THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL FOR BOYS AND GIRLS IN PRIZREN (1848-1912): HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL FOR BOYS AND GIRLS IN PRIZREN (1848-1912): HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Summary/Abstract: This article presents the development of Catholic schools in Ottoman Kosovo and in particular the development of the Catholic primary school for boys and girls in Prizren in the time period between 1848-1912. The development of these schools was conditioned and closely linked to the political and social developments that prevailed at that time in Ottoman Kosovo in particular and in the Ottoman Empire in general. The problems that had occurred in Kosovo, the Albanian lands and the Ottoman Empire, had inevitably influenced and were reflected in the educational circumstances of the time. The educational development in Kosovo of that period was in accordance with the laws, decisions, norms, plans and curricula of educational development within the framework of the Ottoman Empire and foreign countries that had their schools in Kosovo. Also, in the profile of educational development in Kosovo, the regional dimension cannot be avoided, which is configured by factors such as: geography, political circumstances, frequent anti-Ottoman uprisings, as well as propaganda, efforts and influence of foreign countries to open schools in their own language, especially those that had territorial claims to Kosovo, etc. At this time, Kosovo (within today's administrative borders) had a mixed population both ethnically and confessionally: Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox, who accordingly had their own schools with their own specifics and characteristics that were typical for this region. For this reason, schools in Kosovo at this time did not belong to a unique system. They were not unified, either in character, or in terms of levels, types or ethnic origin of the students who attended them. In addition to private and modern-public Muslim schools, which were attended mainly by Albanian Muslim children as the majority ethnic group in Kosovo, and Catholic schools, which were attended by Albanian Catholic children, there were also Orthodox schools, in which only Serbian children studied. Most of these schools, for political reasons, were opened and supported by various countries, such as the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, Serbia and other countries. Taking advantage of the new political and administrative rights of non-Muslims within the Ottoman Empire, the Catholics of Kosovo, starting from the second half of the 19th century, made huge efforts to open their own schools thanks to these conditions, which were private religious primary schools and operated within the framework of the church or near it. The oldest and most well-known in this context are the Catholic school for boys in Prizren (1948) and for girls in Prizren (1892), Gjakova (1851), and among the villages the one in Zym (1880). However, after 1878, these schools began to change, as a result of new social, political and economic developments. From here begins a new and important period in the history of these schools. In this period, a larger number of schools began to open, where the Albanian language also began to be used as the language of instruction. In this period, a number of pedagogues stood out, who have indisputable merits in the development of Catholic schools in Kosovo. Despite their small number, and despite their elementary-primary level and their predominantly religious character and content, and despite having been mono-denominational schools, the Catholic primary schools of Kosovo occupy their essential place in the history of Albanian education.

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