Abstract
The article presents archival materials that reveal the essence of the formation and development of public education in the West Kakhakhstan region in the pre-revolutionary period, reveals the historical and educational processes of its formation. When studying archival materials, the author comes to the conclusion that the social composition of students justified the class character of the public education system, namely: the children of officials, clergy, merchants, rural and urban bourgeoisie, rich Cossacks, nobles in General made up a fairly large stratum in secondary schools.