|
In Northern Macedonia, 8-year primary school is free and
compulsory for anyone aged 7-15. In 2000, approx. 93 percent
of children in primary school. There are different types of
4-year high schools, and more than 80 per cent of young
people go to high school. The Constitution guarantees
teaching in the mother tongue, and there are schools with
both Albanian and Serbian as the language of instruction. See TOPSCHOOLSINTHEUSA for TOEFL, ACT, SAT testing locations and high school codes in Macedonia.
There are universities in Skopje (founded 1949) and in
Bitola (1979). In 2001, a private, Albanian-language
university opened in Tetovo, which from 2004 is state.
With the outbreak of World War I, Bulgaria saw an
opportunity to recapture its Macedonian positions. Sofia
therefore allied with the Axis powers of Austria-Hungary,
Germany and Turkey to occupy the Serbian part of Macedonia
and parts of Serbia. The victories (England, France, etc.)
decided not to change the border between Greece and
Macedonia, and the republic was now included in the new
Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian kingdom.
In the interwar period, the dominance of the Serbian
dynasty intensified the ethnic conflicts in Yugoslavia. King
Alexander assumed dictatorial powers in 1929, and in 1934
was assassinated in Marseilles by Croatian nationalists. As
Yugoslavia was therefore occupied by Germany at the start of
World War II, it was internally divided and was unable to
provide sufficient resistance to the occupying power.
The Yugoslav patriotic struggle intensified in subsequent
years. First and foremost because of the guerrilla struggle
waged by the League of Yugoslav Communists, who took power
in May 1945 and later proclaimed the establishment of the
Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. Slavic Macedonia
was included in this new state as one of its 6 republics.
In 1947, Yugoslavia recognized that Macedonia was one of
the least developed areas of the country. The federal
government therefore began to transfer resources to
industrial projects - primarily in the steel, chemical and
textile industries.
In 1989, the federal government made an addition to the
Macedonian constitution, eliminating any reference to the
minorities. In January 1990, an extraordinary congress in
the League of Yugoslav Communists decided to introduce
multi-party government and remove the reference in the
Constitution to the leadership role of the league. Still,
Congress rejected a proposal to grant greater autonomy to
the league's divisions in individual republics. After the
congress, these divisions in Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia
left the league and renamed the Democratic Renewal Party.
During the open war between the detachment republics of
Croatia and Slovenia and the federal army of Yugoslavia,
Macedonia held a referendum on September 8, 1991, which gave
a majority vote for the republic to disband from the
federation. All the political parties in the republic -
except for the small Albanian minority - supported the
independence.
While several countries recognized Croatia and Slovenia
at the beginning of 1992, Greece put obstacles in
recognition of Macedonia, as they felt that Greece was
historically entitled to this concept - and territory. For
Athens, the Macedonian Republic was an artificial size
created by Yugoslavia, while Greece was still under Nazi
occupation, and the proclamation of an independent
Macedonian state was a threat to the Greeks for subsequent
territorial demands on Saloniki.
|
