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7, 8 and 9-year school in Estonia 1940-1980

Ene-Silvia Sarv
Key words: compulsory education, 6-, 7-, 8-year schools, curriculum, pedagogy,
education policy and ideology, teacher
The system of education from 1940 to 1980 had to go through several changes from
quite liberal and innovative state in 1939 via WorldWar II and political-ideological
changes to highly prescribed and ideologically controlled system in 1980. This 40
years long manysided process is in following explaned firstly through some general
aspects and then by maine more detailin mine ation includes some general
The organisation and network of schools
By the beginning of the WW II Estonian education was in the process of changes /fast
development. Since mid-30-ies the compulsory and secondary school together were extended
from 11 up to 12 years, compulsory school had 6 grades with class-teacher and school-
obligation was up to age 15. The contemporary, child-centered methods were introduced via
teachers preparation in pedagogical seminars and wide professional development movement,
led by Johannes Kis and Union of Teachers.
By 1960s Estonia had mainly schools working in Estonian or Russian and some
schools what had departments working in Estonian and Russian. Those could be as
primary so secondary schools. School had one headmaster/principal but usually two
deputy headmasters one for each department.
Content of education
1928 national curriculum represented many advanced, innovative ideas, including
integrated learning , individualisation and everyday-life related content. The 1938
curriculum offered even more holistic approach covering all school-levels but was not
really introduced before 1940. (Andresen 2007)
Youth organizations
Up to 1940 the following, sanctioned by the Ministry of Education, organisations
Young Eagles, Home Daughters, Scouts ang Guides for younger students.
With Soviet Regime pioneers (10-14 years) and Communist Youth organisations
became the only sanctionered youth organisations, both strictly under the government
of local and central organs of Communist Party. Alongside with ideological
brainwashing both, but especially pioneer organisation developed students initiative,
leader abilities, gave opportunities for organised, state-supported trips, excursions,
camps, work (forest planting) etc, many of those dedicated to festive days or
anniversaries of Soviet Union, Communist Party, WW II, Stalin or Lenin. Mostly
these celebrations included competitions and rituals dedicated to honour of labour,
Soviet patriotism, faithfulness to Communist Party, readiness ror work and defence.
The organisation was fully and activly atheistic. (CCCP. Narodnoje ... 1967,
Konstantinov ...)
Pedagogy
The philosophies of Komensky, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, reform educators as well as
ideas and practices cultivated by Carl Heinrich Niggol (1851-1927), Peeter Pld
(1878 1930), Johannes Kis (1885 1950), Jri Parijgi (1892 1941), Juhan Tork
(1889 1980), Aleksander Elango (1902 2004) formed the foundation of
educational reality in 1940. This meant work-school, wide use of integrated and
independent learning according to students individual abilities, textbooks and
workbooks supporting this kind of learning. (Eisen 1996) The 1930s was the decade
in wich lot of teachers activities conferences, professional development days,
exhibitions took place, educational literature was published and teacher organisations
were active innovators. (Eisen 1996)
In the very beginning of Soviet occupation educational publications were renamed
(the journal Education to Soviet School, the weekly Teacher Paper to Soviet Teacher)
and became the tool of robustious re-ideologisation. For example the ideology of
capitalist enemy, need for socialist vigilance and hatred towards class-enemy was
stressed (Gontarov 1940). At the same time socialist competition was introduced in
schools for individual students and for schools and classes as powerful mean of
communist education (Dovgalevskaja 1940). Throughout these years the content of
education changed. The analyses of textbooks, especially ABC-books (Laherand
2000) show how traditional nature-home-farm-related content changed to city,
industry, party and authorities (esp Lenin). Accordingly changed values.(Kalmus
1999) Even names of children changed often to Russian names and Russian
was seen as older brother. In many cases two histories were present in
Estonia during the Soviet rule. While the official version was taught systematically at
school, the unofficial one was discovered individually by each child with the help of
parents or other adults, family photo albums, surviving books from the 1920'ies and
1930'ies, and other sources. (Tulviste) The same can be said about literature.
So often two sets of values were cultivated in parallel and formed the identity of
students in Estonian-working schools. For schools working in Russian this parallelism
was not present or so obvious.
Further the timeline of 6, 7, 8 year schools in Estonia is explained.
1940-1941
One of the first steps of Soviet government was to introduce Soviet centralised system
of education. The private schools, incl schols for national minorities (Nodel) were
closed or state-owned/nationalized, separate teaching for boys and girls in lower
classes was stopped and mixed schools introduced. School-obligation was prolonged
(to age of 16) and seventh class/grade (pro-gymnasium grade) was attached to six-
grade schools. So students were forced to change the school. Religion was excluded
from curricula.
Unification of education started, but due to short time the curricular developments,
change of content of education and methodology were superficial. Teachers used
mainly traditional textbooks, practices of Johannes Kis and traditional methods as
they had done so far. At 1941 the ABC-book of H. Rajamaa was published that had
traditional texts, pictures about daily life in countryside and in nature and nearly
without Soviet atributes. Even the image of church was still in the textbook.
(Rajamaa) But from school-libraries the Estonian patriotic literature and other
bourgeous teaching materials were abolished and inventory were destroyed. Some
private schoolhouses were given to newcomers - russian children, at the beginning of
war some were used as hospitals.
Teachers were informed about obligational changes at the Teachers congress (1940,
August), some were forced for cooperation with repressive organs. Ca 10% of
teachers were sent to Siberia, executed or mobilised. At the 1941 war 79 schools were
destroyed or damaged.
In schools the ideological pioneer and komsomol organisations were founded to
replace scauts movement. The main scautmaster informed about termination of
organisation ang recommended to all to join pioneer or communist youth
organisations. (Hunt)
For students the changes appeared in different ways. So those who were students in
pro-gymnasium had to change to other school to 6th grade, as pro-gymnasiums did
not fit into soviet school-system. And teachers had to be called Comrade, as mister
and missis (hrra, proua) were forbidden to use. Traditional boys schools became
mixed. The fear and untrust were developed in silence because people were
disappearing. (Hunt)
1941-44
These years education has to be explained in two separate parts: education in
homeland (Estonia) occupied by Nazis, and education in the Soviet rear (far behind
the front line). The first one was in general following and re-establishing educational
approaches of pre-Soviet period, the second one copied the Soviet educational
paradigm and organisation and influenced the after-war education in Estonia.
During the pre-war summer thousands of Estonians were forced to leave Estonia,
partly evacauated, partly deported to central Russia, Siberia, Ural etc. At 1941/42.
classes (in Tcheljabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Orenburg, Tatar, Tchuvas, Mari etc regions)
working in Estonian were opened. From 1942 in Verhneuralsk 7-year school started
to work in Estonian. At 1943 the high school starts in Jegorjevsk near Moscosw.
(Prokofiev, Estonskaya SSR; Nagel 2004, Sarv 2010) Some textbooks were issued in
Estonian. For example the first Estonian textbook/lugemik for high school at Soviet
time (Moscow, publication of Foreign Literature Publications, 1943, ed by Andresen
and Seilenthal) includes Stalins and Estonias leading communists speeches,
contemporary Soviet literature (Fadejev, Gorki, Ostrovski, A.Tolstoi), Estonian
classical (national epic Kalevipoeg, Bornhhe, Koidula, Luts, Suits, Tammsaare,
Tuglas, Under, Vilde, etc), some of them do not appear afterwords in Estonian for
decades. Some stories, anyway had aready strong ideological accent.
In nazi-occupied Estonia school life was politicised/ideologisised, german language
and nazi-symbolics were obligational in school. The educational literature, mostly re-
prints of old textbooks were issued periodically. Schools worked according to
possibilities - rooms, teachers up to the spring 1944, when war reached Estonia. In
Soviet literature it is underlined, that teachers, who had co-operated with Soviet
government in 1940/41 were eliminated from school-work and sent to agricultural or
other work, many of them to concentration camps. (Prokofiev, Estonskaya SSR).
1944 - 1948 and further
It was possible to continue with compulsory education nearly everywhere in Estonia
in 1944/45. 198 elementary, 790 7-grade schools and 38 secondary schools worked.
The 1944 -1948 were the years to establish Soviet educational system, pedagogy,
unitarian school, numerical grading/mark system (1 the worse, 5 exellent),
subjects and their content, time-prescriptions. In towns the boys and girls school
still may exist separately. The class-teacher period shortenes from 6 to 3 years (often
with subject teachers for music, arts and gymnastics) and from 4th grade subject-
teaching and subjectteachers start. Types of schools, educational inventary and
textbooks are unified (translated from Russian), compulsory school is prolonged to 7
grades and free, while high schools charge tuition. General 7- grade compulsory
education was established in the Soviet Union in 1949.
The number of Russian-speaking children was quickly growing due to intensive
immigration and a growing number of troops and military officials. Some areas
became closed militay zones with schools working only in Russian.
So first decade after the war (and in some ways up to ninties) Estonia has two parallel
school-systems. There were schools working in Russian, according to established
Soviet textbooks, traditional Soviet Pedagogy and principles of Communist education.
The teachers and principals came mainly from Russia, were educated in very different
universities, pedagogical seminars all over the SU and did not speak Estonian. In
these schools all children belonged to pioneer organisation as a rule. The schools
working in Estonian had very quickly to re-orientate their educational principles and
methods accordin to ideological and pedagogical rules and learning plans of SU.
Nethertheless as most teachers had pre-Soviet pedagogical preparation/education,
the methods and classroom-climate often was child-centered and the ideas of the
pedagogy of J Kis worked silently in classrooms. Estonian was learning-teaching
language, number of lessons for foreign languages was cut, German became highly
unpopular, Russian was introduced fron the 2nd grade, new subjects like history and
geography of SU were introduced and mostly replaced history and geography of
Estonia for many years.
Children were forced to become pioneers. The communist, marxist-leninist ideology
and education had to be part of every subject. The obligatory school-uniform was
introduced in 1955 (at first exactly the Russian brown dress with black or white
apron, in 60ies dark blue dress with white collar). (Photos 1, 2)
New ABC-book (Aabits) for Estonian schools (1948) has already pioners as actors
and stories about Stalin. The same tendency is seen in song-books etc. In further
years the illustrations changed using city as environment (instead of Farm, nature as it
was used in traditional Estonian ABC and other textbooks), Russian names for
children, motifs from Russian literature. But the Estonian ABC-book from 1958 re-
introduces some traditional values and motifs of work-school/tkool/Arbeitschule by
J Kis.
As H Kurm (1954, 1955) so Soviet literature on education (Prokofjev, ) bring
forward several positive changes. The 7-year school and school-obligation meant,
that all children at age 7-15 had to go to school. As the subject content was for many
of them too difficult this brought the situation when nearly in every class someone has
to stay backwards to repeat the studies. Up to middle of 1950s from 4
th
grade onwards
students had to pass exams every year, late the exams had to be passed at the end of
7
th
grade. The number of schools working in Russian grow rapidly. In 1956/57 77% of
the general schools of Estonia were Estonian, 23% were Russian. The programs of the
Russian Federation were in use in the Russian schools. As rule, these schools had
weak binds with the country and culture of Estonia, the teaching of the Estonian
language was ineffective or non-existent. But as part of friendship-programme of
Soviet Republics and nations festivals and parties were organised (for example
traditional festivals of Tartu Karlova School together with Peterburi 104. sch,
Baldone, Kretinga ja Prnu schools of Tartu in 1960s). (Karlova kooli ajalugu)
The life of USSR and the school-life were directed according to 5- or 7-year plans,
announced by Central Committee of Communist Party. From building of socialism
and recovering from WWII in 1960s the Mature socialism was stated and the
intensive process of building communism was programmed.
At the XX congress of the Communist Party of the USSR (1956) the confirmation of
the connections between the education and production work was enforced. On
December 24, 1958, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR passed the law Strengthening
of the Connections between School and Life and the Development of the Educational
System in the Soviet Union. The general 8- grade compulsory education was
established from the 1959/60. The reform was considered to be fulfilled in 1962/63,
when the first certificates of the 8-grade schools were given. From the middle of the
1970ies, the system of cabinets was supported, there was a special classroom for
every subject, in 8-y schools - for main subjects. In 60ies first full-day or prolonged
day schools were developed. In 1970 elementary education was changed into 3-grade
and the subject learning was started from the 4th class. From 1972 the classes for the
6-year children were opened, in 1986, 65% of children went to school at the age of 6.
When from the end of the 1950s up to the middle of the 1960s all the Soviet republics were
allowed to decide more independently, the Central Committee of the ECP also followed it.
Among the other things the writing of original textbooks was favoured. (Raudsepp, 178) But
in general curricula used during the Soviet period, the educational requirements and the
subject syllabi were centralized and prescribed in details. (Krull, Mikser, 40, 41 Table 2)
In some schools of Estonia it was allowed to teach some more specific subjects, in
mid-60ies the so-called biased classes and schools of exact sciences, foreign
languages, history, art, music etc. were formed. Arts, languages and music as specific
curricular activity started from the 1
st
class. Voluntarily chosen subjects were added to
the curricula (facultative subjects, mainly in high schools). Estonia was allowed to
make up its own curricula and programs according to the directions of the Soviet
Union. (Eisen, Nagel 2006) Estonia was the first of Soviet Republics to introduce
some elements of programmed teaching in the beginning of 60ies and workbooks at
the end of 60ies. The active teaching method, diferenciation and individualisation
became into use by some advanced teachers, espacially those who workwed in
cooperation with scientists from Tartu University or Tallinn Pedagogical Institute or
Teacher In-Service Institute. But in general the edcational process was teacher
centered, directed by subject programme, memorisation and fact-orientated.
On teacher
In 1940/41 a great number of teachers were transferred or discharged, many were
executed or deported, the Estonian Teachers Union was liquidated. After the WWII
repressions went on. Everyone suspected in co-operation with nazis or having
nonaccepted past from the Estonian Republic had to leave school. Almost 1000
teachers, a quarter of total in 1944, had to leave school already before the great
repreessions of 1948. During 19481949 about 800, part of them clearly because of
political reasons. (Raudsepp 22-23) So teachers appeared to be one of most repressed
part of nation. The schools were in need of teachers, so many class- and subject
teachers had no sufficcient preparation.
Teachers were educated in Seminars, Tartu University and Tallinn Pedagogical
Institute. The teacher training programmes included a big amount of ideological
subjects and marxism-leninism. In 1945 Estonian teachers in-service teacher training
Institute was established, what directed all methodical work and teacher professional
lifelong-education up to 1989. The teacher life-long education was the systematic one
with obligatory courses every 5 years answering needs of beginners or mature
teachers ( 3-5, 7-10, ... 27- 30 years of pedagogical experience) and short courses due
to actual needs (new textbook, laboratory equipment etc). (Sarv 1996)
History of 7-, 8- and 9-year schools, as well as secondary (11-year) schools in
Estonia at 1940-1980 leads to conclusion that at least four parallel processes
were present: 1) lengthening of schoolobligation and widening of involvment
into compulsory education, 2) change of the content of education enforceable
ideologisation, scientification of all subjects, proportional growth of time for
scieces and Russian, unification of contents (incl use of over-USSR textbooks),
3) change of teaching-learning methodology from integrated and student-
centered to subject-centered, 4) inculcation of over-USSR standards (incl
school-dress) into educational process and teaching materials, equipment in
schools together with demands for for after-classroom and outside-school
activities, and participation in agricultural seasonal work etc.
As stated U Lnemets - the soviet theory of curricula was closer to german
Lehrplan and stressed didactics (Lnemets 2006). T
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Personal archives: Ene-Silvia Sarv (photos) vice-director of In-Service
Teachers Training Institute of Estonia (1983-1989)
Photo 1. Page from school-album. From left: 1. 2nd b grade, 1953/54, 7th
7-year school, Tartu, school is still for girls only, school-dress is not yet introduced; 2.
pioneers singing on meeting, 1956, the official dress; 3. The 1st May procession,
1955, Tartu, the national costumes students have were not forbidden, bud school-head
was not sure - is it allowed or not, she took risk - because of children; 4. The 3rd
grade, 1954/55 class, mixed.

Photo 2. The same class - end of 7th grade, June, 1959.
Photo 3. Scenes from school. 1958, 1959, The 8th cecondary school of Tartu.

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