The article presents the results of research focused on the issue of the Czech elementary minority schools in northern Bohemia (particularly in Ústí nad Labem) in the First Czechoslovak Republic from 1918 to 1938. At the time, northen Bohemia was linguisticaly mixed region with daily social interaction between the minority Czech population and the majority German population. One of the areas of everyday communication was the field of education. In this region were founded the so-called minority schools for Czech schoolchildren. The foundation, management and administration of the minority schools were regulated by specific statutory provisions. Into the foundation and operation of minority schools interfered various events that originated  in the mutual coexistence of both Czech and German populations as well as in the changing political and economic situation in the border area. It could be presumed that in the life of the Czech minority education intervened the events related to the creation of Czechoslovakia or the economic crisis at the turn of the Twenties  and Thirties which caused an increase of unemployment and the emigration of the Czech population from this region. Finally, one presumes a negative effect of political party Sudetendeutsche Partei of Konrad Henlein  which had gained a strong influence in northern Bohemia especially after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 and after municipal elections in northern Bohemia in the middle of the Thirties.

Due to the extent of the issue, this research focuses only on the Czech elementary minority schools (according to the current classification - ISCED 1) and does not cover the minority citizen (known as bourgeois) schools (ISCED 2) or minority high schools (ISCED 3, 4). The main question of this research is how these schools were founded and how they operated. To explore the topic further, other pedagogical questions are necessary. What was the role and duties of a Czech minority teacher in these schools and what were the implications for him? What was his position in the Czech minority? What was the real course and conditions of the teaching in minority schools, including the choice of subjects? And last but not least, what was the position of the pupil in this school?

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