1Fakultet sporta i fizičkog vaspitanja, Beograd, Srbija
INITIATIVES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INTRODUCTION OF GYMNASTICS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF THE PRINCIPALITY OF SERBIA (elementary schools, gymnastics, initiatives, suggestions, introduction
INICIJATIVE I PREDLOZI ZA UVOĐENJE NASTAVE GIMNASTIKE U OSNOVNE ŠKOLE KNEŽEVINE SRBIJE
Sport Mont 2006, IV(10-11),
472-477
Upon gaining its autonomy in 1830, the Principality of Serbia also creates the conditions
for faster development of education, since the Sultan’s edict granted it the right to
open schools.
The first Law on schools was passed at the suggestion of the Head of the Ministry of
Education Jovan Sterija Popovic in 1844 (Ustrojenije javnog učilištnog nastavlenija), and
predicted a complete organization of all schools: elementary, commercial, high and lycees.
The Law also prescribed three years of elementary education in villages and four years in
towns. For the first time education of female children is predicted“Law on structure of elementary schools” was passed in September 1863 and it predicted
the introduction of the fourth grade in village schools.
Thirty-eight years (1830-1868) passed from obtaining autonomy, i.e. the right in Serbia
to open its schools, to the official introduction of the physical activity instruction in
elementary schools. It was a period in which it was attempted to organize structure and
work of elementary schools.
However physical education used to appear in pedagogic literature, drafts of laws on
schools and proposals of officials and schools commissions of the Ministry of Education of
the Principality of Serbia:
1. Milovan Spasic had hold an office of the main school principal since 1845 and he
wrote three books, as the main reference books for elementary school teachers. One of them
is “Pedagogično metodično nastavlenije ya učitelje osnovnih škola” (1855) where he wrote
about physical education of children. Although physical education was not present in the
Curriculum, he treated it as the most important task of both teachers and parents.
2. In the “Projekt zakona o školama za Knjažestvo Srbije” (1859) where you can find
the subjects to be taught in elementary schools, it was stated that “as on of the subjects for
boys ‘physical practice’ and ‘gymnastics’ for girls should be taught.”
3. Doctor Djodje Natošević, came from Novi Sad to be an official in the Ministry of
Education of the Principality of Serbia in 1867, and stayed until the August of 1868. Upon
inspection of schools he concluded that “there is no physical education in elementary
schools! Elementary school is doing nothing for its development.” Therefore, in the “Survey
of scientific subjects to be developed and taught” he suggested gymnastics as one of the
school subjects in all four classes, every day from 11 to 11.30 a.m and from 4 to 4.30 p.m.
4. School commission of the Ministry of Education, whose president was Milovan
Spasić, proposed gymnastics “to be recommended to teachers in towns and in villages
where it is possible, for children between classes, and that instead of jumping and running
they should be taught to some regular gymnastic movements.All proposals and intentions contributed so that the Minister of Education Dimitrije
Matic by his decree of December 1868, introduced gymnastics in elementary schools of the
Principality of Serbia. N/A
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