Baatar
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990023
Name: Baatar
Parent's name: Gürjav
Ovog: Lus
Sex: m
Year of Birth: 1942
Ethnicity: Halh
Additional Information
Education: secondary
Notes on education: büren dund
Work: retired
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Bayantsagaan sum, Bayanhongor aimag
Lives in: Bayanzürh sum (or part of UB), Ulaanbaatar aimag
Mother's profession: Doctor (ih emch)
Father's profession: accountant
Themes for this interview are:
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education / cultural production
politics / politicians
democracy
foreign relations
work
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To read a full interview with Baatar please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 080705A with Baatar
Baatar said that educational system was teacher-centered in the past and now it became student-centered and this is progress. However, he thinks that the education and training is mixed here in Mongolia.
Families did not want to send their children to school in 1950s when Baatar went to school. Until the 1960s, some graduated fourth grade and started herding, others graduated the seventh grade and went to vocational training colleges and the remaining ones graduated tenth grade and enrolled in Institutes. Baatar wrote with a pencil, and starting in the second grade he used a pen named 'Humban Tsagaan'.
The cultural campaign started in 1957-58. Medical checkups for venereal diseases were carried out and treated by the red injection. At that time, beds were rare in countryside households, and they made fire with a brazier (ie, not with a stove and chimney), cleaned cups with their belt and mended broken cup with deerskin. The cultural campaigns changed all this and households started to have a dishcloth, bed sheets and a stove.
In 1930, the communes were established and later it changed into a cooperative and then in 1950s the collective movement started. A lot of ideological agitation was carried out in the countryside.
It was a very good thing that everybody graduated with dual professions during Tsedenbal time. During the socialism, exactness with schedules was very good. Highly educated professionals and engineers worked together with the workers and showed real leadership. Although bosses asked for very high standards at the same time they cared about their workers and always checked whether everyting is okay with them or not.
According to Baatar, the aim of the democracy was right, but it developed in the wrong direction. For instance, privatization started incorrectly and those who did not have knowledge did not benefit. The rural area did not develop much after socialism. Sum centers are exactly as they were before. Baatar said that a lot of people from the rural areas moved into the city.
