COSTA MESA : Soviets Tell of Changes in Schools

Changes proposed this week by Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to move the Soviet Union away from Marxism have already begun in three schools, said a former Soviet minister of education who visited with high-tech firms and universities this week.

The change is occurring as schools adopt different philosophies and as professors who refuse to accept new ideologies retire, said Ivan F. Obraztsov, who served as the top education official in the Soviet government for 17 years. “The new point of view about this (Marxist) theory . . . is this model is incompatible with this modern life at present.”

Obraztsov, who is now a professor and director of the USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Applied Mechanics, visited the international software firm, PDA Engineering in Costa Mesa, with two colleagues.

His statements were translated by colleague Yuri G. Yanovsky, deputy director of the academy.

Over the last week, the men met with representatives of high-tech firms in the area and visited the campuses of UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara. The team was on a mission to establish relationships with business and scientific communities in order to exchange ideas for possible future partnerships.

The group is especially interested in composite materials, which are used in manufacturing the space shuttle and the Stealth fighter.

“This was all very secret information until very recently,” said David J. Dimas, director of PDA Institute of Technology in Costa Mesa. “Both countries have this, but it was for high technology. Now we will be spending less on defense” and will work on transforming the technology into everyday uses, such as for cars, he said.

By sharing that information now, the Soviets and Americans hope they can develop uses and secure business contracts between the countries.

“It’s very impressive for us,” said Yanovsky. The group was awed by computer information systems in the UCI student library and computer programs that model and design composite materials, he said.

Most of the work by Soviet scientists has been in theory, but Americans have the resources to put it into practice, he said. Although it may take some time, the Soviet Union hopes to develop its natural resources, such as rich deposits of oil and gold, and make significant changes in agriculture and industry to pursue the development of their technological theories.

Along with that, Obraztsov said, the Soviet Union also needs to increase the number of students studying business management and economics. Half of all college students study engineering, flooding the field with new scientists.

“Before perestroika our education system’s big push was the history of our Communist Party and the Soviet Union. But now, we should all study the history of Russia. We should teach new managers and new economists specializing in modern economics,” he said.

It is important now, he said, to increase the number of information and computer systems in the Soviet Union to match that of the United States and Japan and increase its residents’ standard of living.