◆ SpookStack

= =. 1955, marks the beginning of a transitic yward universal year compulsory education, which is e.., 4red to be achi by about 1960. Except for the choice of foreign language (usually Eng German or French), the curriculum in all ten grades is the s for all students. Soviet schools devote much more time © American schools to foreign languages, geography, mathem: and the natural sciences. For example, a foreign languag begun in the fifth grade and studied for six years. Most versity curriculums require four more years of foreign-lang study, and medica] students study two years of Latin in add! In 1953 almost 41 per cent of the elass hours in the three u grades was devoted to mathematics and the sciences, an the fall of 1955 the proportion was increased even more. revised at that time, the required program in all ten-year sc! now includes the following subjects: Russian language lation, among them Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Part I of Goe Faust}, a foreign language, history, geography, the Con: tion of the U.S.S.R., psychology, arithmetic, algebra, geom trigonometry, chemistry, physics, astronomy, singing, dra manual arts and physical culture and sport (including military training as early as the fifth grade}. Teacher Ratio High The pupil-teacher ratio in Soviet schools has been ste improving. In 1930 there were 36 pupils per teacher in pri and secondary schools, in 1940 there were 28, in 1950 there 23; and the ratio since 1950 appears to have dropped even hk owing partly to the drop in enroliment as a result of the time decrease in birth rate and losses in population. Soviet university werk includes a basic program Ia four to six years, depending on the field; and graduate worl comprises two advanced degrees, the kandidat (degree of didate}, which requires three years of graduate work 4 thesis; and the doctoral degree, which is normally receivcc siderably later than in the United States and is not consi a prerequisite for employment or advancement in a unive In 1954 there were about 1,100,000 full-time univ students in the Soviet Union—considerably less than hz many as In the United States, where there were 2,600,00 1953-54 there were 803 institutions of higher education i Soviet Union, as compared to 1,851 in the United States. I 1954 the ratio of faculty to students in Soviet universitie 60