On the Subject-Matter, Methods and Organisation of Teaching the Fundamentals of Chemical Production at the Secondary General School

Chemical industry plays an important part among the subjects on the basis of which the secondary general school pupils get to know the fundamentals of production. Chemical production, however, is characterised by a number of features, which affect considerably the whole educational work in this subject. In order that the teaching of the fundamentals of chemical production may fulfil its main tasks, i. e. to give the pupils such knowledge, habits and skills as to prepare them properly for entering the Chemistry Department of the University and to contribute to meeting the ever increasing requirements of chemical industry as to the qualification of young workers /chemistry specialists and laboratory workers/, it is necessary, in determining the subject matter, the methods and the organisational forms of teaching the fundamentals of chemical production, to apply the specific characteristics of chemical industry in a creative manner. In setting down the tasks and aims of the subject, the author proceeds from an analysis of requirements as to qualification of workers resulting from the development of chemical industry and from an analysis of the chemical production processes. He further examines various aspects of linking up classroom instruction with practical work of the pupils in chemical industry, which the- modern pedagogical science has so far failed to solve satisfactorily, mainly as regards raising the level of specialised and polytechnical education of the pupils and their acquiring a new, higher quality of general education.