On the issue of reforming public education in the russian empire [К вопросу о реформировании народного образования в Российской империи]

The work shows the objective nature of the pre-revolutionary reform of school education, dictated by the need to educate the population of Russia as an indispensable condition for the democratic restructuring of society and its economic development. The main historical reason that caused the emergence of the general school as a new institution of socialization, in addition to the existing ones - the family and the church, was modernization. The school of the church parish was focused on teaching children literacy in order to independently read the Bible translated into their native languages, for religious and moral education of students, ensuring the unity of faith. And this meant the universal, extraterrestrial nature of such a school. In the future, as the most important socio-cultural institution of society, as the institution of state policy, the school receives its main tasks from the state in order to modernize society, providing universal compulsory primary education. At the end of the XIX century (1906), political parties and socio-pedagogical organizations of Russia proposed the introduction of universal primary education. However, in pre-revolutionary Russia, such a bill was never adopted. Soviet power inherited 73 % of the population (over 9 years old) elementary illiteracy. © 2021 by Cherkas Global University.