Ljudje ob Muri. Népek a Mura Mentén 1. kötet (Zalaegerszeg, 1996)

Halász Imre (Zalaegerszeg): School and Scholling in the Second Half of the 19th Century in the Villages along the River Mura

Iskola és iskoláztatás a 19. század második felében a Mura menti községekben SCHOOL AND SCHOOLING IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY IN THE VILLAGES ALONG THE RIVER MURA Regarding economic productivity, that influences the maintenance of schools and mentality, the 19th-century Zala County, stretching east-westwards, can be divided into three, differently developed regions. These three regions are the Balaton-highlands, the economically highly developed Nagykanizsa and its market-area with a part of the Mura-region and the Göcsej with the upper part of the Mura-region. In Zala County and in the Mura-region belonging to it, special attention was paid to schooling in the 19th century, during the Reform Period. The effects of these efforts had made themselves felt in the 1850's. The government laid stress on raising all schools to a much the same level by terminating extremes. This was true both for the state of the school-buildings and for the standard of education. We have to deal with the network of schools, too: which settlement has a schoolbuilding, how big its school district is, namely how many pupils from other settlements attend, what is the ratio of school attendance, respectively. As the effect of the efforts made in the 1850's an approximately homogenous network and system of schools was established. This could serve as basis for Eötvös' Public Education Act and later for the modern civil network of institutions. This also involved large scale building activities, since the act permitted the foundation of village and state schools besides the denominational schools. In the second half of the 19th century written sources mentioned Roman Catholic and Israelite schools. At the turn of the century the schools of all four denominations, Roman Catholic, Calvinist, Lutheran and Israelite, had already existed, furthermore, village and state schools appear according to law. This way primary education had become more and more varied. The opening of the Csáktornya Teachers' Training-College in 1879 greatly increased the number of well-prepared teachers in the region. 225