Polityka władz państwowych wobec szkolnictwa w województwie poleskim w latach 1919–1939

The educational and school policies were the consequence of the nationality policy aimed at the assimilation and Polonization of ethnic minorities living in the Poleskie (Polesie) province. In the early 1920s the propagation of national education was meant to impact the consciousness of children and young people in the struggle against communist influences and the political and cultural impact of ethnic minorities. The buildup of the network of elementary schools in the Poleskie province was expected to ensure the advantage of the Polish element over the Belarusian and Ukrainian populations. In the early 1930s the authorities set two fundamental objectives before the elementary school system: to arouse the feeling of belonging to the Polish nation in the nationally unconscious Poleszuk (inhabitant of the Polesie region), and to discourage children and young people from communist indoctrination. The factor that integrated the educational issues was the idea of state education, which would unite all national factors within the common state. State education was soon withdrawn from school practice. In the mid-1930s there was a clear return to the idea of national education. Assimilation and Polonization policies were revived. Schools and education were again used by the state authorities as the basic tools for realizing these ideas.