The System of Public Education in Elisabethpol Governorate in the Period 1868-1917. Part 3

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 1900 to 1914. 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 Elisabethpol Governorate witnessed significant development in its primary education sector in 1900-1914. In that period, the number of primary schools in the region rose from 91 to 325. This increase was accompanied by a threefold rise in the number of students at them. The growing number of schools intensified the need for teachers. To this end, in 1914 the region’s capital became home to a teacher’s seminary. Concurrently, transformations also took place in the region’s system of lower education, which was reorganized from four- to six-grade. In addition, on the eve of World War I, two of the governorate’s regions each became home to a higher primary school, which would contribute to better access to lower education in the region. The number of secondary educational institutions in Elisabethpol Governorate did not increase in the period under examination. Nevertheless, the growing number of students in the region indicated the need for the government to open at least one more male gymnasium in Elisabethpol in the foreseeable future. As for the ethnic composition of the region’s student body, there were declines in each of the dominant groups (Armenians, Tatars, and ethnic Russians). In the period under examination, the number of Armenians at the region’s educational institutions dropped from 66% to 64%, Tatars - from 19% to 17%, and ethnic Russians - from 7% to 6%. At the same time, there was a sharp increase in the number of students from other ethnic groups, including Jews and Europeans.