Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0244/02447.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 36KB | 572 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02447}
$Pretitle{276}
$Title{Mongolia
Chapter 7A.   Education}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Trevor N. Dupuy, Wendell Blanchard}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{mongolian
schools
education
school
mongolia
students
russian
children
educational
new}
$Date{1973}
$Log{Roofs of Temples*0244701.scf
}
Country:     Mongolia
Book:        Mongolia, A Country Study
Author:      Trevor N. Dupuy, Wendell Blanchard
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 7A.   Education

[See Roofs of Temples: Courtesy Embassy of Mongolia, Washington DC.]

     Education in Mongolia has been one of the primary means of transforming
a primitive, illiterate society of nomadic livestock herders into a developing
modern socialist (Communist) nation closely tied to the Soviet Union. This
basic transformation was achieved by determined and ruthless means in the
30-year period between 1924, when the pro-Soviet Mongolian leaders established
the MPR, and 1954, when they announced that illiteracy had been erased-a
premature declaration, but one of three-quarters accuracy.

     In the prerevolutionary society the Buddhist monasteries were the sole
source of education. The illiteracy rate was nearly 100 percent for the women,
around 90 percent for non-church males or perhaps 70 percent for all males.
Superstition further prevented access to the modern world: it was considered
evil to dig wells, to cut hay, to vaccinate cattle. (see ch. 9, Social
Values).

     The new Communist rulers did not face an easy task in breaking this grip
of ignorance, but as monasteries were forcibly closed, more and more secular
schools were opened. After the Second World War, state resources were freed
to speed up the evolving education system. Primary and secondary education
was  made compulsory, teacher-training schools were increased, a variety of
higher institutions were opened, widespread adult education programs were
established, and increasing numbers of students received graduate training in
Russia.

     The educational system recognizes two basic needs: to provide a literate
population of loyal and dutiful citizen-workers well-versed in Communist
ideology; and to supply the technological and administrative skills necessary
to turn a simple nomadic society into a semi-industrialized modern economy.
The growth of a dominant professional elite, loyal to the Communist Party and
competent to manage farms, industries, and government bureaus, is a direct
outgrowth of the development of educational facilities.

     In meeting this challenge, the MPR leaders have benefited from two great
advantages: the centralized, Communist Party system of government in which
direction flows from one source; and the enormous support of the Soviet Union
in supplying aid, direction, and know-how.

     The individual student pays the price of conformity to a single,
relatively rigid set of thoughts and values. On the other hand, every person's
educative potential, regardless of sex or financial level, is tapped by the
state, which, in a land of little more than a million people, badly needs
every ounce of brains, talent, and energy it can find. Although the student
must labor hard for the state-including working "vacations" -and his job
choices are limited and often dictated from above, his rewards are assured:
a place in the society's hierarchy of government, industry, or agriculture,
and state support for himself and his family in all of life's necessities.

     The educated elite form a growing class, while some benefits of modern
education have spread through the society in many aspects: a comparatively
high rate of literacy, a better living standard for everyone, great changes
in health conditions, a modern role for women, the use of science in
agriculture, and an expanding light industry. Although some traditional values
and superstitions linger, especially among older Mongols, the country as a
whole turned from the ethic of prerevolutionary medievalism, even though the
shadow of communism's thought control remains.

Education in the Society

     The new regime claims that the traditional religious and secular rulers
of Mongolia before the establishment of the new state in 1924, the abbots
and the nobles, used ignorance and superstition to control the people.
Buddhist monks allegedly told the people that education was bad for them and
that it was sinful for a woman to read according to present official
propaganda. The only schools were monastery schools to which boys were sent
at an early age. Sons of wealthy families studied at home with a tutor, and
sometimes worked in the bureaucracy at the end of their schooling. The monks
opposed modern education as irreligious and political. Monastery schools
taught reading and writing in the Tibetan language, as a sacred language, as
well as the Mongol written language.

     Beginning in the 1920s and continuing to the present day, the MPR's
Communist leaders have known that the formal educational system was one of
their most effective tools for leading the people to change their country into
a modern socialist state. The establishment of compulsory secular schools was
one weapon in breaking religion's power.

     The first secular school in Outer Mongolia was founded by Jamtsarano, the
Russian Buryat representative in Autonomous Outer Mongolia. He lived in Urga
(now Ulan Bator) from 1912 to 1917 while he pursued his scholarly interests
and spread Russian influence through his newspaper and school. Jamtsarano
offered the first alternative to the traditional Buddhist education of the
monastery schools. Both monks and princes objected to this pioneer effort as
irreligious and subversive, in which mathematics, geography, and history, as
well as the Mongolian and Russian languages, were taught to commoners for the
first time. Choibalsan, who later became MPR prime minister, studied at
Jamtsarano's school in 1913. Other secular schools were established by the
Autonomous Government with Russian encouragement, but they were later forced
to close due to public apathy and the lack of both teachers and students.
After 1921, Jamtsarano continued his work in an official capacity. No strict
political allegiance to the new regime was required prior to 1928. Buryat
Mongolians organized the first schools and became the first teachers in
secular education, as they were better educated than most other Mongols,
having been subjects of the Tsars for the better part of two centuries.

     Buddhist influence continued even after the establishment of the new
state in 1924,. In 1929, when 5,773 children were enrolled in government
schools, there were 18,955 children from 8 to 17 years of age attending
monastery schools. Jamtsarano observed that parents hindered the education
of their children despite the fact that it was free, and that the children
themselves were impatient for the lessons to end. Lack of textbooks and
inadequate housing were other impediments to the progress of secular
education. In 1921 a military school was established, and the People's
University was set up in 1924 with 70 students (20 female). In 1924 the
Central Party School opened with 100 students (36 women) from poor families;
they received free tuition, food, and clothing and were paid the approximately
equivalent of $2 a month. Many talented young Mongols were sent abroad to
study. In 1929 there were 216 Mongols studying in Germany, France, and the
Soviet Union. All Mongolian students were recalled later from western Europe,
but other Mongols continued their studies in the Soviet Union.

     The 1940s and 1950s were the time of greatest change in the evolution
of Mongolian education. In 1955, attendance at the 4-year elementary school
became compulsory for all children. The authoritarian nature of the
Mongolian system of government, with its administrative control over the
lives of its citizens, has facilitated this change from an illiterate,
unskilled nomadic people to a largely literate population possessing some o