Utraquist school

An utraquist school or utraquist gymnasium is a term for bilingual schools in some countries, in which the subjects were taught both in a state language and in the language of some ethnic minority. The term "utraquist" here is in an analogy with the Catholic concept of utraquism (from Latin: uterque, utraque, "both"/"each (of the two)").

Such schools existed, e.g., in Poland, in areas dominated by Ukrainians and Belarusians ("Kresy Wschodnie"), and in Austria-Hungary/Austria of 19th and early 20th centuries, in the areas of numerous ethnic minorities. In both cases, these types of schools were considered to be instrumented of ethnic assimilation (Polonization[1] and Germanisation[2] respectively.) In Poland, some other utraquist schools taught in Polish and Yiddish languages. [3]

An account traced the root of the utraquist school to the concept called revelatio, which denotes an insight drawn from ancient authorities and texts.[4] The church was one of the earliest institutions to practice it.[4] The use of the utraquist model, however, declined for several decades due to the policies that ban compulsory second language use in the classroom.[5] It is, however, being reintroduced today in a different form, the Content and Language Integrated Learning or CLIL.[6] It is promoted in the European Union education policy, particularly for secondary education.[6]