ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE ILLITERACY PROBLEM IN MONTENEGRO AND YUGOSLAVIA FROM 1947 TO 1951

The people's government faced the issue of literacy and education in Montenegro and Yugoslavia immediately after the end of World War II and this problem started to be addressed in the course of the two years of state's reconstruction, from 1945 to 1946. The problem could not be successfully resolved for such a short time, although positive results were visible in reducing the number of the illiterate, establishment of new schools, organization of a number of literacy and professional courses etc. This problem was particularly pronounced in Montenegro, having in mind that Montenegro was one of the least developed republics of the socialist Yugoslavia. Following the adoption of the Five-Year Development Plan for the period from 1947 to 1951 the systematic enlightenment of the population and the general cultural ascent started. The Five-Year Development Plan envisioned a 400-million-dinar investment into the culture and education in Montenegro. In this period, the mass literacy campaigns were conducted, a network of primary and secondary schools was expanded and new libraries were opened as well as numerous cultural canters, especially in the rural areas. However, despite the efforts and the positive results achieved, the illiteracy problem could not be fully resolved and this problem persisted over the later years: according to 1953-statistics, out of the total Yugoslav population (16,936,573) 6,959,896 people were illiterate or 41% population, while out of the total Montenegrin population (419,873) 197,306 or 47% was illiterate.