Osnovnoškolsko obrazovanje nacionalnih manjina u Bjelovarsko-bilogorskoj županiji

downfall of the former state, the Serbian national minority has suffered rapid decrease by approximately three times. As concerns other national minorities in the County, the Hungarians and the Albanians remain relatively better repre-sented, though much less than the Serbs and the Czechs. In this County, pupils in primary education belonging to national minorities are the Czechs, the Albanians, the Hungarians and the Serbs. Out of the studied national minorities in the County, the Czechs are the best organized one thanks to several factors – e.g. their numerousness, traditional organization skills, and successful inte-gration into the Croatian society. Every national minority included in the study has, according to their individual reasons, difficulties in the preservation and transfer of national identity; this becomes particularly evident in the younger population. Hence education in general, and the primary one in particular, pre-sents one of the most important factors in preserving specific national features, as well as it is a dam to assimilation.