Középiskolai diáklétszámváltozások a 18. században a pesti piarista gimnázium példáján

Absztrakt

A couple of decades ago Zoltán Fallenbüchl and Domokos Kosáry had an interesting debate about eighteenth-century education in Hungary. Certain figures led Fallenbüchl to conclude that instead of an increase, the Ratio Educationis reform of the age of enlightened absolutism resulted in a decrease in the enrolment figures of (Catholic) secondary schools. Kosáry thought that this conclusion was wrong and the apparent decrease was a result of misinterpretation. The present study first briefly summarises nineteenth- and twentieth-century historical interpretations of this educational phenomenon, and continues with the analysis of the enrolment figures and composition of student groups in a Pest secondary school which had been operated by the Piarist Order since 1717. Two periods are analysed and compared: one well before the reforms were enacted (1736–1741) and the other immediately after (1776–1781). The analysis suggests that the changes in the size of student body seems to have been shaped by a more complex web of interrelationship than the debaters had thought: enrolment figures show that, even within the smaller segment of Catholic high schools, changes were far from synchronic and applicable across all schools. It is clear that students attending Catholic secondary schools at the end of the 1770s were altogether fewer than around mid-century and that the education reform had something to do with this decrease. However, figures from the Piarist school in Pest and others do not prove that this decrease was the result of a concerted governmental effort to target certain social groups’ access to secondary education, as Fallenbüchl argued. Kosáry, however, pointed out an important factor contributing to this decrease, realising that one of the reasons for the decreasing student numbers was the consistent separation of levels of education, specifically the new practice of categorising students in preparatory classes as elementary school pupils. Even during the immediate years of the reform, government-level central measures can hardly be used to explain all changes that occurred. Thus, it is worthwhile to seek other explanations, such as the uncertainty or stabilisation following the discontinuation or change of school authorities, or changes in the practice of attending or enrolling in school.