Underground education or clandestine education refers to various practices of teaching carried out at times and places where such educational activities were deemed illegal.
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. Others believe that the Greek secret school is a
legend with a core of truth. According to certain sources, secret schools for Albanians operated in late 19th century by Albanian-speaking communities and
Bektashi priests[1][2] or nationalists[3] under Ottoman rule.
During the era of
slavery in the United States, the education of enslaved African Americans was discouraged and eventually made illegal in most of the
Southern states. In protest, a number of American activists engaged in illegal underground education of slaves.[4][5]
In the 19th century during the
partitions of Poland, various forms of the underground education, promoting teaching in Polish language and about the Polish culture, often repressed by the partitioning powers, sprung up on Polish territories. Most famous of these was the
Flying University that operated in Warsaw.[6][7][8][9][10] Similarly by the break of the 19th and 20th centuries in
Lithuania, a
clandestine school [
lt] (slaptoji mokykla) operated in almost every village, because of the
Lithuanian press ban (1865 to 1904) in the
Russian Empire.[11]
In
Ireland during the 18th and 19th century, "
Hedge schools" were illegal schools operated by Catholics and Presbyterians; at the time, only
Church of Ireland education was permitted.[12]
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.[27]
Underground education took place in a number of
Soviet Bloc countries, such as Poland[28][29][30] and Czechoslovakia.[31][32]
During the Taliban rule in various parts of Afghanistan (late 20th, early 21st c.), secret schools operated, mostly for women and girls (ex.
Golden Needle Sewing School).[33][34]
^Clayer, Natalie (1995). "Bektachisme et nationalisme albanais". In Popovic, Alexandre; Veinstein, Gilles (eds.). Bektachiyya: Études sur l'ordre mystique des Bektachis et les groupes relevant de Hadji Bektach. Istanbul: Isis. p. 281.