Italian Schools: A Model of Foreign Education in Libya 1876-1922

Abstract

The Italian schools established in Libya from 1876 onwards constituted the first nucleus of modern formal education of a foreign character in the country. These schools were established more than 35 years before the official Italian occupation of Libya and initially served the children of the Italian community and merchants residing in Tripoli and Benghazi. Their significance lies in the fact that they laid the structural and administrative foundations for the educational policies adopted by Italy after 1911, when they were transformed from community-based schools serving the Italian community into official institutions administered by the Italian state. These schools also represented the first direct and organized contact between the European educational system and Libyan society, making their study an important entry point for understanding the development of colonial education in Libya. Accordingly, this study addresses the following questions: How did foreign education begin in Libya, and what were its underlying motivations? How did these schools develop administratively and educationally between 1876 and 1911? Why did European and Jewish communities attend these schools, while the majority of Arab Libyans showed little interest in them?. The study aims to trace the origins of these schools in Libya and examine their administrative and educational development prior to the Italian occupation. It also seeks to demonstrate how Italy used these schools as instruments of cultural and political penetration in Libya. Accordingly, the study focuses on Italian schools in Libya from their establishment onwards. The study concludes that Italian schools in Libya passed through two main stages: establishment and direct supervision. The findings indicate that the Ottoman state's neglect of education facilitated the spread of these schools and that Italy used them as an instrument for laying the cultural groundwork for the occupation. The schools also served the Italian immigrant population through the establishment of Italian-oriented educational institutions in areas where Italian communities were concentrated.