National schools of the Khakass Autonomous Region in 1946-1964

Zotova Ol'ga Vyacheslavovna Postgraduate student, Department of History, Khakass State University named after N.F. Katanov 655017, Russia, Republic of Khakassia, Abakan, Lenin Ave., 90 wakagashira413@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Tuguzhekova Valentina Nikolaevna Doctor of History Professor, Department of History, Khakass State University named after N.F. Katanov 655017, Russia, Republic of Khakassia, Abakan, Lenin Ave., 90 vtuguzhekova@yandex.ru

The preservation and development of cultural diversity and linguistic heritage of the multinational people of the Russian Federation, the realization of the right to study their native language formed the basis of new federal state educational standards of general education in the Russian Federation, which reflects the relevance of research on the formation and evolution of the national education system in Russia as a whole, in its individual regions, as well as the experience of the Soviet model national education.

National education was one of the ways to preserve the national language and culture. In the post—war period, several types of secondary schools of the Khakass Autonomous Region (hereinafter - KHAO) can be distinguished for the organization of the educational process:

Russian Russian schools are the predominant type of schools in which education was conducted entirely in Russian.;

2. "Khakass" or national schools — a type of schools in which education was conducted in the Khakass language, the native (Khakass language) and Russian languages were taught in separate subjects;

3. Mixed schools (type "A") — a type of schools in which instruction was conducted in Russian, there were separate classes of Khakas, in which instruction was carried out in their native language according to the appropriate educational program;

4. Mixed schools (type "B") — a type of small (single-class) schools in which in one class with a mixed contingent, training was simultaneously conducted in different programs in Russian and Khakass languages.

Despite the fact that the Khakas were the titular nation of the Khao, already in 1939 the share of the Russian population was 75%. The ethnic picture became more diverse due to the intensive migration influx: mobilized, repressed, deported, displaced persons who mastered virgin and fallow lands. In parallel with this process, the share of the indigenous ethnic group decreases, the urbanization of the population increases ^{[1, p. 176]}.

Unfortunately, in the reports of the Khakass regional Department of Public Education (hereinafter referred to as the Khakass District), it is rarely possible to single out the number of mixed schools of type "A", and most importantly, the number of such classes and parallels from the total number of mixed schools. As can be seen from the above table (Table 1), most of the Khakass schools (83% of the number of all Khakass schools) were primary schools, on average, taking into account mixed schools, in the first post-war years, every fifth school of the KHAO was taught in the Khakass language ^{[2, L.24]}.

Due to the fact that the absolute majority of primary schools were localized in rural areas, Khakass schools were predominantly rural.

Table 1. The ratio of different types of schools as of the 1947-1948 academic year

Until the mid–1950s, the total number of Khakass and mixed schools increased, while the share of the total number of schools changed: by the 1954-1955 academic year, the share of Khakass schools of all types decreased by almost 2 times (from 18.6% to 9.4%), the share of mixed schools of all types increased by more than 7 times (Table 2). Thus, while maintaining the total number of schools in which the Khakass language was taught (76 schools), there is a steady trend of transition to teaching in Russian for children of indigenous ethnos ^{[2, l.24; 3, l. 90]}.

Table 2. Dynamics of the ratio of different types of schools

This trend is especially noticeable when considering the dynamics of the number of different types of schools by district (Tables 3 and 4) ^{[2, L.24; 3, L. 90]}. The reduction in the number of national schools in Ust-Abakan, Shirinsky and Tashtypsky districts was due to the reorganization of primary schools into seven-year-olds, on the one hand, and the transition to teaching in Russian in separate classes. By the mid-1960s, the total number of national and mixed schools was reduced to 73 educational institutions.

Table 3. Dynamics of changes in the number of Khakass schools by district

Table 4. Dynamics of changes in the number of mixed-type schools by district

Russian Russian was another reason for the reduction in the number of schools and individual classes where teaching was carried out in the Khakass language, was the implementation of the educational reform of 1958 and the transition to teaching in Russian from the 5th grade, as well as the requirement of some parents to teach in Russian from the first grade ^{[4, 67-70]}.

The dynamics of the number of educational organizations that provided education in the Khakass language and teaching the Khakass language as an academic subject, and the number of students in such educational organizations, were also influenced by the material, technical and methodological support of schools.

Throughout the period under review, there has been an unsatisfactory provision of textbooks, textbooks in the Khakass language, as well as methodological materials ^{[5, l. 270]}.

The curricula for national schools were constantly being adjusted, the curricula and the number of hours allocated to the study of subjects were changed, the syntax and rules of reading the Khakass language were changed. Due to the fact that textbooks in the Khakass language were developed and published in the KHAO, it was often impossible to publish the latest versions of textbooks in a timely manner and in the right quantity ^{[4, l. 270; 6, l. 36]}.

At the same time, with an obvious shortage of methodological materials that teachers of national schools could be guided by, cluster methodological associations were functioning on the territory of the KHAO in Tashtypsky, Altai, Shirinsky, Askizsky districts, covering 48 schools of the region with methodological work.

Russian Russian schools Many Khakass and mixed schools were located far from the centers of cluster associations, were located among Russian settlements, so the teachers of such schools were served by cluster methodical associations designed to organize the educational process according to the curriculum for Russian schools. The frequency of work of cluster methodical associations was once a month, despite the fact that the subject commissions of grades 5-7 of Khakass schools did not function ^{[6, l.51-52]}.

These circumstances partially helped to solve the personnel issue of national schools, which was one of the most serious problems of the development of the national education system in the KHAO during the study period ^{[6, L. 36]}. It should be noted that in the first post-war years, the shortage and sharp decline in the quality of teaching staff (in terms of education and teacher experience) was characteristic not only for the KHAO, but for the USSR as a whole ^{[7, l.99]}.

The teacher of the Khakass school (Khakass class in a mixed school) had to meet high requirements: not only to have a specialized education, but also to be fluent in the Khakass language. The bulk of the teaching staff for national schools was trained by the Abakan Pedagogical College (the share of primary schools from the total number of Khakass and mixed schools in the period under review ranged from 53% to 82%). As a result, by the mid-1950s, all primary Khakass schools were taught in the Khakass language, except for schools in the Shirinsky district.

The situation was more complicated with the training of personnel of seven-year and secondary schools, including due to the ignorance of the Khakass language by teachers. Thus, in the 1956-1957 academic year 151 teachers (including 53 primary school teachers) were required to organize teaching in their native language in the KHAO. Of the total number of missing personnel, 83 needed to be trained to replace Russian teachers (including 28 primary school teachers) ^{[6, l. 100]}.

Thus, the national education system, with an apparent quantitative growth, expressed in the development of a network of Khakass and mixed schools, was in fact being curtailed. Firstly, the share of Khakass schools decreased from the total number of schools in the region, secondly, the shortage of professional teaching staff fluent in the Khakass language did not allow the full implementation of the national seven-year and secondary education, thirdly, the level of methodological support of national schools was at an unsatisfactory level, did not meet the needs of teachers, fourth Russian Russian education in the vast majority of cases was due to a good command of the Russian language, which contributed to the formation of demand among parents for education in Russian from the first grade.