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The earliest schools in Sebia after the fall of the Roman Empire, as in many other European countries are associated with the Christian church in the medieval era (11th-12th centuries). Serbian independence in the mid-19th century made possible the foundation of a national educational system financed by the government. The Great School was the foundation for the University of Belgrade, Serbia's most prestigious education institution (1905). The Communists after World War II placed a great emphasis on mass education. A major effort was made to eliminate illiteracy. Education seems heavily politicized in Serbia. Still intense nationalist sentiment and the influence of the Orthodox Church appears to be factors. A major development in Europe has been the declining nationalist feeling. This has been a notable trend in Westen Europe. The situation is different in the former Coomunist states of Eastern Europe, but as they integrate with Western Europe, the same process will likely occur. Russia under Putin has apparently rejected this process. And Serbia under Mislosovich did the same resulting in the terribly destructive Balkan Wars as Yugoslavia impolded (1990s). Here Serbian education has to share part of the blame. Serbian schools have continued to teach a highly nationalistic history. Serbia today is politcally divided between Serbo-centric politicans desirng to cling to Russia and Euro-centric politicans desiring to integrate with Europe. Serbia like the other Yugoslav republics before the break up of the Yugoslavia had a highly diverse population. I am not sure at this time just how language and cultural problems are addressed in Serbian schools. We see Yugoslav children wearing both regular clothes and uniforms to school. This has of course changed over time, in part becuse of the very substantial political changes that have affected the country and changing school regulations. The regular clothes were of course affected by changing fashion trends. There were also major diffeences between rural an urban ares until after World War II. There were also differences depending on the type of schools. City children commonly wore suits to school in the early 20th century. This was especially the case in secondary schools. We see a lot of younger children wearing sailor suits.
The earliest schools in Sebia after the fall of the Roman Empire, as in many other European countries are associated with the Christian church in the medieval era (11th-12th centuries). The Catholic church founded colleges in Vojvodina (Titel and Bac). Education as it developed during themedieval era was primarily associated with the Orthodox Church. Here the Monasteries (Sopocani, Studenica, and Pec). As modern Serbia began to form around the medieval kingdom of Raska ( 12th century), The Serbs emraced Orthodoxy which has since been the country's dominant church. We are not yet sure how the Ottomon conquest affected education in Serbia. While a minority, the Catholic church played an important role in the development of Serbian education. The Jesuit School was founded in Belgrade (1609). The Catholic Church founded a teacher's college in Vojvodina, an area wih a Catholic Hungarian minority. The Teacher's College in Subotica was the first European-style institution of higher education in Serbia (1689). During the Napoleonic Wars in Europe (1799-1815), Serbian began to move toward independence from the Ottomans. There was a brief Serbian state (1804-13). Nationalist and independece sentimant was especially strong in Belgrade as Serbian cultural insitutions grew, especially in Belgrade. Both Belgrade and Vojvodina became recginized centers of education. The Great School was founded in Belgrade (1808). The Gymnasium Jovan Jovanović Zmaj was also founded in Belgrade (1810). The Gymnasium played a major role in developing Serbian culure, educating many important cultural figures. Serbian independence in the mid-19th century made possible the foundation of a national educational system financed by the government. The Great School was the foundation for the University of Belgrade, Serbia's most prestigious education institution (1905). The Communists after World War II placed a great emphasis on mass education. A major effort was made to eliminate illiteracy. The Communists introduced 7 years of compulsory school education. They also opened vocational schools need to supply workers for the industrialization wwhich was a major part of the economic program.
The governent extended compulsory education t 8 years (1960s). The expanded educational system was a major achievement of the Communists. They established many educational institutions and increased the number of professional teaching staff. Education wa a major budget priority. There were problems, however, especially with the curricula and the political controls.
Education seems heavily politicized in Serbia. Still intense nationalist sentiment and the influence of the Orthodox Church appears to be factors. The Kostunica government Ms. Ljiljana Colic. It appears to have been a political appointment of a party loyalist rather than an individual really concerned with education or children. She proceeded to make a series of obvioulsy politically based decesions.
She ordered schools at the beginning of the 2005-05 school year to stop teaching the theory of evolution and to resume teaching it only if it shares equal emphsis with creationism. The decesion was particularly shocking in the formerly communist state where religion was strictly excluded from schools and was only recently allowed to enter the classroom. She would apparently have done well in the American Bible belt. (HBC does not fully understand the fundamenalist objection to evolution. There is nothing to say that God did not create the evolutionary process or for that matter pgysical laws like gravity.) She halted foreign aid to eliminating English classes. The English decesion was particularly telling. It was made because of preceived Anglo-American policies toward Serbia. (Especially the NATO actions stoping genocidal policies in Kosovo and Bosnia.) Serbia has, however, been impaired by its inability to integrate with Europe. And English is not just the lanuafe of America and Britain, it is esentially a developing international language. Serbs if they want to communicate with other Europeans from Finland south to Portugal will not find many people in those countries speaking Serbocroatian. They will find, however, people who speak English. Kostunica finally fired
Colic (2004). THe BBC reported, "An official statement said Ljiljana Colic was stepping down because of "problems that had started to reflect on the work of the entire government". Mrs Colic had said Darwin's theory was no more legitimate than the idea that God created all creatures in the world. ... Later media reports said she had argued against compulsory teaching of foreign languages and computing." It will be interesting to see how future Serbian Educatioin Ministers aproach these politically tinged issues. Serbian education was given another black eye when police arrested 10 university professors at a university in Kragujevacin who were apparently selling exam grades and even diplomas (2007). Some reports suggest that the problem was more widespred, we suspect one of mny lingering poblems from the Communist era.
A major development in Europe has been the declining nationalist feeling. This has been a notable trend in Westen Europe. Europeans today may not yet identify primarily as Europeans, but there is no doubt that the toxicity of the 19th and 20th century natinalism is a spent force in Western Europe. It is now unthinkable that the major countries (Britain, France, Germany, and Italy) could ever go to war with each other. The situation is different in the former Coomunist states of Eastern Europe, but as they integrate with Western Europe, the same process will likely occur. Russia under Putin has apparently rejected this process. And Serbia under Mislosovich did the same resulting in the terribly destructive Balkan Wars as Yugoslavia impolded (1990s). Here Serbian education has to share part of the blame. Serbian schools have continued to teach a highly nationalistic history. Serbia today is politcally divided between Serbo-centric politicans desirng to cling to Russia and Euro-centric politicans desiring to integrate with Europe.
Serbia like the other Yugoslav republics before the break up of the Yugoslavia had a highly diverse population. I am not sure at this time just how language and cultural problems are addressed in Serbian schools. Besides the different Yugoslav groups there were other national minorities such as the Hungarians. There was a small Jewish population which was largely killed by the NAZIs and their Yugoslav allies (primarily the Croatian Ustache and the Muslim SS units). Thee is still a substantial Gypsey (Roma) population.
We do not have much information on religious-based schools in Serbia. The country was promatily Orthodox, but there were Catholic, Muslim, amd Jewish minorities. We do nt know at this time to what extent these religious groups founded and supported schools. Nor are we sure about government regulations concerning religious supported schools. After the Communist take over (1945), all such schools were closed are taken over by the government. We are not sure about the current situation.
We note a range of classroom activities in Sebian schools similar to that in other Europwan schools. Class rooms were very traditionally organized. We do not have muc curriculum information yet. The abacus was used in math lessons. We do not know what role religion played in state schools. After World war II, the Communists bnned religin in school. We are less sure about modern schools. We do note school theatricals as well as art. We are less sure about dance. Sports do not seem to have been very important in Serbian schools. There was calesthetics and drrill, but sports seem to have been more of a club activity after school.
We have some limited information about the specific garments worn by Serbian school children. This includes both the regular clothes children wore to school and the uniforms that some children wore. Some of the uniforms before Wrld War II show a German influence. The regular clothing included both traditinal rural clothing as well as the largely European-styled garments worn in the towns and cities. Some of the headwear was destinctive. Some followed German school styles. Sailor garments were popular for some time.
We see Yugoslav children wearing both regular clothes and uniforms to school. This has of course changed over time, in part becuse of the very substantial political changes that have affected the country and changing school regulations. The regular clothes were of course affected by changing fashion trends. There were also major diffeences between rural an urban ares until after World War II. There were also differences depending on the type of schools. City children commonly wore suits to school in the early 20th century. This was especially the case in secondary schools. We see a lot of younger children wearing sailor suits.
Serbian parents liked to take photographs of their children on the first day of school. although we don't see the gift cones. We don't have a substahntial Serbian archive to illustrate this yet.
We will archive information on individual Serbian schools here. We do not yet have a great deal of information on individual Serbian schools. Two very important schools were the Great School in Belgrade and the Gymnasium Jovan Jovanović Zmaj. We note a Residence School in Belgrade during the inter-War era, but do not yet know much about it.
A HBC reader in Belgrade reports, "What a wonderful experience I have had today. I have not come across anything as specialized as here in Serbia. A Museum to Schooling in Serbia. The museum was the inspiration of Dimitrije Putnikovic (18??-1910). He thought the history of scholarship should not be forgot. He built up a collection about Serbian Education. He founded 'The School Museum' in 1896. Its first exhibition took place in 1898. The exhibition was in an elementary school called Western Vracar. For many years the key location of the Museum.There were other schools that also held exhibits and had a room to show them to the public. For a long time the Museum did not have a permanent location. It was split amongst several schools.
There were set backs. Many of the museum's exhibits were destroyed in World War I and World War II. In 1960 the museum was called 'The Museum of Pedagogy'. It was found a permanent location in 1969 in a Secondary School called 'Realka'. This was a specialist school for teaching modern languages and Science. It collects information on Serbian education and school history."
Karanovich, Milenko. The Development of Education in Serbia and Emergence of Its Intelligentsia, 1838-1858.
Naimark, Norman M. and Holly Case. Yugoslavia and Its Historians: Understanding the Balkan Wars of the 1990s.
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