LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Mokykla; Tarpukaris; Viekšniai; Viekšnių mokykla; Viekšnių mokyklos direktoriai; Viekšnių mokyklos mokiniai; Viekšnių mokyklos mokytojai; Viekšnių progimnazija; Viekšnių vidurinė mokykla; Švietimo sistema; Education system; Interwar period; Principals of Viekšniai school; School; Students of Viekšniai school; Teachers of Viekšniai school; Viekšniai; Viekšniai progymnasium; Viekšniai school; Viekšniai secondary school.
ENAlready before World War I a four-year tsarist school operated in Viekšniai. When Germany occupied the country, the school was closed. On 9 November 1918 a secondary school was established on the initiative and with the funds of the town's community. On 23 September 1919 it was placed under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and called the Viekšniai state secondary school. Due to the intrusion of Bolsheviks and Bermontians into Viekšniai, the work of both schools was temporarily stopped. At the beginning the school rented its premises from a private person, and in 1925 the town was one of the first in the country to erect a building specially adapted for a secondary school. The natives of Viekšniai living in Chicago contributed the funds for its construction. In 1922-27 modelling was taught as a special subject at this school. There were plans to establish a ceramics school in Viekšniai, thus a large plot of land was allotted to the secondary school. Although the remaining inventory, textbooks and books were taken over from the tsarist school, at the beginning they were in short supply. From the early 1920s the school was already well provided with teaching aids, and from 1936 it had an excellent library. In 1936 the school was converted into a progymnasium, and in 1940, when Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, it was again restructured into a secondary school. Under German occupation, the school's previous status was restored. For one year the Viekšniai school was allowed to have a graduating class as a branch of the Mažeikiai gymnasium. The occupiers reformed the school according to their needs and changed the contents of teaching. From 1918 to 1944 eighteen batches of graduates left the Viekšniai school. Quite many remarkable figures, who influenced the development of Lithuanian science and culture, attended this school. [From the publication]