Teachers' institutes

Teachers' institutes [учительські інститути; uchytelski instytuty]. In Ukraine, pedagogical institutions which prepared teachers for the middle grades of general secondary schools. These institutes were first established in the Russian Empire in 1817 for the training of teachers for county schools and parochial schools, and from 1912 they undertook the training of teachers for city schools and upper elementary schools. The first teachers' institute in Ukraine was founded in Hlukhiv in 1874. In 1917 there were 11 such institutes in Russian-ruled Ukraine (there were 47 in the entire Russian Empire). They were abolished in the early period of Soviet rule in Ukraine and re-established in 1934 in conjunction with the introduction of the seven-year school. Teachers' institutes were affiliated with pedagogical institutes. Graduates of teachers' institutes were considered to have incomplete pedagogical education and were assigned to teach grades five to seven of the seven-year schools. In 1955 there were 33 teachers' institutes in Ukraine. In the 1950s, as a result of the growth and development of the secondary-school system and the ensuing increase in the training required of teachers, teachers' institutes were reorganized into pedagogical institutes or pedagogical schools.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]