250 Years of Compulsory Schooling on Slovenian Territory

The extensive exhibition, consisting of eighty panels, commemorates the 250th anniversary of the General School Ordinance (1774). It presents the key features of education and culture in the late eighteenth century on Slovenian territory and in the neighbouring lands. The material consists of reproductions of significant extracts from the General School Ordinance, textbooks, manuals, documents, graphic works, and education-related items. The exhibition was devised by Dr Simon Malmenvall, curator at the Slovenian School Museum.

The General School Ordinance of 1774 was the first state primary school law in force on the territory of present-day Slovenia. Its promulgation was an epochal event for education and culture in Slovenian and Central European history. The authorities, led by Maria Theresa (reign: 1740-1780) and her son Joseph II (reign: 1780-1790), began to establish a centrally managed state education system in the Austrian Empire. Officially incorporating all social classes, it marked the beginning of compulsory and mass education. The creation and implementation of the Ordinance was strongly influenced by the Enlightenment belief in the usefulness of education for the strength of the state and the happiness of the individual. The promulgation of the Ordinance indirectly influenced the printing of books in the regional or vernacular languages, thus also contributing to the development of the expressiveness and the gradual strengthening of the public position of the Slovenian language.

The exhibition is a collaboration between the Slovenian School Museum and Ljubljana Tourism, with financial support from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Slovenia.