The Elementary Education and Upbringing of the Albanians in Macedonia (1944-1950)

The educational activity of the Albanians in Macedonia (1944-1950), as well as the people, has its own destiny, and they have coexisted through time, but specific educational and cultural phenomena and processes complement each other with mutual discoveries, truths, beauties and values. The moment of challenges, the quick awakening and exposure after the long years of suppression is quite conspicuous, and marks the entire Macedonian elementary education and upbringing in the first years after the liberation of Macedonia; analogously, the elementary upbringing and education in the Albanian teaching language accomplishes notable results as well. A special place and significance in Macedonian history belongs to the first plenary session of ASNOM. In the St. Prohor Pčinjski Monastery, on the very day of Ilinden, on August 2 1944, was held the first plenary session of ASNOM. The war was still raging, when ASNOM’s presidium made important decisions of a constituent nature with special, historical significance for Macedonia. Among them, especially significant for the schools and education in Macedonia are: the Declaration of the basic rights of the citizen of DFM and the Decree for establishment of the Macedonian language as the official language of Macedonia. With this Declaration, the freedom and equality of rights of every male and female Macedonian citizen are guaranteed, regardless of their own religious and national affiliation, as well the right to free education. Item 11 in the Declaration says: “The people’s government is taking care to eradicate illiteracy and elevate the people’s culture and secure free education.” This Declaration proclaims a wide spectrum of generally accepted democratic rights of the citizen, which are the subject of almost every constitution of democratic states. With the Declaration, every Macedonian citizen is guaranteed equality of rights without respect to their national, racial and religious affiliation. Herefrom, it is only natural that the contribution of ASNOM’s Presidium in the organization of the cultural and educational life in Macedonia is quite large. The elementary upbringing and education in Albanian, after the first plenary session of ASNOM, up until 1951, was developing in rather difficult conditions, but it is a fact that, in a short time period, it achieved enviable results. The elementary upbringing and education in Albanian, indeed, the entire elementary upbringing and education in Macedonia, was forced to take its first steps in a specific general climate, by and large marked by the socially-economic conditions, which undoubtedly hindered the process of its faster change and transformation. The political and social changes that touched the whole country after 1948, brought about after the Cominform, radically changed the educational climate, and reflected itself quite favorably on the further course of the development of the elementary upbringing and education in Albanian as well. Education becomes a significant area, a need for further upbringing and education, the basis of the educational system in its entirety, which would offer every individual different possibilities for further advancement and acquiring new knowledge as part of the educational system.Keywords: upbringing and education, enlightenment, educational system, elementary education