Underground education, or clandestine education, refers to various practices of teaching carried out at times and places where such educational activities were deemed illegal. Examples of places where widespread clandestine education practices took place included education of Blacks during the slave period in the USA and the

Secret Teaching Organization Secret Teaching Organization ( pl, Tajna Organizacja Nauczycielska, ''TON'' also translated as the ''Secret Teaching Society'' or ''Clandestine Teaching Organization'') was an underground Polish educational organization created in 1939 after the G ...

in Poland under the Nazis. There is a Greek - mostly oral - tradition claiming that secret schools ('' Krifo scholio'') operated during the Ottoman period. There is scant written evidence for this and many historians view it as a

national myth A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as important national symbols and affirm a set of national values. A national myth may sometimes take the form of a national epic or be incorporate ...

. Others believe that the Greek secret school is a

legend A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...

with a core of truth. According to certain sources, secret schools for Albanians operated in late 19th century by Albanian-speaking communities and

Bektashi The Bektashi Order; sq, Tarikati Bektashi; tr, Bektaşi or Bektashism is an Islamic Sufi mystic movement originating in the 13th-century. It is named after the Anatolian saint Haji Bektash Wali (d. 1271). The community is currently led by ...

priests or nationalists under Ottoman rule. Vargo mokykla (2018)

By the break of the 19th and 20th centuries, in

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

, a (''Slaptoji mokykla'') operated almost in every village, because of the

Lithuanian press ban The Lithuanian press ban ( lt, spaudos draudimas) was a ban on all Lithuanian language publications printed in the Latin alphabet in force from 1865 to 1904 within the Russian Empire, which controlled Lithuania proper at the time. Lithuanian-lan ...

(1865 to 1904) in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. In

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

during the 18th and 19th century, "

Hedge school Hedge schools (Irish names include '' scoil chois claí'', ''scoil ghairid'' and ''scoil scairte'') were small informal secret and illegal schools, particularly in 18th- and 19th-century Ireland, designed to secretly provide the rudiments of ...

s" were illegal schools operated by Catholics and Presbyterians; at the time, only

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

education was permitted. Secret schooling was organized in Jewish Ghettos during the Nazi regime and the German occupation in Europe. During the Taliban rule in various parts of Afghanistan (late 20th, early 21st c.), secret schools operated, mostly for women and girls. In the 1930s and 1940s, the authoritarian nationalistic regime of Brazil took anti-immigrant measures, especially against the Japanese. Japanese and other foreign schools, languages and printed material were restricted, and a compulsory assimilation program was instituted. Japanese schools became illegal in 1938. During that period, Japanese immigrants established secret schools and a newspaper in Japanese was printed.Daniela de Carvalho, Migrants and Identity in Japan and Brazil: The Nikkeijin. Routledge, 2003. Chapter "From 1930 to 1954". Page number not available.
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References

{{reflist Education activism Underground education

See also

References