Teachers’ training in secondary schools through the observation practice of the Dniprovskyi district observer of the Taurian eparchy

Abstract

The peculiarities of the institutional organization of the supervision of church schools at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries, which were carried out by diocesan and district observers of church-parish schools, are characterized.
It is established that the district observer (usually from among local priests) inspected all types of church-parish schools, including secondary ones: reviewed their situation, provided advice on management and methodological issues; based on what he saw, he made a recommendation report, which he sent to the diocesan observer for generalization. As a result of the academic year, the diocesan observer summarized the materials of the inspection visits of the district observers and their own observations in a report submitted to the diocesan bishop and the diocesan school council.
In particular, the diocesan observer in the report summarized the status of the church school network, material, didactic and financial support, the qualitative composition of the teaching staff, the pupils’ success, their health, expressed their views on the situation of individual schools (for example, the need for their closure) or evaluated the quality of teachers’ work (noted progress or proposed dismissal).
On the basis of previously unpublished reports of the Dniprovskyi District Observer, organizational and pedagogical peculiarities of teacher education for literacy schools in the secondary church-parish schools of the Taurian Eparchy, operating in the Dniprovskyi District of Taurian Province, were revealed: for women in the village of Kozachi Lageri and for men in the village of Sofiivka.
It is emphasized that in secondary schools, the educational process lasted three years. The pupils studied the Law of God, Russian and Church Slavonic, arithmetic, geometry, physics, history (which included Russian history and church history), church singing, calligraphy, didactics, and mastered the crafts. After completing education, the graduates received a school leaving certificate and a teacher’s certificate.