On the problems of education of national minorities in Kazakhstan in the 20s and 30s of the XX century (on the materials of Northern Kazakhstan)

Abstract

The article is an analysis of the problem of education of national minorities in Kazakhstan in the 20–30 years of the XX centuries. The focus of the researchers is on the initial period of Soviet power, when the processes of modernization and national self-determination intensified in the country. The main trends in the creation of the school system of national minorities, such as the opening of national schools, national cultural and educational institutions, training of national teaching staff are considered. The peculiarity of the ethnic structure of the population of Kazakhstan in the studied period was the diversity of its national composition as a result of the active resettlement policy of the Russian Empire and migration processes of the Soviet period. The authors also pay attention to regional peculiarities in the development of the school system in Kazakhstan. The specificity of Northern Kazakhstan was that the German, Ukrainian, and Tatar populations were represented to a greater extent here; accordingly, the provincial education authorities paid special attention to the creation of schools for these ethnic groups, the number of which was increasing every year. The authors dwell separately on the problems and difficulties encountered by local education authorities — the lack of educational literature in the native language, the lack of basic conditions for organizing educational activities for national minorities, weak teaching staff, and the lack of experience in carrying out effective work to solve these problems. The main reasons for overcoming these difficulties were the great diversity and dispersion of the population of Kazakhstan, the peculiarities of its economic way of life, the colonial past, the lack of specialists in local authorities to solve the problems of national minorities, the lack of funds for the development of national schools.