School of exact science activity in Chişinău in period of 1873-1918

In Russian system of education schools of exact science were founded in 1872 as a result of lyceums of exact science abolition. These lyceums had 6-7 years of schooling. In high schools there were taught applied (sciences) subjects. Senior classes graduates of these educational institutions continued their education at technical, business and industrial high schools (colleges). They could not continue their education at universities. From 1888 schools of exact science were reorganized into comprehensive schools. The graduates could continue their education at universities, but only at the department of mathematics, physics and medicine. Archive records give us the possibility to follow the school of exact science development in Chişinău from its foundation till the first decade of the 20th century. The school of exact science was opened the 6th of December 1873 in Chişinău. At the moment of its opening the school had three forms (3rd, 4th, 5th). During the following two years there were also opened two senior classes. During the school year of 1885/86, thanks to a tutor's application of Odessa district of education, there were opened the 1st and the 2nd forms, but in 1888 there was opened the 7th form with technical-mechanic specialization. Besides this class the school of exact science had also the classes of physics, chemistry, metrology, natural sciences, history, geography, etc. Maintenance of this educational institution was realized from money of state budget, of Bessarabian zemstvo, of town council and from money saved up for the process of education (annual payment for the education was 50 rubles, it proves that not all the social classes could afford their children study at these educational institutions). As a result of archive source analysis we can observe that at the moment of these educational institutions opening the contingent of pupils was composed from 101 children, in 1883 – 160 children, and in 1918 – 312 children. Thus we can observe that the number of pupils was always in growth. Although the information concerning the activity of this educational institution, placed in the fund of National Archives of the Republic of Moldova, does not give the possibility to follow the ethnic structure of the pupils' contingent, researching their religious appearance, however we can observe the predominance of the Orthodox and a number more or less constant (ca 15%) of the Jews (as for example: in 1893, from the total number of 229 pupils, 171 (74,7%) were the Orthodox, 13 (5,7%) – the Catholics, 8 (3,5%) – the Protestants, 3 (1,3%) – belonged to other religious communions and 34 (14,8%) – the Jews), which shows us the diversity of the ethnic colour. The sources of archives analysis allows us to conclude that the biggest part of children that studied at this educational institution were the children of noblemen (the fact that testifies its predominance), of small bourgeoisie (townsmen) and only partially of children that came from the countryside.