Review article
Zagreb Mayors’ contributions to the building of schools between two World Wars
Filip Brčić
; Postgraduate doctoral study in pedagogy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The author analyzes the educational policies pursued by Zagreb Mayors (then referred to as city chiefs) on an example of building new and renovating existing schooling institutions between 1914 and 1939. It considers certain aspects of the work conducted by seven city chiefs during that period: Stjepan Srkulj, Svetozar Delić, Dragutin Tončić, Vjekoslav Heinzel, Ivo Krbek, Rudolf Erber, and Teodor Peičić. Each of them acted according to the current situation in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians/Yugoslavia, but also often under the impact of foreign policy circumstances that needed to be adjusted to. This in particular refers to the end of the first global conflict and the imminence of the second one toward the end of the selected period. Many decisions were also directly influenced by the highest government in Belgrade, which somewhat prevented the city representatives led by the Mayor of Zagreb from taking further steps. However, despite the occasionally imposed austerity policies, the City of Zagreb experienced large-scale urbanization, thanks to which it was recognized as the most modern Croatian city. School buildings were built according to modern standards, which may be one of the reasons why the number of students increased. The author concluded that, despite the unique situations they found themselves in, each of the Mayors helped modernize the Zagreb school system to a greater or lesser degree with respect to its infrastructure. By building new and expanding existing buildings, Zagreb thus enlarged the school network to extend to its suburbs, continually improving the schooling system.
Keywords
Mayors; educational policy; building of schools; history of education; 1918-1939; Zagreb
Hrčak ID:
290164
URI
Publication date:
25.6.2020.
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