The public education policy of the Transdanubian Reformed Church District in the first half of the 1940s

Abstract

In our comprehensive research, we analyze the reformed public education policy of the Horthy era on the basis of the minutes taken at the general assemblies of the church district. Thanks to the self-governing system of the Reformed Church, the church districts remained important branches of Reformed educational policy alongside the central bodies, and they were also involved in the national-level decision-making. It is therefore worth pointing out regional specificities. The present study focuses on the Transdanubian Church District. Our questions were as follows: 1. How did the church district react to the intentions and measures of state-level education policy? 2. What education policy guidelines did the church district itself formulate? 3. What steps did the church district take to strengthen its schools and improve/stabilize the quality of education? 4. What changes were implemented in religious education?
In the field of primary education, the church district was concerned with two main issues in the first half of the 1940s: the retention of one-room schoolhouses and the transition to the eight-grade system. In the case of the latter, dissenting views also emerged: the eight-grade format had already been established in the territories of the reannexed parishes, and therefore these raised more substantive issues. In the case of one-room schoolhouses, they tried to avoid the transfer of the schools through various solutions: resettlement of families in the village, hiring a pastor teacher, making the school a preparatory school under the instruction of the pastor. In this church district, too, the improvements mainly affected secondary schools. New types of schools were started by the denominational owners, reflecting the aim of expanding in the direction of vocational education: in Pápa, there was a commercial secondary school, and in Csurgó, an agricultural institution awaited the children. In North Komárom, the coeducational system was replaced by a male teacher training institution. As for the state-level education laws, the church district was concerned with how to implement them. It has tried to adapt, while making use of the possibilities offered by the legislation. The church district considered itself a partner of the state, emphasizing interdependence. The question of the renewal of religious education in schools was less discussed in this church district.