Who introduced compulsory school attendance?

General compulsory school attendance was introduced by Maria Theresa on 6 December 1774. Attendance allowed parents with adequate financial means to support their own home tutor, while all other children had to complete at least six years of schooling from the age of six. The Protestant Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken (in what is now Germany) was the first in the world to introduce compulsory school attendance in 1592. In the Czech Republic, then part of the Habsburg Monarchy, the foundations of school attendance were laid during the reign of Maria Theresa in 1774. Compulsory school attendance was then put into practice by the Imperial School Act of 1869. Currently, compulsory school attendance in the Czech Republic is regulated by Act No. 561/2004 Coll., on preschool, primary, secondary, higher vocational and other education (School Act), which defines the rights and obligations of natural and legal persons in education. According to this law, school attendance is compulsory for nine school years, but not until the end of the school year in which the pupil reaches the age of seventeen.