Overview of the development of GIS in the education process in the Republic of North Macedonia

The paper presents an overview of the development of Geographic Information Systems in the educational system in the Republic of North Macedonia. It presents the period of development of geography and geographic education during the last century, while providing a more general review of the beginnings and the continuing course of development of GIS at the Institute of Geography at the Faculty of Natural Mathematics in Skopje, and across the public institutions in the Republic of North Macedonia overall. The goal is to understand the cultural overview of the events related to the development of GIS, the exchange of experiences and benefits from the organization of the educational processes of the undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Institute of Geography at the Faculty of Natural Mathematics in Skopje and the contribution and guidance by the GIS-trained (graduate and Master degree) personnel in the development of GIS techniques and technologies in the application and design activities in the Republic of North Macedonia. The scientific contribution is multi-purpose in terms of advancing GIS techniques and technologies in various geographical and other disciplines, by recognizing the potentials that GIS has with regard to the work with massive databases and by obtaining more relevant analyses, automated process of creating various graphic and thematic cartographic database displays by using a content-based retrieval system.