The System of Public Education in Kursk Governorate (1808–1917). Part 2

Abstract

This paper is the second part of a study focused on the system of public education in Kursk Governorate in 1808–1917. It covers the period 1900–1917. The primary sources used for this work are archival sources and collections of published documents. The first group is represented by the Russian State Historical Archive (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation), more specifically records from the Ministry of Public Education containing the numbers of school-age children (ages 8–11) and students as at January 1, 1915, across the regions of the Russian Empire. The second group includes the annual statistical digest Overview of Kursk Governorate, The Most Faithful Report of the Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod, and certain statistical materials on educational institutions in Kursk Governorate. The study’s findings revealed that the system of public education in Kursk Governorate experienced in 1900–1917 a period of dynamic development. During this period, the region witnessed a sharp increase in the number of secondary educational institutions, with all cities, including uyezd ones, and even some villages, there reached with secondary education. The region’s lower education sector witnessed an improvement in the quality of education through a reorganization of uyezd schools into urban ones, and in 1903 there began a real boom in the opening of vocational schools. However, the biggest success was achieved in the region’s primary education sector, where school was attended by 1916 by 80 % of its school-age children.