ABSTRACT
Education systems in industrial societies can claim four main aims. These include: to develop all the abilities and interests of children and young people; to promote the economic growth of the country; to influence the distribution of life chances; and to encourage the transmission of those values, attitudes and beliefs that form the dominant ideology of the country. The anti-religious, anti-ecclesiastical attitude of Marxism and of Soviet policies has made a significant impact on Soviet life and education. A development that is likely to exacerbate the problems of academicism in education and inequality of opportunity even further is the expansion of the system of special schools for gifted children. Higher education consists mainly of universities, polytechnics and monotechnic institutes in economics, law, pedagogy, medicine, agriculture and arts. The chapter sets out the five main features of education under socialism as seen by Marx and Engels: universalism, secularism, polytechnicism, democracy and environmentalism.
