The System of Financing Illiteracy Elimination Centers in Sumy Region in the 1920s

The article deals with the insufficiently studied problem of financing illiteracy issues during the implementation of the illiteracy elimination policy in Sumy region in the 1920s. The authors describe the state of material maintenance of illiteracy elimination centers at a certain period, analyze the main sources of funding, define the level of the real material maintenance of illiteracy elimination points. It has been found out that a low level of funding often leads to poor teaching quality. The issue of providing textbooks and teaching aids in both Ukrainian and the languages of other nationalities is considered, including some statistics on the centralized inflow of educational literature, a brief description of the most popular textbooks used by teachers of educational centers during the process of eliminating illiteracy in Sumy region. The article cites quotations from the documents of the State Archive of the Sumy region, which directly reveal the real state of financing and material support of the illiteracy elimination centers in Sumy region in the 1920s and provide an opportunity to objectively assess the real material and financial position of the illiteracy elimination points. The authors of the article provide a brief description of the activities connected with illiteracy elimination in various cities of the present Sumy region: Konotop, Glukhiv, Shostka, Krasnopillya, Sumy, stressing their quantitative growth and, consequently, an increase in the percentage of the literate population. The authors of the article conclude that despite the insufficient financing of the illiteracy elimination centers, the imperfect system of providing educational literature, school supplies, stationery, the work of these institutions had a positive result, which was manifested in increasing the number of literate people in the Sumy region, who learned to read and write in Ukrainian, which was, in its turn, of great importance for awakening the national consciousness of the Ukrainian population.