One of the ways of oppressing the Greek Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Poland was organizing separate elementary schools for Uniates. On March 15, 1849, the Russian occupation authorities introduced a separate system of primary education for Greek Catholic children. A little earlier, in 1840, a school for psalmists and helpers of the Greek Church as well as teachers was opened here. Education was conducted in Russian, according to programs prepared in St. Petersburg. Graduates of the Uniate school were employed in the service of the Uniate Church and in parish schools. In the years 1849-1964, a total of sixty parish schools were organized in the Kingdom of Poland. Of this number, as many as thirty-five replaced primary schools that were being closed. Attendance in uniate schools was very low, the average number of students per school was six. More than 20% of these schools either had longer breaks (1-3 years) or did not undertake teaching work at all. These schools were maintained entirely by the Uniate population and were very popular among both Greek Catholics and followers of the Latin Church. One of the causes of numerous conflicts between the local population and teachers of Uniate schools was the fact that all subjects were taught in Russian, and the language used on a daily basis by the Uniate population was Polish. The Uniate community was fully aware that separating Uniate schools from primary schools was a political move. Its ultimate goal, as intended by the occupation authorities, was to weaken the ties between the Uniates and Poles, which would lead to a situation in which the Uniates would be considered Ukrainians and Orthodox Christians by the political authorities. Such a situation actually took place in 1875. Polish education suffered significant losses due to the establishment of separate elementary schools for the Uniates. The people of Podlasie and the Lublin region wanted to reactivate the existing elementary schools and re-introduce a common elementary education system.
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