The Development of the Female Education System in the Penza Province in the 1850–1880

The article examines the evolution of a secondary female school in the Russian Empire in the second half of the XIX century at the regional level -in the Penza province.The degree of knowledge of this problem is characterized.In 1859, the first female school of the 1st category was formed in Penza by combining existing institutions -the noble boarding house and the Hoffmann private boarding house.Two years later, it was closed due to lack of funds, the Hoffmann boarding house remained.Since 1862, a school of the II category functioned in Penza, for three years they received education, mainly girls of the urban class.In 1869, the petition of the Penza governor N.D. Seliverstov about the opening of a women's school of the 1st category, renamed a gymnasium in 1870, was granted.The main contingent of those who studied at the gymnasium were children of nobles and officials.In the gymnasium, the leadership was carried out by the head and councils -pedagogical and guardianship.Women's schools were run by educational districts, existed at the expense of public and private funds.The public of county (9) and state (3) cities of the province declared their readiness to create schools of the II category, but in conditions of a shortage of money they established parish (Chembar, Krasnoslobodsk, Nizhny Lomov, Saransk, etc.).The total number of girls studying in educational institutions of all types of the Penza province did not exceed 1000 people.