The Ukrainian Language in the System of Primary and Secondary School in Galicia in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

This paper investigates features of the realization by the Ukrainian population in Galicia of the right to education in their native language in the primary and secondary education systems at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, and compares the general imperial and regional legislation in the field of education, in particular, equality of opportunity of the different nations and ethnic groups of Austria-Hungary. Analyzed negative factors, which prevented Ukrainians from implementing the right to education in their native language, include, for example, the position of the imperial government toward the national question, the discriminatory policy of the local Polish administration in Galicia towards the Ukrainian population, total control over the observance of school instructions and regulations, the low education of pedagogical workers, the persecution of nationally conscious teachers, features of the educational process, violation of the principle of equality when studying the primary and secondary regional languages, and the lack of a national component in the curricula of primary and secondary schools. Emphasis is placed on the manifestations of ethnocentrism in the Galician education system. The positive factors that facilitated the expansion of the sphere of Ukrainian language usage in primary and secondary educational institutions are also considered, as is how this stimulated the development of the national school.