ABSTRACT
Soviet education policy and developments in the general schools, vocational training, and higher education, until the beginning of the 1990s, will bear the imprint of the school reform measures adopted in April 1984 and followed by a university reform promulgated in June 1986. The desired "computerization," which has been amply discussed, has taken on an almost symbolic significance for the program of the modernization of the Soviet economy and society. To be sure, computerization is only one aspect of the educational system; one would be mistaken to view it in isolation. Another aspect of the proclaimed modernization program is the endeavor of the political leadership to keep computerization under control through stepped-up ideological work—and, in that respect, education plays a key role. The decision about school reform was to be taken up at a plenary session of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Central Committee.
