A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 7. 1980 (Debrecen, 1980)

Tanulmányok - Mervó Zoltánné: A Hajdúkerület, majd Hajdú vármegye népiskoláinak fejlődése Kiss József tanfelügyelő működése idején 1872-1891

The Development of Public Elementary Schools in the Hajdú District and County during the Activity of School-inspector József Kiss (1872-1891)

Mrs. Zoltán Mervó

The paper deals with the enforcement in Hajdu-county of the Public-School Act initiated by Eötvös. Data from 1869 are taken to be the starting point (number of schools, teachers, pupils of school-age, etc.), and the development during the period 1872-1891, when József Kiss was school- inspector, is demonstrated. The improvement of teaching conditions and school management is studied primarily from archive sources, though the annual reports by the inspector as well as records found in the Trans-Tisza Calvinist Church Archives of the Assembly of the Alsószabolcs Hajdú- kerület Calvinist Diocese, reports from the Deans, documents from the School-Governing Body and literature on the subject are also made use of.

The paper discusses in detail the economic and intellectual state of the schools in Hajdu- county, the schooling of children and the activitiy of remedial schools.

In view of the fact that in 1869 there were 23 schools with 58 teachers and only 4483 pupils of the 13 294 children of school-age attended school, the 1891 results seem to be satisfactory. That year there were 82 public elementary schools operating in 20 villages of the county with 117 schoolrooms and 20 561 pupils attending out of the 22 724 children of school-age. When evaluating these results the merits ot school-inspector József Kiss must not be overlooked. He struggled for the improvement of public schooling to the last day of his life.

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