POLAND – SLOVAK REGIONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND DEVELOPMENT OF MINORITY SLOVAK SCHOOLS IN POLAND IN THE UPPER ORAVA REGION

,e study deals with the situation of the minority (Slovak) education in the Upper Orava region in Poland. ,e situation and overall state of development of minority education is evaluated mainly from the perspective of historical development of social conditions that not only in-uenced the school policy, but in some aspects, also re-ected the wider understood development of pedagogical thinking in Poland. Over roughly more than two centuries (from the 18th century to the present), a number of historical milestones in Polish – Slovak relationships have taken place, which also a/ected the functioning of Slovak minority schools in Poland. It is re-ected in the territorial and language disputes that a/ect mainly the national identity of the Slovaks. ,is paper re-ects on the meaning and mission of regional minority schools in this border area of Poland. It emphasizes their unifying role, promoting good coexistence and the formation of an honest and civic open national (ethnic) identity of Slovaks living in Poland in the Upper Orava region.


Introduction
In this paper the level of Slovak minority schools in Polish Orava is assessed on the basis of the re ection on the historical and current situation on both sides and the position of the Polish national minority in Slovakia and the Slovak national minority in Poland. In this part of the study we will focus on the historical background of Polish-Slovak relationships. e outcome of these relationships was re ected in various transformations in the development of regional Slovak minority education in the border area of these neighboring countries. Attention is paid to the analysis and evaluation of the state of Slovak minority schools in Upper Orava. e analysis will be based mainly on the background and research ndings elaborated in the dissertation of Marián Smondek ( , p. ), on additional literature and also on the results of some other research reports that mapped the situation in this issue. e dispersion of the Slovak national minority in Poland is caused, in particular, by historical development and also the similarity of language and the common Slavic origin of both nations. Considering the overall ethnic composition of the population in the Republic of Poland, the number of the Slovak national minority registered in Poland is very low. Slovak language is a recognized regional language but belongs to . of other regional languages. e same can be argued about the situation of the Polish national minority living in Slovakia. Considering also the compared population of both states (roughly million and million respectively), there is also an understandable di erence in interest in supporting and developing minority education in the border area. e historical di erence of comparison, in particular, consisted in the fact that the Poles have had their own large and independent kingdom and state for centuries, unlike the Slovaks who were part of Hungary (Austro-Hungarian Monarchy). It was not until the th century that Slovakia gained its independence in three forms of state-law organization. In the interwar period Slovakia together with the Czechs was part of the st Czechoslovak Republic. During the World War II the independent Slovak state was established. e modern post-war state organization has stabilized in the direction of building the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It was the o cial name of the socialist state formation in the territory of today's Czech Republic and Slovakia from July , to March , . Even from the point of view of this short summary, it is easy to justify the great e orts of the Slovaks to support national identity, independence and seek space not only for the economic development, but also for the growth of culture and education of the nation.

Evaluation of bilateral status and situation of national minorities -Polish in Slovakia and Slovak in Poland
e current Polish national minority in Slovakia consists of those who came to work or study at di erent times, set up families and stayed here. e Polish minority is also represented by descendants of persons who came to Slovakia during or immediately a er World War II. Last but not least, Polish gorals from the Slovak-Polish border area are considered to be a large Polish minority in our country.
Until  , p ). Based on the census in , Slovak nationality was reported by persons within the Jablonka municipality, persons within the Nižná Lipnica municipality and persons within the Raba Wyżna municipality. According to this census, the Slovak minority does not live in the Czarny Dunajec municipality, which includes Pekelník a Podsklie (Deklaracje narodowościowe…). However, this census indicates there were probably more Slovaks (whether with Polish or other citizenship). At the same time, these estimates, according to other information sources, captured data that out of the number of registered Slovak minorities, only a third of the members mentioned Slovak as their so-called municipality speech. If the level of assimilation of Slovaks should be assessed, for example on the basis of the number of children enrolled in the rst year of elementary school, it must be stated that it is quite extensive. e vast majority of Polish Slovaks live in the Polish part of Orava and Spiš, in the districts of Tatry and Nowy Targ of Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It is a territory belonging to Hungary before , whose population speaks transitional Polish-Slovak Goral dialects and which was nationally less aware until the th century. It was in the th century that both Polish and Slovak revivalists began to operate here, and the result of their activities is that a part of the members of the autochthonous minority accepted the Polish identity and a part retained the Slovak identity. e biggest con ict that probably most in uenced the relations between Slovakia and Poland was the dispute over the northern part of Slovakia -Spiš and Orava. It happened a er the World War I, when new states appeared on the map of Central Europe and with them also the problem of demarcation of new borders. As Milica Majerikova-Molitoris ( , p. ) writes: "the former Hungarian-Galician border line was considered one of the most stable in Europe, but already at the end of the th century arose in the circle of Polish intellectuals from Galicia so called 'ethnographic theory', which sought to prove the Polish ethnicity of the inhabitants of the northern Spiš, Orava and Kysuce. ey proceeded on the assumption that the Goral dialect spoken by that inhabitants is a Polish dialect and, as such, is part of the Polish language. Since language is an essential feature of a nation, its speakers are Poles." Slovaks inhabit the region of northern Spiš ( municipalities with a Slovak inhabitants) and upper Orava ( municipalities with a Slovak inhabitants). ese originally purely Slovak municipalities were attached to Poland as a result of the state border adjustment agreement in between the then Czechoslovakia and Poland, based on a decision of the Council of Ambassadors. According to Jelinek ( , p ) nally, the northern borders of Slovakia were determined only in , when the Delimitation Commission (representatives of France, Great Britain, Italy and Japan) annexed the municipalities of Suchá Hora and Hladovka back to Czechoslovakia; parts of the Orava municipality of Nižná Lipnica and parts of the territory near the Spiš municipality of Jurgov, belonged to Poland. Neither side was satis ed with the resolution of the border dispute. e achieved compromise was considered by many Polish and Czechoslovak politicians as an unacceptable loss.
During World War II, in the period of the First Slovak Republic, these territories belonged to Slovakia for six years, also as a product of historical development regions of Upper and Lower Orava, as well as Upper and Lower Spiš were created. ey were united ethnically and territorially during this period. Despite strong assimilation pressures since the end of World War II and the repeated detachment of Slovak ethnic territories, the Slovaks in Poland have maintained their national awareness and are trying to preserve their national and linguistic identity through Autochthonous/indigenous (op. immigrated) -domestic, locals, native, autochthonous inhabitants, p. also original, which is from the beginning, which has kept everything as it had at its origin (op. non-original). According to the dictionary of foreign words: https://slovnik.aktuality. sk/synonyma/?q=autocht C B nny federal activities. ey claim to be Slovaks speaking Goral dialects (Smolińska, , p. ). Robert Ištok ( , pp. -) writes about it: "Requirements of Poland were successfully implemented on part of Slovak territory during the period of weakening of Czechoslovakia. At the end of , municipalities in northern Orava and Spiš, as well as parts of three municipalities in Kysuce (total km²) were attached to Poland. ese relatively moderate demands resulted from e orts to keep some Slovak circles satis ed. However, this development, together with the previous tearo of the territories in the north of Orava and Spiš, led to the Slovak revenge policy, which resulted in the participation of the Slovak army in the campaign against Poland in September and the temporary attachment of these territories to the Slovak State. By contract with Germany dated on November , , Slovakia acquired km² of the disputed territory. A er the liberation, northern Orava and northern Spiš, despite the e orts of the Czechoslovak government, by the intervention of the Soviet Union returned to Poland on the basis of the so-called Prague protocols of May , . us, the Polish-Czechoslovak border from was restored." Robert Ištok further describes the period a er World War II: "During the post-war period there was a relative improvement in Polish-Czechoslovak relations. Mutual animosities were eliminated by the need for cooperation within the Communist bloc and by the promotion of the concept of proletarian internationalism. e historical burden, arising from border disputes, as well as the events of and , were gradually overcome. Paradoxically, cross-border contacts have been limited by reducing the number of rail and road crossings. Mutual contacts were also diminished by tightening the regime at the borders a er the events in Poland in the early s. A er complicated peripeteia of Polish-Slovak relations, mutual contacts increased a er , and also a er the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic.
Poland is one of the few states where Slovaks are recognized as indigenous national minority, which means that the protection of their national, linguistic and cultural identity is ensured by the highest mechanisms binding in the European Union. e regional cross-border neighborhood of Slovak municipalities of upper Orava and northern Spiš with Slovakia and the organic interconnection with lower Spiš and lower Orava should also have a positive e ect in this respect. Despite these favorable factors, however, a relatively intense assimilation must be noted, supported most by linguistic, cultural, value and religious compatibility, and thus a lower degree of "vigilance and immunity" to natural as well as intentional assimilation pressure. ey are trying to adapt this knowledge in the future to the goals and intentions of the currently representative Association of Slovaks in Poland [Spolok Slovákov v Poľsku]. Slovaks are a state-recognized national minority in the Republic of Poland. According to the law, they are Polish citizens with Slovak nationality. members who are registered in local groups in both parts of the regions, in Krakow, Warsaw and Tychy. Regionally it is divided into a regional committee for Orava and Spiš.
e Slovak Association in Poland is the umbrella organization of the Slovak minority living in Poland. In particular, it considers its mission to preserve the national awareness of the Slovaks, cultural traditions and language identity. Its role is to represent compatriots in matters related to their country of origin in the cultural and educational elds, in state regional and self-governing institutions, in the organization of cultural and educational events -e.g. language camps, sightseeing tours, knowledge and poetry competitions, intermediation of educational and study activities in Slovakia. A special chapter in Polish -Slovak relationships is the area of minority national education. Historical archives say that the teaching of Slovak language on Polish territory began in the school year / when the Slovak high school (liceum) with the general education curriculum where Polish and Slovak were languages of instruction opened in Jablonka (Orava). Ten years later -in the school year / -there were the last graduates who graduated from all academic subjects in Slovak language. Regarding the evaluation of the participation of Slovaks in the eld of science and research in Poland, it should be noted that this area is not subject of systematic activity of any organization of Slovaks in Poland. However, many of my compatriots work as science researchers at Polish institutions, corporations and universities. e most important journalof Slovaks living in Poland is currently their sociocultural monthly Life [Život] (as mentioned above). It is regularly published on pages in printed copies. Life magazine is sent to several European countries, USA, Canada. Nowadays, it is one of the richest magazines in content and illustration, which is regularly published outside of Slovakia. It is the result of several years of work of changing editorial teams, the work of innumerable groups of correspondents and persistent interest in the environment of the Slovak national minority. e association prints the magazine in its own printing house, built mostly with the help of the Slovak government. e printing house has modern technology, so besides the magazine and publications for Slovaks, it also provides services to other customers.
So far, no radio station has o ered regular broadcasting to Slovak compatriots. Polish broadcasts only sporadically present reports of more remarkable SAP events. Since , Krakow Television has had a weekly documentary series called In our place [U siebie], which is devoted to national minorities in southern Poland. However, the reports are not in Slovak language, Slovak can be heard only in songs, artistic broadcasting and occasional interviews with Polish Slovaks.

Overview of the history of education in Upper Orava from the period of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy until now
e e ort to establish the rst school in Upper Orava, speci cally in Oravka, can be found in the middle of the th century. In the chapter of the Catholic Mission in We issue from the presentation of the results of historical analysis in the dissertation thesis of Mgr. Marián Smondek, PhD., which dealt with the issue of the relationship of family and school in the context of the impact of the school environment on maintaining the national identity of Slovak minority residents living in Upper Orava, Poland. e author focuses on the historical context, which was ultimately re ected in the state educational policy towards minorities in Poland, not only in the past, but they are part of the school policy and ratios of the school system in Poland even nowadays. e dissertation thesis clari es the history of the Slovak national minority, the conditions for the establishment and gradual dissolution of the Slovak minority Orava, Jozef Gebura states that in the place for the church and the school was remitted at the behest of the king (Štepitová, , p. ). However, more reliable data is provided by canonical visitations from the rst half of the th century.
anks to them we learn that schools in this area were founded in the second half of the th century, such as in Nižná Lipnica in , or in Horní Pekelník. Most of the schools were church schools, in some municipalities there were also olk public schools, in Chyžné even two. However, there were only two municipalities with folk common schools in the whole Orava region, besides Chyžný also Kňažia.
It was not until the turn of the th and th centuries that some schools were nationalized under the in uence of Hungarianization (Michalicka, , pp. -), in the period before the annexation of Upper Orava (also together with Suchá Hora and Hladovka) to Poland. ere were a total of schools in this area, of which ve were state schools (three in Horná Zubrica and two in Chyžné), eight public schools (four in Jablonka, three in Horná Lipnica and one in Dolná Zubrica) and seventeen Roman Catholic schools ( ve in Dolná Lipnica, two in Pekelník, two in Podwilk and one in Bukovina-Podsklie, Harkabuz, Hladovka, Horná Zubrica, Jablonka, Oravka, Sŕnie and Suchá Hora). By the end of World War I, in all of them were taught in Slovak language and a er increasing Hungarianization pressure, more and more subjects were taught in Hungarian language (Majeriková-Molitoris, , p. ). In the interwar period in Orava, but also in Spiš, most schools in selected villages were in under the church administration and these territories until were under the jurisdiction of the Spiš Chapter, thus under the administration of the Slovak bishop. However, the Polish school system did not recognize church schools because in Poland all schools were state-owned. us, on September , the Polish administration took over the existing education under its leadership (Roszkowski, , pp. -). is caused considerable tensions in Polish -Slovak relations. Poland expelled Slovak teachers, abolished all Slovak schools and began to assert a harsh Polonization policy by banning the use of the Slovak language at home as well as in o cial and public relations (Garek, , p. ). By doing so, the Republic of Poland ignored the Little Versailles Agreement of June , which obliged Poland to protect national and other minorities (Ciągwa, , p. ). However, this met with resistance from the Slovak inhabitants. Parents refused to send children to Polish schools. e authorities gradually eliminated this negative attitude by various reprisals and nancial penalties (Bielovodský, , p. ). Finally, in it managed to open schools in the Upper Orava, but there were also municipalities where it was not taught at all. Teaching began in Podsklie in March , followed by Podsŕnie (Majeriková-Molitoris, , p. ). Although access to Slovak literature in schools was completely barred, Slovaks found a way education. It re ects on importance and role of the minority school in a nationally mixed border environment.
to teach and have access to the Slovak language in their homes by reading Slovak literature, which was supplied by the Association of St. Vojtech in Trnava. A certain change in the approach to the Slovaks was suggested by the reform of , which recommended the introduction of an optional subject: the language of the nearest neighboring nation in middle and high schools. As a result of the introduction of the reform, Slovak and Czech languages were taught at the Nowy Targ Gimnasium and Liceum from to . e situation in Orava changed signi cantly a er the outbreak of World War II. Slovak armies occupied the Upper Orava and the territory was incorporated into the Slovak Republic. Since September , particular schools have been taken over by Slovak teachers who, on the basis of decrees issued by the School Inspectorate in Dolný Kubín, have been appointed as their administrators. However, during the Slovak State, the organization of school teaching in these border schools was not without problems. e biggest problem was the shortage of teaching sta , because a large number of children in each municipality was taught by only few teachers.
ere was not a single school in Orava that had enough teachers. We can mention examples in the following municipalities: Pekelník -pupils taught by two teachers, Bukovina -Podsklie pupils taught by four teachers (Garek, , p. ), Sŕnie -pupils taught by two teachers, Nižná Zubrica -pupils taught by three teachers, Nižná Lipnica -pupils taught by three teachers, Oravkapupils taught by three teachers (Hojová, , p. ). Nevertheless, the di culty of nding accommodation for teachers has been added to these problems. It was necessary to invest in the repair of school buildings because they were in poor condition. e number of classes was insu cient for the number of school age children. e lack of teachers was eventually handled by alternate teaching at several schools. e problem also occurred with current schoolbooks, Slovak school aids and Slovak books at all.
Another problem was the school management system. In , the Slovak administration was inclined to reinstate schools that until belonged to the Church. Some residents disagreed with this arrangement because of the state funding of schools. Even some of the Church administrators were not interested in such an arrangement. Altogether there were schools in Orava. Based on archival ndings, we know that only those schools that had been run by the church before within the church administration. During the war, in the Folk School of Economics in Dolná Zubrica was established. Also, in the same year in Jablonka was established the New Town School for Upper Orava. In the rst school year, pupils attended this school. ey were taught by three teachers. In the school year / , a temporary one-year training course for teachers was also set up at the town school in Jablonka (Garek, , p. ). In , pupils in classes studied at Orava. Following the order of the Slovak National Council of September , all schools were re-nationalized. e Slovak education was functioning in Upper Orava until the end of the school year / (Garek, , pp. -). e development of education and school policy in the post-war period again noted major changes and a new arrangement of conditions. One of the rst measures was that the municipalities in Upper Orava and northern Spiš were re-annexed to Poland. e establishment of new rules and order was not accompanied by small problems. Funding required for further development of the Slovak minority education was withdrawn. In September , the Polish side proceeded to open only Polish schools with the order to displace all Slovak teachers. Except that only out of elementary schools were opened in Orava, these Polish schools also had a lack of quali ed teachers. e issue of minority education was not a priority, and Slovak parents o en resisted assimilative Polonization. Several students from Upper Orava therefore continued to attend schools in Slovakia a er the municipalities were annexed to Poland. ey attended a middle school in Trstená, Trnava, Rožňava, Bratislava, Banská Bystrica, Kláštor pod Znievom, also town school in Tvrdošín, Levoča and state folk schools in the near borderland. Several students attended Czechoslovak universities.
A new chapter of the Slovak education in Orava was opened a er the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance between the Czechoslovak Republic and the Republic of Poland dated March , , along with which an additional protocol was adopted, which, on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, also included the issue of minority education.
So much from the perspective of the history of minority (Slovak) regional education in Upper Orava.

Conclusion
In conclusion, it is necessary to summarize the knowledge that the Polish and Slovak Republics are autonomous and sovereign states integrated into uni ed European organizations and structures of the European Union. e accession of Poland and Slovakia to the European Union brought new impulses for the development of cross-border cooperation and at the same time opened up new possibilities for nancing common projects, including within the framework of the European Union programs intended generally for culture and especially for education. e need to develop minority education for the enhancement of national identity and national awareness is not so important now as it was in the past.
is is also re ected in the current trends in access to minority schools in Upper Orava. At present, there are only two elementary schools with the Slovak language of instruction in Poland -in Nová Bela and Jablonka, while Slovak is taught only at the rst stage (grades -). In higher grades, only some subjects are taught in the Slovak language. In another elementary schools, Slovak language is taught as a compulsory language only by the parents' decision. In total, about pupils are currently learning Slovak language in these minority schools in Upper Orava.
ere are problems with the provision of teaching mainly because there are few Slovak teachers in schools. Conversely, where teachers are, there are o en not enough enrolled children. Recently due to lack of interest of parents the Slovak language was terminated at the schools in Podwilk and Chyžné. In secondary education, the only option for children from Slovak familiesis the mentioned high school in Jablonka, where students are now learning Slovak. In I. C there are , in II. B , in III. C and IV. C class are students who will graduate in Slovak language. Slovak is taught here as an optional class for hours a week. However, none of these graduates plans to study in Slovakia. At the university level, the Slovak language is taught at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Children have the opportunity to study at schools in Slovakia a er nishing elementary school, while scholarships are provided by the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic. Approximately students have been attending Slovak secondary schools and universities since the mid-s. Most graduates continued their university studies in Slovakia. Several graduates of universities graduated with a doctorate and a er returning back improved the quality of the Slovak intelligence community in Poland.