natural that in the category of the major tasks being tackled in the course of the reform we put information science and computers. We are among the leaders in the race for the numbers of computers. Although the requirement is far from satisfied as yet. Approximately 200 information science centers have been created and three computer centers are operating in the city. But this means that only one out of every six schools has its own center. And even by the end of the 5-year plan, according to calculations of the Vocational-Technical Education Main Administration, 80 vocational- technical schools (out of 201) will not have their own visual display class- rooms. I recently visited Brezhnevskiy Rayon's School 117. The sponsors--the Space Research Institute--have not stinted on the most modern equipment. The seniors compile study programs for the youngsters. Machines are used in the study of other subjects. The schoolchildren ask: give us a chance to tackle practical assignments for the rayon--we are capable of this. But the rayon leadership is not prepared. The children are running into a brick wall. The result--zero.
Our main admistrations are following in the wake, it may be said, of urgent problems. The schools are experiencing big difficulties in computer maintenance. And even if we set the task of an expansion of the system, it will then be necessary to simultaneously give thought as to how and with what forces we will repair the computers. Interrayon repair workshops, perhaps? But it is necessary to put this on a practical footing and not force the school director to shift and dodge in the acquisition of spares and the search for repair specialists.
In the majority of cases talk of reform begins with the 6-year olds. This is a most important area. But not the sole one, although in many instances the entire reform has been reduced precisely to this. There have been many "miracles," alas. Figure-mania and an endeavor to be the first to report, ignoring actual possibilities, have been at work. There have been deliberate violations of the established norms for the sake of fulfillment of the plan "launched from on high." Instead of the appointed classroom and two additional premises for the children's sleep and play, merely one room is frequently allocated. Such schools now constitute 40 percent. Questions of the youngsters’ diet and medical services are all being sacrified for the sake of the notorious figures and percentages.
The 6-year olds are alright in school in the first half of the day, at the time when lessons are under way. Real suffering for these young children
begins in the second half of the day because they cannot rest owing to the noise. And the school cannot provide quiet at this time--it is living its natural, fvll-bloodied, noisy life.
We are today artifically fencing off the 6-year olds _a the school from the school community. Partitions within the school have been built. This is not the solution. School annexes are what is needed. But departmental separation is currently killing the good idea and necessary undertaking.
It would be good, of course, were parents to bring children to school in the morning, and in the latter half of the day for them to be sent to the kindergarten. There they could be conveniently fed, and they would have an opportunity to walk about and rest, and in the evening the parents would tzeke them away. There are no simple recommendations. But we need to look for a solution.
We must devote the entire business of the youth's tuition to the youth's education. This work needs to be performed comprehensively. We have considerable unfinished business here. There is much dogmatism. Out-of- school work is inadequately organized, and the role and independence of the Komsomol and pioneer organizations have diminished. The result of the negligence is the social inertness of a considerable proportion of the youth and more frequent violations of moral standards and principles.
Infractions of the law are a graphic indicator. Crime among cschool students and the number of those arrested for drunkenness and other disturbances of public order increased in the past 5 years. Drug addiction is becoming a serious problem. We have closed our eyes to it for a long time and have been ashamed to talk about it. The ostrich policy has led to the point where Moscow now has 3,700 registered drug and toxin addicts. Some 164 such persons have been discovered among school and vocational-technical college students in the current year alone. A steady trend toward an increase in group crimes among adolescents has been observed recently.
Such occurrences in the city have been the consequence of a criminally negligent attitude toward their duties not only of the police officers, since many juvenile criminals are on file at the police stations, but also of the school and vocational-technical college teachers. The main administrations are not holding duly to acccunt the rayon public education departments and school and vocational-technical college leaders for inadequate individual- educational work with the students, primarily with difficult adolescents. In some vocational-technical schools of Leningradskiy, Proletarskiy, and Kuybyshevskiy rayons one out of every four offenders goes unpunished. It is no accident that it is in these rayons that there has been an increase in crime.
There are also serious shortcomings in the presentation of military-patriotic education and examples of an irresponsible attitude toward this on the part of many leaders. Just one example. The initial military training “assault course” has become an insurmountable barrier for the Moscow Gorispolkom. A
mass of decisions has been adopted, but things are at a standstili. Currently only 10 percent of the schools have camps. How are we thinking of preparing future fighters for army service?
Things are no better when it comes to physical education. Half the young men who, according to the reports, passed the Ready for Labor and Defense physica! training tests cannot confirm them a second time, and in Babushkinskiy, Baumanskiy, Dzerzhinskiy, and certain other rayons only !]5 percent of graduates confirmed the tests in the current year.
Inadequate attention to physical education is a reason for the deterioration in the students" health. The percentage of sick children or those predisposed to illness increases by a factor of more than 1.5 by the eighth grade and amounts to 55 percent. One out of every two juniors fails to correspond in terms of physical development to the norms of his age group, one out of every three has anomalies in his state of health and more than 10 percent are chronically ill.
There are serious complaints to be leveled here at both the teachers and medical personnel. Two departments, no contact. There is a shortage otf doctors for adolescents. Doctors and nurses are not subordinate to the school and dictate "their" operating hours. Twelve percent of schocls do not have a
doctor, and there is no second shift anywhere. An arrangement has been reached with USSR Minister of Health S. P. Burenkov: the problem not only concerning doctors for adolescents but also in respect of a number of other
narrow specialties in Moscow will have been solved within 2 years.
Thousands of students do not know how to occupy their free time and are involved neither in school groups, in out-of-school establishments, nor at their place of residence. At the same time, according to report data, a wide- ranging system of activity groups, sections, and clubs for children and adolescents has been created and is operating actively in the schools, vocational-technical colleges, and out-of-school establishments. Paper, as we know, stands up to everything. Only can we agree to numerical, paper well- being?
It is necessary to pay the most serious attention to the organization of the
students’ extracurricular activity and the strengthening of educational work among adolescents at the place of residence. This is as yet one of the most neglected areas. Despite insistent demands and recommendations, neither the raykoms nor the rayispolkoms have availed themseives of the experience to hand in the country. And there is such. In many areas the school is the center ot
educational work in the microregion. A socio-pedagogical complex has been formed around it--a successful form of unification of the efforts of the school, the home, and the production outfit in educational work and in work at the place of residence. It is headed, as a rule, by industrial leaders of the sponsoring enterprise. It has been said repeatedly: travel about, study and apply with regard for Moscow's specific features. No. What is this--capital] egotism or ossification? I believe it could be formulated more simply: Lack
of dispatch, indiscipline. Everyone must involve himself in this work also with regard for the change in sponsorship ties.
On the question of personnel. Who are the educators? Undoubtedly, thousands and thousands of teachers who are devoted to the cause, who love children and who are giving them all their powers, knowledge, and experience. But “flies
in the ointment" in education are doing irreparable damage.
R. Kh. Khabibulin, former director of Sovetskiy Rayon's School 628, was sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment. The systematic extortion of bribes from school employees was not only his "hobby" but also the principal content of administrative-teaching activity. Various pretexts were used: concealment of absenteeism and drunkenness among the teachers and the low level of teaching. Former master craftsman S. I. Lebedev was sentenced--also to 5 years--for the systematic involvement in drunkenness of the trainees of Vocational-Technical School 191, extortion of money from them to cover up absenteeism and vandalism and the torture of trainees whom he did not like. Systematic unlawful actions in both cases. Is such a "system" possible in collectives where there is a normal moral-psychological atmosphere and where chere is a militant party organization? I believe not.
Some 330 teachers in 47 schools inspected by the prosecutur's office were punished for breaches of labor discipline and drunkenness. What happened to them? An example. Having embezzled state property, Smirnova, director of Vocational-Technical School 169, against whom criminal proceedings were not instituted merely in connection with an amnesty...was transferred to the position of deputy director for teaching-educational work in another school.
fhere are dozens of examples of such personnel outrages. The legitimate question arises: where are the publicity, objectivity, and democratic principies in personnel selection?
We have analyzed the letters which the gorkom has received on the work of the schools, vocational-technicai colleges, and preschool establisnments. Approximately 1,000 in 6 months. Only eight of them concern problems of school reform. The majority (and almost half are anonymous) concern conflicts, abuses, and shortcomings in personnel selection. Such is the
social maturity of our teachers?!
Practice shows that a considerable proportion of the city's teachers has yet to absorb the ideas of the reform in depth. There is a good weapon for compelling a worker to shake himself up and evaluate his activity critically-- personne! certification. But it is proceeding in the schools and vocational- technical colleges formally. Statistics show that practially one-third of the lessons fails to correspond to the demands of the present day. At the same time, of the 7,000 teachers who have undergone certification in the current year, recommendations for an improvement in the work, and cautious, at that, were expressed by only 315. Who needs such certification--paper, formal, bureaucratic? It is proving very difficult to shift our teachers from the beaten track!
Even in elementary matters many workers as yet lack the boldness to abandon the old, customary path in work with children.
A classic example of stereotyped inveterate bureaucratism was the graduation assembly of 10th grade students of Frunzenskiy Rayon. The atmosphere of school exhortation extinguished the graduates’ enthusiasm and gave rise to gloom and tedium. The teachers manifestly underestimated the social] maturity of their wards and played it unduly safe.
Yet Krasnogvardeyskiy Rayon took a risk and entrusted the graduates with conducting the assembly independently. The graduation ball was conducted in organized and interesting fashion. From the stage of the “Rossiya™ Motion Picture-Concert Hall the young people reported to the teachers and parents present in the hall on their activities and readiness for real work.
Truly, werk in the educational institution and where child.en are being taught is not easy. What is needed is knowhow, willpower, and character. And good health also. Otherwise one will not last. Not everything is as it should be here in Moscow. There are many ailing teachers. The clinical examination of teachers is formal. The main administration is not paying attention to sports and recuperative work with teachers and has not embarked on the elaboration of the “Health” program. Education workers lack their own sanatorium-preventive clinic and pioneer camp. And the trade union gorkom has for several 5-year plans been “sending a message to the main administration." The question arises: Do the functions of the union gorkom officials amount merely to this? For what reason are 36 persons in receipt of wages?
The Voroshilovskiy, Kuybyshevskiy, Perovskiy, Tushinksiy, and a number of other rayispolkoms are displaying inadequate concern for the creation of normal housing conditions for education workers.
There are many other problems of a social nature. There are difficulties involving passes. It is not always easy getting children into a preschool establishment. It is difficult getting tickets to a new performance at the theater.
All this may be encapsuled in one thing--the need to pay increased attention to education workers. And we are displaying insufficient attention. Try to remember: when was the last time the best teachers were assembled in the raykom for advice on reform problems? And when was there a discussion in the raykom or ispolkom with teacher and master craftsmen newcomers just starting out? Who presents the teacher with the Veteran of Labor medal in the rayon? Has a recreational evening been held for teachers?
Many other questions may be asked. And not so much as a test as to induce reflection on whether we have done everything for our teacher.
Remember Lenin's words: "We...are displaying far from sufficient concern for raising the public teacher to the eminence without which there can be no question even of any culture...." Topical words!
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The ievel of work of the party organizations in the schools and vocational- technical colleges is low. The forms of party influence on the solution of problems of the reform have not been determined in many party organizations, and there is no precise and clear idea of what the party organizations should be doing.
One cannot make out when attending party meetings (and gorkom workers now participate in them quite often) whether it is a party meeting or routine teachers’ council. One out of every two meetings was conducted thus even in respect of the results of the 27th CPSU Congress.
The raykoms also are paying insufficient attention to the practical realization of the reform of the general and vocational-technical school. In the current year one out of every three raykoms has failed to analyze these questions of school reform. Such pertinent questions as the students’ computer competence, the development of physical culture and sports among teachers and adolescents, the organization of military-patriotic education in the schools and the preparation of the young men for service in the Soviet Army remain beyond the field of vision of the raykom bureaus. But the main task of the party organizations and the raykoms is work with the teacher personnel.
The Komsomol authorities have cultivated great bureaucracy in the educational institutions. The schedule of the main city activities of pioneers and schoolchildren for the 1985/86 academic year published by the Moscow Gorispolkom Public Education Main Administration, the Moscow Komsomol Gorkon, the All-Union Pioneer Organization Moscow City Council, and the Moscow City Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren incorporates numerous pages of a list of reviews, campaigns, various movements and rallies. One could be confused by the names alone. Everything has been scheduled for the junior by misters and ladies from the executive authorities. What kind of independence of the schoolchildren can we speak of today? And, what is more, a report has to be presented in respect of each measure. To what are we accustoming children from their youngest years? Is it any wonder where an armchair style and bureaucratism come from.
We speak a lot about the significance of the human factor. But who are these boys and girls sitting ** their desks today? They are the human factor of tomorrow! It is they who will have to assume the main burden of the solution of problems of acceleration and reconstruction in the very near future. And how substantial the contribution of the new generations to our common cause is will depend on how the reform of public and vocational education is realized. Ultimately, the success of the revolutionary transformations in society which the party has outlined!
From the speech of L. P. Kezina, chief of the Moscow Gorispolkom Public Education Main Administration.
The pace and depth of implementation of the reform are unsatisfactory. It would certainly be right to self-critically evaluate the activity primarily of
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the Public Education Main Administration. We have not succeeded in fully excluding instances of duplication in the activity of the rayon components and the main administration. We are rendering insufficiently qualified assistance locally as yet and not always opportunely supporting innovative initiatives. We have a right to reproach the rayon public education departments and administrations and school leaders for the abundance of documents addressed to them from the main administration. The main administration has practically let the activity of the rayon components of public education slip from its control and has not sought their reorganization.
Particular attention in the system of administration should be paid to work with the personnel. It has to be acknowledged that we have been unable to reach the point where every teacher is an initiator and conduit of the reform and is creatively solving new problems. The qualitative composition of the city's teacher personnel is disturbing. Approximately 3,000 teachers of grades 4-10 lack higher education. Irreparable damage is being done to teaching-educational work by teacher personnel turnover. Some 4,500 teachers have quit the city's schools in the past 3 years.
We must acknowledge today with all party scrupulousness that neither the main administration, the public education administration nor the school directors are accustomed to listening to critical observations about them and react painfully to criticism. An uncritical evaluation of our work, at times an unscrupulous position in defense of a discredited leader and an inability to heed the opinion of the working people and Muscovites concerning our work have led to the fact that difficult and protracted conflict situations have now taken shape in more than 30 teacher collectives.
Right this year the main administration plans to begin certification of officials of its machinery and the machinery of the rayon public education departments and administrations. School director certification will begin also.
From the speech of N. N. Losev, chief of the Moscow Vocational-Technical Education Main Administration.
The main administration's orientation toward fulfillment of the state plan for bringing the school staff up to strength in terms of the "gross" indicator has led to a number of schools failing to fulfill the applications of the base enterprises and essentially to satisfy their worker personnel requirements, which held to a loss of the interconnection of a number of schools with the base enterprises and had a negative effect on the state of their physical plant and the level of the teaching-educational process. Some 58 schools have yet to meet this year's plan quotas. Bringing the schools up to strength with young people with complete secondary education has not been completed either.
There is big potential for an improvement in the joint work of the vocational- technical college and the school. Krasnogvardeyskiy Rayon's experience of introduction of schoolchildren to the life of the vocational-technical colleges testifies to this. As a result the colleges have for a number of
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years been brought up to strength by graduates of the rayon's schools, in the main.
The facilities for the young people's industrial training are being developed at an inadequate pace. Measures to create new production bays and reequip the workshops of the base enterprises of the “Serp i molot™ Plant in Rural Vocational-Technical School 53 and the “Vympel" Garment Association in Rural Vocational-Technical School 101 remain on paper. The Glavmosinzhstroy has not embarked on the construction of a proving ground and testing track in Rural Vocational-Technical School 21. Subdivisions of the Ministry of Aviation Industry and Machine