The Development Of Education In Kosovo By The End Of Serbian Dominion And In The Beginnings Of Ottoman Rule

Abstract

The condition of education in Albanian territories before and after ottoman invasion of the country reflects the change of existing social structures and the beginning of the process of building new ones. These changes were reflected in education system as well. Due to the contradiction that Papati and catholic powers of Europe made upon Ottoman invasion in Balkan, the High Gate held a hostile attitude towards Catholic Church, while Patriarchana recognized the Ottoman rule and the rights of the orthodox people to govern a spiritual life for them. In the first years of Ottoman rule, the Catholic Church and schools financed from it, survived only in several civic centers and in rural areas where the authority of Ottoman administration was not settled yet. Meanwhile, schools that were kept from orthodox clerics still continued their activities, although they decreased in number, as a result of the dominion. In the meantime, with the beginning of the process of Islamization the first Ottoman schools were born. The presence of Muslim religious schools in Turkish-Arab languages, of catholic ones in Latin and orthodox ones in Slavic, influenced a growth in the educational level of population. But, the presence of Slavic schools in pressure conditions of Islamization made that a part of Albanian community to assimilate in Serbs. In these occurrences, religious education of this period was linked tight with the development of the events in the land and had a distinct political character. In this case it should be emphasized that due to the specifications of the historical development in Kosovo, Islamic education did not follow the natural process of transition to national education. In conclusion, it ought to be noted that, in the brink of the ottoman conquest and in the first years of the Ottoman rule, it continued educational tradition and Albanians had their clerics and their educated men, who performed the function of the teacher and they gave the education in foreign language the features of the environment and of the Albanian tradition.