The System of Public Education in Elisabethpol Governorate in the Period 1868-1917. Part 2

This work explores the system of public education in Elisabethpol Governorate in the period 1868-1917. The present part of the work examines the timeframe from 1885 to 1900. A key source used in putting this work together is a set of reports from the Trustee of the Caucasus Educational District for the period 1884-1914. These reports provide a valuable statistical insight into the development of the system of public education in Elisabethpol Governorate in the prerevolutionary period. They contain data such as the number of educational institutions in the region, their library holdings, and the size and ethnic composition of the student body at them. The authors’ conclusion is that by 1900 the process of building a network of educational institutions in Elisabethpol Governorate had been effectively completed. The governorate had educational institutions of all levels (secondary, lower, and primary), with both boys and girls having access to all this education. Despite relatively minor growth in the numbers of secondary and lower educational institutions in the region, there was a sharp increase in library stock in these sectors. The period 1885-1900 was a time marked by brisk development in the region’s primary education sector, witnessing a threefold increase in the number of primary schools and a fivefold increase in the number of students attending primary school in the region. With that said, the period witnessed not only growth in the number of primary schools in the region but growth in per school enrollment in this sector as well. In terms of ethnic composition, the way was led by Armenians (66% of the total student body), followed by Tatars (19%), and then ethnic Russians (7.1%).