By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Russian Empire came up with extremely disappointing indicators in the field of education. The estates and financial constraints faced by a significant number of the country's inhabitants led to the fact that in 1897 only 12% of subjects were able to write and read.
In this regard, it is interesting to know the meaning of the word "educational program", which appeared in Russian in the early years of the USSR. Raising the level of education has been one of the priority tasks throughout the entire existence of Soviet power.
Meaning of the word “educational program”
The First World War dealt a serious blow to the educational statistics of an already not very prosperous country. Many western regions were occupied during military operations and returned to the country only during the years of Soviet power.
In the early stages of history, abbreviations and acronyms were popular in the USSR. That is how the two words “liquidation” and “illiteracy” formed the name of the program, which aimed to increase literacy in a young country. According to some reports, the number of people who could read and write was about thirty percent; according to others, it exceeded fifty percent.
However, whatever the real numbers, they were significantly lower than those of neighboring European countries, and the new government needed a large number of competent people who were ready to develop the economy.
Campaign organization
Considering the meaning of the word "educational program" in the Russian language, one should return to 1919. It was then that a decree on the eradication of illiteracy was adopted , and already in 1920 the Council of Commissioners decided to create a special All-Russian emergency commission on eradicating illiteracy, which, according to fashion, was shortened to the name of the Cheka.
In 1922, the first All-Russian Congress dedicated to the eradication of illiteracy was held, the results of which made the decision to pay special attention to teaching reading and writing to people from eighteen to thirty years old.
Of course, the priority was given to the education of workers, members of trade unions and workers of state farms. At the same time, the duration of literacy courses was seven months. A year later, a special decree determined the number of schools in which citizens studied, since 1923 their number was 1023.
In order to minimize the number of illiterate people, in every city where the number of people who could not read exceeded fifteen percent, a special school of literacy was to begin work. With the development of such a wide program, the use of the word "educational program" in literature became universal, and over time it was supplemented with new meanings.
Program Summary
First of all, it is worth noting the extremely low starting level of people who studied literacy and the limited resources that were available to the young Soviet authorities. However, despite this, more than ten million people were trained between 1917 and 1927, and the number of children attending school regularly increased to 60%.
In general, the program had very positive consequences, as many people got a chance at education regardless of their origin.
Speaking about what the word “educational program” means and the significance of this phenomenon for the country in general, we can say that it was the experience of this program that contributed to the introduction of universal school education in the Soviet Union since 1930.