Boarding Schools (entry)

Categories / Science. Education/Educational Institutions
BOARDING SCHOOLS, fee-paying residential schools. State boarding schools were attached to gymnasiums and progymnasiums. Charges were divided into full boarders and half boarders, the latter group was provided with boarding only. Some children enjoyed state support. Private boarding schools started to appear from the early-to-mid 18th century. There were 23 boarding schools in St. Petersburg by 1780 opened by German and French owners with 200 Russians out of 500 pupils and 20 Russians out of 72 teachers. None of them taught Russian. All boarding schools passed under the control of the education district in 1804, their owners were instructed to speak and teach Russian in 1811. Control over boarding schools became even greater in 1834 with a special supervisor appointed for that purpose. The number of private boarding schools grew rapidly in the 19th century. They were mostly foreign-owned but the number of Russian charges, especially those among the nobility, increased significantly. Education was expensive amounting to 250 to 800 roubles for full board per year. Women's boarding schools prevailed, the boarding school being the major form of women's educational institutions in the first half of the 19th century. There were 34 boarding schools in St. Petersburg in 1811, the figure growing to 49, 19 for boys and 30 for girls, in 1824 and 80 in 1839, of which seven were boys' schools, 28 co-educational schools, and 45 girls' schools. Boys' boarding schools were divided into three categories from 1835. The first category was equated to a gymnasium, its curriculum including divine law, Russian, Latin, French, German, mathematics, history, geography, statistics, natural science, drawing, dancing, gymnastics, and, at some schools, music, singing, fencing, etc. The second category was equated to a district school and the third category corresponded to a parish school. For women's boarding schools, the division was less clear, many of them placing the greatest emphasis on teaching French and manners. Some of girls' boarding schools, however, provided fully-fledged education such as the school opened in 1847 by Chistyakova, a teacher's wife who graduated from Derpt University. Private schools started supplanting boarding schools by the mid-19th century; in 1852 there were 111 private schools and only 37 boarding schools including seven boys' schools in St. Petersburg. Losing their former status in 1860s, boarding schools were gradually reorganised into gymnasiums and schools.

Reference: Лихачева Е. О. Материалы для истории женского образования в России. СПб., 1890-1901. [Кн. 1-4].

Е. М. Balashov. Chistyakova
Лихачева Е. О. Материалы для истории женского образования в России. СПб., 1890-1901 1817