Wydział Oświaty i Kultury Zarządu miasta Łodzi w upowszechnianiu edukacji dziecka w Dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym

Abstract

The Education and Culture Department started its activities on April 1, 1921 as an organizational unit of Lodz authorities in the Second Polish Republic. The following three independent divisions were organized within its structure: the Division of Educational System, the Division of Compulsory Education, and the Division of Culture and Non-School Education. The responsibilities of the Division of Educational System included the satisfaction of needs of universal schools resulting from school acts, the patronage over secondary education, and the granting of subsidies to universities and research institution. The Division of Compulsory Education focused mainly on the enforcement of the resolution on universal education, registered children at the school age, and kept a personal register of all people to whom compulsory education pertained. It also had administrative and penalizing competences and was able to impose penalties for a failure to complete compulsory education. The Division of Culture and Non-School Education dealt with the supporting and taking of initiatives aiming at the development of cultural life in the city. The purpose of this work is to present the role performed by the Council of the city and the Department of Education and Culture nominated by it in the propagation of children’s education in Lodz in interwar Poland.