Education system of the Commission of National Education’s Navahrudak Department

The article on the education system in the Navahrudak Department presents various aspects of the work of the Commission of National Education’s institutions and people included in the book of our authorship. This publication is meant to be of an analytical, synthetic nature. On the one hand, it is based on the analysis of source materials; on the other, it refers to studies depicting the Commission’s achievements in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the work of the schools under its authority in this area, including the Navahrudak Department. The Navahrudak Department was formally established by the Commission of National Education in 1783 in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to cover the area of the provinces of Navahrudak, Minsk and part of Polotsk, which had lost part of its lands, captured by Russia, following the First Partition of Poland. The department was to be home to an academic department school in Navahrudak, subdepartment schools in Babruysk, Khalopyenichy, Minsk, Mazyr, Nyasvizh, Slutsk and Juravičy as well as monastic schools in Luzki (Piarist Order), Ushachy (Dominican Order), Berezvech (Basilian Order) and Dzisna (Franciscan Order), all of which received the status of subdepartment schools. The department was also home to parochial schools over which the Commission sought to assume authority that played a certain part in the spreading of education among peasants as well as making education available to landless nobles, who were numerous in Lithuania.