• gjkbp19@gmail.com
• 021/780-167
• www.jankollar.org

Year of establishment: 1919

Founder: Autonomous Province of Vojvodina

Type of institution: Mešovita srednja škola, Student dormitory

Teaching language: Serbian, Slovak

About institution

The school was founded on 1 October 1919, as a result of two centuries of economic and cultural tradition practiced by Yugoslav Slovaks. The first school building was constructed by locals' own voluntary contributions, with the financial support of the Government of the Czech Republic and Slovaks in the USA and Canada, but also to a great extent, owing to voluntary work of the local population of Bački Petrovac.

This Grammar School became a significant cultural institution of Slovaks in Yugoslavia. This place gave birth to a number academicians and doctors of science who work and act in Serbia and Republic of Slovakia, many scientists and teachers, artists and engineers.

Although it was founded for purposes of the Slovak national minority and has remained the only grammar school with Slovak as the teaching language, the school has never been restricted to a narrow national framework. It has always communicated with its surrounding and established some classes in Serbian, trying to find the optimal solution.

What is characteristic of the school's work, in addition to solid material ground and quality instruction, are various extracurricular activities of students and teachers, student associations, many vocational, arts and sports clubs. The Sladkovič Club has existed continuously since 1 October 1925, and has largely contributed to the presence of Slovak literature in Serbia.

The Teacher's School was founded in the school year 1947/48, which was of great significance for the destiny of Slovaks living in Vojvodina, in terms of learning about, spreading and enriching their native culture, language and identity. The Teacher's school operated until 1965 and, by that time, educated over 200 Slovak teachers. This school continued to work in the school year 1998/99, by becoming a satellite unit of the Faculty of Education in Sombor, delivering classes in the Slovak language.

A modern Student Dormitory was opened in 1997/98, constructed with the financial support of the Slovak and Serbian governments. It allows Slovaks from across Vojvodina to study, despite the fact that its capacities are insufficient to meet all the needs and interests of students who would like to attend this school.

The Grammar School equipment meets the requirements of a modern school. It comprises specialised science classrooms, two IT classrooms, a permanent exhibition dedicated to biology, with over 27000 books and a gallery presenting works of visual art. Also, there is a memorial room, as remembrance of the recent past and the XIV Vojvodina Slovak Brigade. Our students may engage in sports activities on school sport fields, such as handball, football and basketball.

Since its establishment, more than 3700 students attended the Grammar School by the end of the school year 2007/2008. The majority of school graduates also successfully competed college or higher education.

In line with its progressive tradition, the Grammar School has always followed and participated in the state-of-the-art trends. The school has become one of the regional teacher training centres. Teachers have founded the Association of Slovak Pegagogues.

The Regional Teacher Training Centre was founded in 2000 at the school's premises. This was a result of the school's participation in the project by OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATION "THE THIRD MILLENNIUM" which started in 1997, when the Foundation provided the school with the latest computer equipment. The purpose of this project was to introduce new technologies and communication methods in the teaching process and expand their use in as many subjects as possible.

This allowed the Grammar School to become a place for:
• development of programmes owing to which teachers use IT and Internet in delivering the classes;
• creation of educational materials concerning the improvement of teaching methodology and contents.

The Association of Slovak Pegagogues was founded by the Grammar School teachers in March 2001 with the aim of ensuring continuous committment to Slovak education in Vojvodina and contributing to improving its quality. The main goals of the Association are:
• to create (in part of fully) the teching bases for subjects that have a direct impact on the lignuistic, national and cultural identity of Slovaks in Vojvodina (Slovak language, history, music, visual arts etc.) at all school levels;
• to harmonise their contents to allow mutual complementing of some subjects and prevent any duplication of the intertwining contents;
• to prepare specific presentations of the pedagogical and methodology-related analysis of learning contents for all subjects;
• to use modern methods and teaching aids. Implementation of these goals requires a constant commitment.

Director: Danijela Marko

Date of coming into force: 12.20.2023