Anali za povijest odgoja, Vol. 2 No. 2, 2003.
Stručni rad
The Blind People Education in Croatia in the 20th Century
Željka Bosnar Salihagić
; Tiflološki muzej, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The Institute for Education of Blind Children was founded in Zagreb in 1895 on the initiative of Vinko Bek, a primary teacher from Bukevje near Velika Gorica. It was certainly an important event in the history of education in Croatia. Bek’s successful promotion of the idea concerning necessity of the systematic education and upbringing of the blind through publishing and exhibition activity, as well as the public presentation of the convincing proof of the ability of the blind gave rise to the opening of “The State Institute for Education of Blind Children in Zagreb”, a new school institution of the then government Department for Religion Aff airs and Schooling. At the end of the 19th century the social conditions were favourable for survival of the school education of the blind. As in 1889 Bek adjusted Braille’s alphabet to the Croatian language and
in the same year developed the first Croatian elementary reader for the blind on Braille’s, as well as on Klein’s alphabet, the opening of the Institute made the blind children education immediately possible. At the very beginning five–year elementary school, two–year “prolonged course” and artisans’ training existed in the Institute. At first the music education was of the secondary character, but subsequently it became very professional systematic education. During the 1st World War the Institute stopped working, and after the War it moved for some time to Popovača. By relocation to the province, far from the culture public influence and without appropriate pedagogical personnel the Institute was neglected. Although in 1927 the Institute was officially closed, already the next year it has been reopened and again in Zagreb. The school of the Institute was achieving very good results in very poor conditions. In the years to come some of the Institute boarding–school pupils were enrolled in the music school of the State–run Academy of Music in Zagreb. The Esperanto and the German language courses are being introduced in this pre–war period, as well as the basic typewriting training. After the 2nd World War, for example in the school year 1947/48, the Institute had totally 50 boarding–school pupils, and their number was increasing year after year. In 1955 the Institute was named after its founder Vinko Bek. In the years to come a series of essential positive moves in the
development of the blind children education happened. A special class for blind and partially sighted children lightly mentally retarded opens within the elementary school and the logopedic treatment begins to implement. In 1962 within the Institute for Professional Training of Blind and Partially Sighted Young People opens two–year administrative school and later on in its educational programmes the phonotechnics and phonotyping are introduced.
In 1963 the Institute for Education of Blind Children “Vinko Bek” fuses with the Institute for Professional Training of Blind and Partially Sighted Young People and becomes the Institute for Rehabilitation of Blind and Partially Sighted Children and Young People, and from 1977 on the same institution comes to be called the Centre for Upbringing and Education “Vinko Bek”. Today in Croatia persons with damaged sight are educated in special institutions: “The Centre for Upbringing and Education Vinko Bek” in Zagreb, within the elementary and the secondary school, in “The School for Training and Education Vinko Bek”, a secondary school in Osijek and in regular elementary and secondary schools in Croatia.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
334752
URI
Datum izdavanja:
31.12.2003.
Posjeta: 481 *