Austrian General School Ordinance and the Establishment of Primary School Systems in Europe from the Mid-18th to the Mid-19th Century
Austrian General School Ordinance and the Establishment of Primary School Systems in Europe from the Mid-18th to the Mid-19th Century

Summary/Abstract: School laws and related legal provisions represent valuable resources for the study of educational and broader cultural processes. Based on the approximately simultaneous beginnings of mass accessible state primary education from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century, this article covers examples of legislative and other measures of four European countries – Austria, Prussia, France, and Russia. Due to the importance of the Theresian-Josephine reforms for Slovenian history, the circumstances in the Austrian part of the Habsburg Empire with the General School Ordinance from 1774 are chosen as the starting points of this research. Increasingly centralized countries, with the decisive help of the school network, created a capitalist-industrial society, at the centre of which were productivity-oriented individuals devoted to the state. The synergy among state authorities, ecclesiastical organisations, and awareness of the usefulness of education was key to the expansion of the school network and literacy, which was most successfully reflected in the case of Prussia.

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