Primary education in the Karst under the Allied Military Administration

Abstract

Between 1945 and 1947, the westernmost part of the Slovenian Littoral fell under the interim Allied Military Administration (AMA), which recognised the right of the Slovenes to restore primary and secondary education in Slovenian language, provided that they did so in accordance with the still applicable Italian legislation. The Regional National Liberation Committee (RNLC), another authority active in the Slovenian Littoral during the same period, strove to bring the school organisation closer to the education system in Slovenia. Owing to the uncompromising position of the liberation movement, AMA started to forge ties with people from the Slovenian anti-communist camp, with which RNLC refused to cooperate. AMA issued a decree on establishing schools in line with the prepared plan, whereas RNLC retained a network of its own schools that had been in operation since the war. Thus, Zone A was thus the site of two parallel education systems in a bitter contest for ideological influence on education.