How did socialist state education work in Eastern Europe? part 3

“On the Barricades” s05e35

This is the third 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 release hosts Maria Cernat and Boyan Stanislavski speak with Prof. Doru Pop, a leftist and media studies scholar at 7 Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Doru has a lifetime of experience in the Romanian education system from elementary school when he was a young hawk of the nation, to membership in the Union of Young Communists, through to the capitalist restoration and his current academic career in which he is surrounded by many right-wing intellectuals. He shares his experience of different positive and negative aspects of Romanian socialist education: the nationalist propaganda of the Ceaușescu regime, the depth to which principles of “Marxism” was taught to young people, the status and respect that teachers were granted by society, and the various rituals meant to prepare socialist-minded citizens, and more. The hosts and Doru comment on the change in academic freedom brought about by capitalism and the commodification of education, and how the education system became subjugated to the demands of the labour market for compliant workers, not necessarily with a broad or high level of cultural literacy.