Editing Maria Theresa (section)

===Education===
Throughout her reign, Maria Theresa made the promotion of education a priority. Initially this was focused on the wealthier classes. She permitted non-Catholics to attend university and allowed the introduction of secular subjects (such as law), which influenced the decline of [[theology]] as the main foundation of university education.{{sfn|Byrne|1997|p=38}} Furthermore, educational institutions were created to prepare officials for work in the state bureaucracy: the [[Theresianum]] was established in Vienna in 1746 to educate nobles' sons, a military school named the [[Theresian Military Academy]] was founded in [[Wiener Neustadt]] in 1751, and an [[K.k. Akademie für Orientalische Sprachen|Oriental Academy]] for future diplomats was created in 1754.{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=91}}

In the 1770s, reform of the schooling system for all levels of society became a major policy. Stollberg-Rilinger notes that the reform of the primary schools in particular was the most long-lasting success of Maria Theresa's later reign, and one of the few policy agendas in which she was not in open conflict with her son and nominal co-ruler Joseph II.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=714}} The need for the reform became evident after the census of 1770–1771, which revealed the widespread illiteracy of the populace. Maria Theresa thereupon wrote to her rival Frederick II of Prussia to request him to allow the Silesian school reformer [[Johann Ignaz von Felbiger]] to move to Austria. Felbiger's first proposals were made law by December 1774.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=708f}} Austrian historian Karl Vocelka observed that the educational reforms enacted by Maria Theresa were "really founded on [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] ideas," although the ulterior motive was still to "meet the needs of an absolutist state, as an increasingly sophisticated and complicated society and economy required new administrators, officers, diplomats and specialists in virtually every area."{{sfn|Vocelka|2000|p=200}}

Maria Theresa's reform established secular primary schools, which children of both sexes from the ages of six to twelve were required to attend.{{sfn|Crankshaw|1970|p=308}}{{sfn|Vocelka|2000|p=200}} The curriculum focused on social responsibility, social discipline, work ethic and the use of reason rather than mere [[rote learning]].{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=92}} Education was to be multilingual; children were to be instructed first in their mother tongue and then in later years in German.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=710}} Prizes were given to the most able students to encourage ability. Attention was also given to raising the status and pay of teachers, who were forbidden to take on outside employment. Teacher training colleges were established to train teachers in the latest techniques.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=709}}

The education reform was met with considerable opposition. Predictably, some of this came from peasants who wanted the children to work in the fields instead.{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=92}} Maria Theresa crushed the dissent by ordering the arrest of all those opposed.{{sfn|Crankshaw|1970|p=308}} However, much of the opposition came from the imperial court, particularly amongst aristocrats who saw their power threatened by the reformers or those who feared that that greater literacy would expose the population to Protestant or Enlightenment ideas. Felbiger's reforms were nevertheless pushed through, as a result of the consistent support of Maria Theresa and her minister Franz Sales Greiner.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=712–714.}} The reform of the primary schools largely met Maria Theresa's aim of raising literacy standards, as evidenced by the higher proportions of children who attended school; this was particularly the case in the Archdiocese of Vienna, where school attendance increased from 40% in 1780 to a sensational 94% by 1807.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=714}} Nevertheless, high rates of illiteracy persisted in some parts of Austria, half of the population was illiterate well into the 19th century,{{sfn|Vocelka|2000|p=200}} The teacher training colleges (in particular the Vienna Normal School) produced hundreds of new teachers who spread the new system over the following decades. However, the number of secondary schools decreased, since the quantity of new schools founded failed to make up for the numbers of Jesuit schools abolished. As a result, secondary schooling became more exclusive.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=713f}}