Border, Language and School

The first half of the twentieth century was a period of socio-political upheaval in the territory of present-day Slovenia and its surroundings. In the aftermath of World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939/1941-1945) state frameworks were changing and borders were shifting. During this period, there were as many as eight countries in the region: Austria-Hungary, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Free Territory of Trieste, and two Yugoslavias (the royal and the socialist). In a relatively short time, the population was integrated into different educational systems. Each of them brought with it its own ideological starting points, with a particular emphasis on educating for the values of the collective.

Despite rapid changes and political pressures, certain constants were established in the field of education on the Slovenian territory in the first half of the 20th century:

• The insistence of Slovenian intellectuals on preserving the Slovenian language at all levels of education;
• The experience of education as a social authority;
• Unresolved issues of educational autonomy of national communities (Slovenian, German, Hungarian, Italian);
• The city of Ljubljana, regardless of the changing national borders, as the geographical and cultural centre of the Slovenian-speaking population, a role that was strengthened by the establishment of the University in 1919.

The photograph shows the collection box for financial contributions in support of the Society of Saints Cyril and Methodius, around 1900. The Society was a national defence organisation which, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, sought to build Slovenian or bilingual schools in the linguistically mixed areas of Carinthia, Gorizia, and Istria. Collection of the permanent exhibition of the Slovenian School Museum, photo 140 (photo by Andrej Peunik).

The preservation and development of the Slovenian language remains one of the priorities of education in modern Slovenia. Throughout history, the Slovenian language has united the population and, through the efforts of native speakers, gradually shaped a comprehensive educational system. Even today, the language builds the cultural and civic community within and beyond the borders of the Republic of Slovenia.

In the late Austro-Hungarian period

In the period just before World War I, most of the territory of present-day Slovenia and its surroundings belonged to the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Slovenian was the language of instruction and administration in primary schools (with the exception of some ethnically mixed areas), and Slovenian as the language of instruction gradually spread to secondary schools, for example in 1905 with the founding of the St. Stanislav Institute, the first entirely Slovenian classical grammar school (lyceum). The Slovenian language most successfully became established in education in Carniola and also in the Gorizia region, while the most difficult situation was in Carinthia. As the number of pupils grew and the school network expanded, so did the need for more and better-qualified teachers. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were four teacher training colleges in Slovenia: one each in Ljubljana, Klagenfurt, Maribor and Koper, from where it was moved to Gorizia in 1909. Before World War I, the vast majority of children was thus involved in primary education, and illiteracy was almost completely eradicated.

In the period of the first Yugoslavia

After the end of World War I, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians emerged from the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. The peace treaties divided the Slovenian territory between four countries: Yugoslavia, Italy, Austria and Hungary. The Slovenian population enjoyed cultural and educational autonomy in their own language only in Yugoslavia, where the largest proportion of Slovenians lived. Despite the centralist tendencies of the Belgrade authorities, the new state opened up opportunities for the development of the Slovenian language at all levels of teaching and in all fields of science. With the founding of the University of Ljubljana in 1919, Slovenian education became a comprehensive system.

After the introduction of the dictatorship of King Alexander I (reigned: 1921–1934), a reform of the education system began. Among other things, this stipulated eight years of compulsory and free education for children between the ages of six and fourteen. After four years of primary school, pupils were able to continue their education in an upper national school from the fifth to the eighth grade, a lower grammar school, a burgher school, or a professional school. One of the central tasks of primary education was to shape young people in the spirit of national unity and religious tolerance and to prepare them for active citizenship.

Slovenians living outside the borders of Yugoslavia were deprived of the right to education in their own language after World War I when Primorska and Istria became part of Italy, Porabje was part of Hungary and Carinthia was part of Austria.

During World War II

When World War II engulfed Yugoslavia in 1941, the Slovenian territory came under the control of three countries. The German army occupied Styria and Upper Carniola, the Italian army occupied Ljubljana, Lower and Inner Carniola, and the Hungarian army occupied Prekmurje. Although there were differences between the German, Italian and Hungarian occupation systems, the political and cultural interventions of all three countries were characterised by extreme nationalism, which, among other things, envisaged the eradication of the Slovenian language and national consciousness. Education was one of the central areas in which the occupying forces pursued their objectives. The German occupiers were the most violent in the process of assimilating the Slovenian population.

In the socialist Yugoslavia

After the end of World War II, education in Slovenia became an integral part of the new Yugoslav state apparatus. Education became a tool for shaping the youth according to communist principles, with emphasis on the education of working-class and peasant youth and the training of technical and professional workers. Any influence of the Catholic Church on education was eliminated, and consequently, religious education was abolished as a compulsory subject in 1945 and banned seven years later.

It was during this period that the Slovenian education system experienced its greatest expansion in terms of personnel and institutions with the establishment of specialised secondary and higher education institutions. For example, the second Slovenian university, the University of Maribor, was founded in 1975. The growth of education followed the rapid development of science and social change in Europe.