ABSTRACT
The institutions for what might be called ‘formal’ education do not, of course, provide all the training available in the USSR. Important ‘supplementary’ services exist as well, and it is to these that we now turn. They may be classified for our purposes under the following general headings: facilities for children from about the age of 3 until they start the general school (not counting nursery facilities for toddlers); training for young people ‘on the job’; ‘special’ schools for the handicapped and (separately) delinquents; courses in ideology, politics and administration for party members, officials and the public at large; professional military training; and finally the tiny, though not insignificant, non-state sector. Considerations of space limit us to an overview of each topic, with particular reference to the situation in the late 1970s. As noted in the preface, the main purpose of the chapter is to improve our perspective of the educational system proper, rather than investigate in detail organisations which lie outside it.
