Uloga školskog nadzora u konstituisanju osnovnoškolskog sistema u Srbiji u prvoj polovini 19. veka

Abstract

In this paper, we tried to reconstruct the role that state supervision of primary schools had in the constitution of the primary school system in the Principality of Serbia in the first half of the 19th century. The development of the primary school system in the Principality of Serbia was slow and beset by difficulties: aggravated by the vassal position of the state, a weak economic situation and, finally, a poor state administration that had just been formed. Monitoring the role of school supervision in the establishment of a primary school system requires the analysis of school supervisor reports as a primary source. Also, since in the first half of the 19th century there were two school supervisors in the Principality of Serbia, Petar Radovanović and Milovan Spasić, it is important to look at their personal preferences and pedagogical stances that led them to take on this exceedingly difficult task. It was necessary to visit small village schools in areas with poor road infrastructure, over hills, across small rivers, on horseback, sleeping in rudimentary lodgings. In such circumstances, our first primary school supervisors were also our first statisticians of public education, drafters of primary school laws, those who taught inadequately trained teachers the fundamentals of pedagogical work. In this paper we have concentrated only on these aspect of their work as school supervisors in order to see their role in the constitution of the primary school system in the Principality of Serbia in the first half of the 19th century.