Arrabona - Múzeumi közlemények 4. (Győr; 1962)

A. Lengyel: The endeavours of Győr county towards a progressive public education in the early nineteenth century

dard of education. The Partial Deputation e. g. wanted to place domestic education under control, demanded a raise in the teachers' pay, opposed the decrease of the number of public schools on financial grounds, stuck to the appointment of rural schoolmasters who spoke Hungarian; in order to safeguard the demanded level of teachers' training it advocated the revival of the teachers' training courses (Praeparandia) suppressed earlier, it took a firm stand on the supervision of national and rural schools by independent district inspectors, and finally it expressed its views on some methodological questions boldly, especially on the thorny problems of the medical private practice and the Austrian acceptance of diplomas awarded by Hungarian high schools. The Deputation has passed its reform-minded decisions, influenced in part by the progressive first vice-count, Ignác Bezerédy, in the conviction that the propositions of the national commission, being fettered by conservatism on many points', did not deserve its approval, or they were at least defective as compared with the important national tasks which were to be ralized by public education. The decisions were reached in the belief that the next session of the diet will not adopt them on account of their novelty. The progressive propositions met with no resistance in both local organs of the feudal leading strata, frightened by the peasant upheavals, namely in the assembly of Győr county and the plenary commission established for the study of the reform plans; the delays of the diet summoned in 1832, however, convinced the central and county deputations working on the propositions of the futility of their labours very soon. The diet was unable to solve the problem of the reorganization of Hungarian schools, as the sovereign declared that education was a part of the royal prerogative, and he deemed any legislation in this matter utterly superfluous. The tokens of „paternal care" were, however, awaited in vain year by year, as the absolutistic aims of the Vienna court contradicted the endeavours to raise the cultural standard of the Hungarian people. In the spring of 1848 the real reformi plans, serving the interests ot the people in the matter of public education, came into being, the suppression of the fight for independence, however, made their realization impossible. After the catastrophy of Világos the people had to wait for decades, until the problems of public education were settled in 1868 and 1883 in a more or less satisfactory and modern manner, beneficial to the interest of the nation. A. Lengyel 155