STEADY PROGRESS MARKS NEW RUSSIAN EDUCATION

"The American educational system took form in the forties of the last century and stopped progressing between 1914 and 1918. The present Russian plan of education dates from 1920 and the last five years has been a period of steady advance. We are now in the old world, the new world has again advanced westward", declared Mr. Scott Nearing in speaking to the members of the Liberal Club yesterday on education in the Soviet government.

"Russia is today the most scientific country in the world and the educational system there is fundamentally different from that of any other nation. The basic change which the Soviet government has effected is the proletarianizing of education'. In Russia, children of the well to do bourgeoise and aristocrats are no longer given a better opportunity of acquiring an education as is still the case in Harvard, Columbia and the other old and established universities of this country. In fact whenever it is necessary to make a choice in admission to a higher educational institution, students of the bourgeoise or aristocratic classes are automatically excluded.

"Students from the peasant and working classes", continued the noted economist, "are not only given a free education by the state, but they are even paid to go to school unless furnished with ample outside means. This aid from the government includes tuition, food, lodging pocket money, and even baths and barber shop attention.

"There are four elements in the Russian system of education. The elementary schools carry the student to the age of 15, and the professional or high schools offer four or five year courses. All Russian students between the ages of six and 19 are required to attend these schools. The next step is the technical school and the highest branch of learning is the so called 'institute' which corresponds to our graduate schoool."