UKRAINIAN GYMNASIUM EDUCATION IN POKUTTIA AT THE END OF THE 19th – AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20th CENTURY

Abstract

The article analyzes the activities of two Ukrainian gymnasiums in Pokuttia at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries: the state gymnasium in the town of Kolomyia and the private gymnasium of the Ukrainian Pedagogical Society in the town of Horodenka. The prerequisites for the emergence of Ukrainian gymnasium educational institutions are revealed, the main areas of educational work are highlighted, and the participation of their teachers and pupils in the development of the public life of the region is traced.

The appearance of Ukrainian gymnasiums in Pokuttia was the result of many years of hard work of the Ukrainian public in the territory of the region. Its best representatives considered it necessary for young people to obtain a secondary education as the basis for the formation of a national elite that will be able to professionally represent and defend the interests of their own people. At the same time, the establishment of these educational institutions was determined by the need to increase the number of Ukrainians who receive secondary education, and the remoteness of children in the territory of the region to obtain it.

The matter of founding the Ukrainian state gymnasium in Kolomyia became one of the components of the Ukrainian-Polish compromise, which was called the “new era”. Permission for its operation was given in the spring of 1892 by the Galician Regional Diet. The Gymnasium of the Ukrainian Pedagogical Society in the town of Horodenka, founded in 1909, is considered the main educational institution of Ukrainians in the Horodenka region as a part of Pokuttia at the beginning of the 20th century. It was private, as Ukrainians did not always manage to get the authorities to open public educational institutions.

During their existence until the beginning of the First World War, both educational institutions maintained a positive dynamic of growth in the number of students. This led to problems with arranging children in classrooms. Some of them, especially in the Ukrainian state gymnasium in the town of Kolomyia, were unsuitable for teaching students.

The recruitment of children to gymnasiums took place every year at the end of summer through entrance exams, which were preceded by preparatory courses. Ukrainian public associations of the region and caring people provided financial assistance for the maintenance of educational institutions. Every year, the material and technical condition of the educational facilities of the institutions improved.

Ukrainian students honored the memory of famous figures in the history of Ukraine. Educational institutions, especially the gymnasium in Kolomyia, became a meeting place with famous figures I. Franko,

1. Sheptytskyi, H. Khomyshyn and others. The high school youth of Pokuttia were not indifferent to social and political life – they responded as best they could to certain events at the local and national level. In particular, they organized a kind of protest or, on the contrary, support, organizedly leaving the walls of the educational institution during lectures and marching through the streets of the city in a united march, as was typical for students of the Ukrainian state gymnasium in Kolomyia.

Key words: gymnasium, education, Pokuttia, Galicia Regional Diet, Ukrainian Pedagogical Society, “Prosvita”, preparatory course, entrance exam, regional school board.