Educational policy in socialist Montenegro

dr. Vučina Zorić

Summary:   This paper presents an analysis of the process of creating, developing, and implementing of educational policy in Yugoslavia, as illustrated by the case of Montenegro, one of its republics. The research is primarily focused on the identification and consideration of certain characteristics of the socialist concept of education in Yugoslavia and Montenegro through an analysis of the competences and work of relevant institutions, their decision-making procedures, and the management of systems of education and educational policy in general. In this way, the author emphasizes and re-examines the origin and essence of the numerous difficulties, reforms, and important decisions and events that have had a substantial effect on the development and destiny of socialist pedagogy and the development of education and schooling in Montenegro. The analyzed stages of development of educational policy in Yugoslavia, in the case of Montenegro, have been marked, on one hand, by the process of transferring responsibilities from the federation to the republics. On the other hand, the development has been characterized by the largely centralized jurisdiction of creating educational policy in the highest party organs of the state, in which predominantly republican bodies have been able to make decisions and regulations primarily on their application. The research into this theme endeavors to provide relevant insight into many specifics—and, sometimes, into the originality of the reforms of education in Yugoslavia and Montenegro, particularly during the period of the introduction of self-management.