LEGAL REGULATION OF THE ACTIVITIES OF PRIMARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN THE SECOND POLISH REPUBLIC

Abstract

The article highlights the peculiarities of the state policy of interwar Poland in the field of education. The main emphasis is on primary schooling, since this type of school was dominantin the structure of educational institutions in the eastern voivodships of the country. The problem of Ukrainian-language schooling remained the most acute in these regions during the interwar twenty years. The educational legislation of the Second Polish Republic can be conditionally divided into two periods: the first is the years of the National Democrats' governments (1918–1926); the second is the period of the "sanation" governments (1926–1939). It should be emphasized that the formation of the national education system in Poland took place in difficult political and socio-economic conditions caused by the devastating consequences of the Great War, the lack of an adequate material base, the multinational composition of the state, and the existence of different models of school education in the Polish lands that were previously part of Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Germany. In the first years after the restoration of Poland's independence, a number of important laws were adopted to regulate the activities of primary education institutions. Among the significant achievements of this period are the introduction of compulsory free general education for children, the restoration and development of school infrastructure, and the growth of the network of primary schools throughout the country. Significant changes in the educational system of the Polish state occurred in connection with the school reform of 1932. The lowest level of the system remained the primary school as the basic foundation of the Polish education system. An innovation was the introduction of organizational and programmatic differentiation of primary schools, whose curricula were to be designed in such a way that students could move from one type of school to another, from lower to higher. It should be noted that the school system was an important component of the national policy of Polish governments in the interwar period. Since the annexation of the territories of Western Ukraine to Poland, there has been discrimination against educational institutions with national languages of instruction, most of which were primary schools. This was reflected in the law "On the Organization of Schooling," adopted by the Sejm on July 31, 1924. By the end of the interwar period, the main type of primary school was the bilingual (uraquistic) school. It provided bilingual education and, at the same time, was an effective tool for assimilating national minorities, including Ukrainians. In the second half of the 1930s, Ukrainian primary schooling in Poland was threatened with complete elimination.