Specialized Vocational Education in Southern Kazakhstan in the 1920s–1940s as a Factor of Regional Modernization

Abstract

In the article, the authors examine the process of formation and development of the system of specialized vocational education in Southern Kazakhstan in the 1920s–1940s as an important element of regional modernization during the Soviet period. Based on archival materials from the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan, documents of party-administrative bodies, regulatory legal acts, and published statistical data of the interwar period, the institutional changes accompanying the establishment and expansion of a network of technical schools, factory apprenticeship schools, agricultural and other vocational institutions are analyzed. The authors consider the evolution of the regulatory framework, the mechanisms of organizational formation of the system, and the specific features of the development of its material and technical infrastructure. It is shown that in the 1920s the development of vocational education took place under conditions of limited resources, weak mechanization, and high pressure on educational facilities and equipment. The processes of institutional integration of the regional educational network into the centralized system of governance subordinate to the bodies of public education and economic planning are analyzed. It is established that the transition to industrialization and collectivization in the late 1920s led to the institutional reorganization of vocational schools, their transformation into technical schools, and the expansion of the factory apprenticeship system. The authors regard the 1930s as a stage of mobilization-industrial development of the system, characterized by the strengthening of links between personnel training and the production sector and by the increasing complexity of professional specialization. It is concluded that specialized vocational education 1920-1940 acted as a structure-forming factor of regional modernization, providing institutional and personnel support for agrarian mechanization and industrial construction and contributing to the transformation of the social structure of Southern Kazakhstan.