Labor school

Labor school (трудова школа; trudova shkola). A school in which instruction is combined with practical experience and which prepares the student for a technical-scientific occupation. Though the idea of labor schools originated during the Renaissance, it found its fullest expression in the writings of the 19th-century British social reformer Robert Owen. In Ukraine the term labor schools originally referred to all schools which offered a general elementary and incomplete secondary education for children between the ages of 8 and 15. Work on the curriculum of a unified labor school was started late in 1917 by a special commission created by the Ministry of Education of the Ukrainian National Republic. In 1925–8 some labor schools in the cities were transformed into factory seven-year schools, and some village labor schools were reorganized into schools for rural youth. In 1934, general elementary schools, with grades one to seven were re-established and named seven-year schools. In 1958 all seven-year schools were reorganized into eight-year schools. (See Education, Eight-year school, Elementary schools, Factory seven-year school, Incomplete secondary school, Secondary education, Seven-year school.)

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]