The system of public education in Kars oblast in the period 1878-1917. Part 2

Abstract

This work explores the system of public education in Kars Oblast in the period 1878-1917. The present part of the work covers the period 1908-1917, which spans the timeframe from the commencement of preparatory activities on the introduction of compulsory primary education to the start of the February Revolution. The key sources used in putting this work together are the annual Reports on Educational Institutions in the Caucasus Educational District, which provide data on the region's schools run by the Ministry of Public Education, and the Reports of the Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod, which contain information on the region's parochial schools. Of major importance are also the records of the Ministry of Public Education stored in the Russian State Historical Archive (Saint Petersburg, Russia). The authors' conclusion is that Kars Oblast's system of public education was characterized by a number of distinctive features. Creating the system of public education from scratch subsequent to the incorporation of the formerly Turkish-controlled areas into the Russian Empire required convincing the locals of the need to have their children attend Russian secular schools. A key role in making primary education accessible was played by the implementation of the project on the introduction of compulsory primary education. In the period from 1908 to 1914, the number of ministerial primary schools in the region rose from 66 to 202. This helped increase the number of students in the region from 4,000 to 12,000. In addition to this, a large amount of work in the area of public education was also conducted by the Russian Orthodox Church, which ran over 60 primary schools in the region. By the start of World War I, schools in Kars Oblast were attended by nearly 100 % of all Russian boys in the region, with similar figures posted by the region's Greek and Armenian boys and much lower ones exhibited by its girl population. However, on the war's eve, the region's female education system was making such headway that the school system seemed capable of reaching all of its Christian population by as early as the period 1916-1917, which, of course, was achievable on condition that the pace carried on.