Development of primary education in Lika in 18th century

Abstract

Evidence of education in Lika exsists from the Middle Ages. Public schools did not exsist then, but people were educated by private teachers, mostly priests. With the liberation of Lika, more convenient conditions for the development of education were made. The purpose of this paper is to explore the beginnings of the common people’s education in Lika. With the establishment of the border regiment, they try to open schools so that the army could recieve better officers. The number of schools was small because of conservative politics, so their impact on the enlightenment of people was also small. The community did not care for school much
because of the German language which was used in school and they had to give payment to the school in which teachers were mostly German. The reputation of school was small because often the teachers themselves were not well educated and the training was forced upon them which often made the people resist. Enlighted autocratics wanted to save the feudal society with education by accepting the ideas of social reformers and avoiding radical reforms of society. At the same time, they try to completely Germanise the non German people which was the intention of school. Common schools were used as educational institutions because of the shortage of trained teachers. The regard to the education of girls was small, almost none.