How did socialist state education work in Eastern Europe? part 1

“On the Barricades” s05e27

This is the first episode of an “On the Barricades” series devoted to busting myths about “Marxist education” by explaining the presence of Marxism in the universities and general education system of the former Eastern bloc countries during socialism, in contrast to the present reality after three decades of capitalist restoration.

In this episode hosts Maria Cernat and Boyan Stanislavski look at the socialist model of education and the role it played in society, drawing on their own experience in, respectively, the Romanian and Bulgarian systems. Was primary education somehow “traumatic” for children, as the Western narrative would tell us? What were the ideals on which this educational system was based, and how were new, socialist values instilled in schools for children? What was the general intellectual climate and quality of education achieved, say, by a student at the end of elementary school? And how did this fit with the attempt at a socialist approach to organizing the family and free time– the socialist summer vacation and educational camps for children?