Pavol Horov Gymnasium
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Pavol Horov Grammar School () is an
upper secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
located in the town of
Michalovce Michalovce (; , , Romani language, Romani: ''Mihalya'', Yiddish language, Yiddish: מיכאלאָווצע ''Mikhaylovets'' or ''Mykhaylovyts''; ) is a town on the Laborec river in eastern Slovakia. Originally named after the Archangel St Michael ...
in
Košice Region The Košice Region (, ; ; ) is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions. The region was first established in 1923 and its present borders were established in 1996. It consists of 11 districts ( okresy) and 440 municipalities, 17 of which ...
,
Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
. Established in 1922, it is the oldest Slovak Gymnasium east of the Mátra-Slanec Area and is one of two main providers of secondary school education in Michalovce, along with ''Gymnázium na ulici Ľudovíta Štúra''.


History


Background

Before the
Czechoslovak Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) ** Fourth Czechoslovak Repu ...
declaration of independence on 28 October 1918, the area of surrounding the town of Michalovce was a part of the former Hungarian County of Košice (). At that time, there was only three secondary schools in the entire county, all of which was purely Hungarian, located in the then cultural centers of
Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...
,
Prešov Prešov () is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is the seat of administrative Prešov Region () and Šariš. With a population of approximately 85,000 for the city, and in total more than 100,000 with the urban area, it is the second-largest city i ...
and
Uzhhorod Uzhhorod (, ; , ; , ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality on the Uzh, Uzh River in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistan ...
. After becoming independent, patriotic sentiment ran high and Slovaks sensed immediately the need to establish a Slovak high school in the area, in order to provide higher education in Slovak for the populace in eastern Slovakia. At first the choice stood between three sites in the Zemplín region, which were the cities of
Humenné Humenné (; ; ) is a town in the Prešov Region ("kraj") in eastern Slovakia and the second largest town of the historic Zemplín region. It lies at the volcanic Vihorlat mountains and at the confluence of the Laborec and Cirocha Rivers. Na ...
,
Trebišov Trebišov (; ; ) is a small industrial town in the easternmost part of Slovakia, with a population of around 25,000. The town is an administrative, economic and cultural center with machine (Vagónka) and building materials industries. History Th ...
and Michalovce. Due to its ability to provide sufficient funds and staffing, Michalovce soon became the obvious choice for the construction of the new school.


Inter-war period

The new school was finished in 1922 and in the period 1922 - 1938 the school bore the name "Czechoslovak state gymnasium." At the stage, the education was conducted in a way that emphasized the idea of the single Czechoslovak nation, and the language taught was the ''českoslovenčina'', or Czechoslovak language. The school's administrators constantly struggled with finding teachers with sufficient qualifications, teaching post was often filled with engineers, and often the school was dependent on the assistance of local school teachers. In 1931, the school marked its first graduating class, of the 22 students, 18 managed to graduate. Seven years later the school was markedly affected by the
First Vienna Award The First Vienna Award was a treaty signed on 2 November 1938 pursuant to the Vienna Arbitration, which took place at Vienna's Belvedere Palace. The arbitration and award were direct consequences of the previous month's Munich Agreement, whic ...
, which saw the departure of all Czech professors along with their families from Michalovce. These were highly skilled academics which undoubtedly contributed to the high reputation of the school.


World War II

Following the
Munich treaty The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the German annexation of part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudeten ...
in November 1938, the name of the school was changed to "Slovak real high school" (). In connection with the events of Munich, the beginning of the 1938-39 school year the school was occupied by the army (mobilization). Teaching was suspended from 24 September 1938 to 10 October 1938. After the First Vienna Award the new students came from schools from the Hungarian territories, (mainly Uzhhorod). After Slovak students started moving to nearby
Sobrance Sobrance (, , ) is a town in Košice Region, Slovakia, around from Uzhhorod, Ukraine, and east of Michalovce. Located in the Eastern Slovak Lowland not far from the Vihorlat Mountains, it is the easternmost town in Slovakia. Etymology The name ...
and the number of classes was reduced from 19 to 16 by April 1939, teaching in at the school year was interrupted again. When Hungarian troops invaded Slovakia on March 23, 1939 and the subsequent
Slovak–Hungarian War The Slovak–Hungarian War, or Little War (, ), was a war fought from 23 March to 31 March 1939 between the First Slovak Republic and Hungary in eastern Slovakia. Prelude After the Munich Pact, which weakened Czech lands to the west, Hungari ...
, Slovak troops occupied the school and returned Slovak to the curriculum. This education highlighted growing Slovak national consciousness and
nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...
. At this time the Head teacher was also the government commissioner of Michalovce and later the leader of the Hlinka Youth (Slovak paramilitary scout movement, modeled after the
Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...
). In school year 1939/40 that organization counted 118 of the schools students. Two years later the count was 590 boys and girls. In 1944 it was 694 students out of a total 875. Influenced in part by the ideas of Slovak nationalist
Andrej Hlinka Andrej Hlinka (born 27 September 1864 – 16 August 1938) was a Slovak Roman Catholic priest, journalist, banker, politician, and one of the most important Slovak public activists in Czechoslovakia before World War II. He was the leader of the ...
, Catholicism became an important part of the school year, the year began with worship of
Veni Sancte Spiritus ''Veni Sancte Spiritus'' (“Come, Holy Spirit”), sometimes called the “Golden Sequence” (Latin: ''Sequentia Aurea'') is a sequence sung in honour of God the Holy Spirit, prescribed in the Roman Rite for the Masses of Pentecost Sunday. ...
, a school celebration, ending a solemn
Te Deum The ( or , ; from its incipit, ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to a date before AD 500, but perhaps with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin ...
. During the closing phase of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the school became a military hospital for the
Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
, and after November 1944, for the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
.


Education

The school education programme consists of 8 semesters (4 years), divided into two parts of two years each. Each part includes subjects such as general education, foreign languages (usually Russian, French, German and English), physical education, informatics and science/technology.


Notable alumni

*
Marián Čalfa Marián Čalfa (born 7 May 1946, in Trebišov) is a Slovak former politician, who served as prime minister of Czechoslovakia during and after the Velvet Revolution in 1989, as well as de facto acting President for 19 days. He was a key figure in ...
, Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia and acting President *
Jozef Tomko Jozef Tomko (11 March 1924 – 8 August 2022) was a Slovak prelate of the Catholic Church who held positions in the Roman Curia from 1962 until he retired in 2007. He was prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples from 1985 t ...
, Roman Catholic Cardinal *
Andrej Daňko Andrej is the form of the given name Andrew used in Slovak, Croatian and Slovene. Notable individuals with the given name Andrej *Andrej Babiš (born 1954), Czech politician *Andrej Bajuk (1943–2011), Slovene politician and economist *Andrej ...
, footballer *
Misha Misha (), also known as Mishka () or The Olympic Mishka (), is the name of the Russian Bear mascot of the 1980 Summer Olympics, 1980 Moscow Olympic Games (the XXII Summer Olympics). He was designed by children's books illustrator Victor Chizhik ...
, singer *
Kristián Kudroč Kristián Kudroč (born May 21, 1981) is a Slovak former professional ice hockey defenceman. Playing career Kudroč was drafted by the New York Islanders as their first-round pick, 28th overall, in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. He is a large, phys ...
, ice hockey player


References


External links

*{{official, http://www.gphmi.sk/ Education in Slovakia Michalovce District