SCHOOLS IN RUSSIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 November 1943, Page 3

SCHOOLS IN RUSSIA

W.E.A. DISCUSSION GROUP. At its final meeting for the season, the Masterton W.E.A. Group discussed education in Russia. This is free and compulsory from eight to' 15 years of age. At the age of 15, some children decide to go into industry and enter industrial training schools, where they stay for two years at the cost of the State. Other children may stay at school until they are 16, and then take a six months’ course at a factory apprentice school. Those who decide to become specialists are trained in appropriate institutions, paying a fee of about £5 a year for tuition. This fee is remitted if their work reaches a sufficiently high standard. Nursery schools exist, but attendance is voluntary. They cater for 4| million children under the age of 6. There are special schools for the mentally deficient and also for the specially gifted. English is the most favoured language in the middle school, where a foreign language is compulsory. In view of our population problem, the age analysis of the population of Russia is interesting. Over one half of the members of the population are under 21 years of age and nearly twothirds are under 29. In Britain more than half the population has passed the age of 29. A brief survey of Russian foreign policy brought to a conclusion a most interesting course of study.