Because of the reasons above, Macedonian Slavs appropriated Greek education and especially religious culture as their own tradition since they had not such education system in their own language. Macedonian Slavs were trained as admirers of Greek culture and worked for improving and rising Greek civilization. Greek government granted them prizes. But some Macedonian Slavs who could not speak Greek, started to pray in their own language. This was a reaction against Greek education, culture and assimilation policy. Thus, a Bulgarian origin Macedonian movement started: Born Again Yordan Hacı Konstantinov-Cinot, Dimitar and Konstantin Miladinov, Grigor Pırliçev, Kuzman Şapkarev and Georgi Pulevski were among those intellectuals of Bulgarian origin, who worked for an education system in Bulgarian. They opened Bulgarian schools in the whole country. Churches played an important role for establishing these schools. New churches and schools were opened all over Macedonia. Sultan did issue their permit without any difficulty. Native Bulgarians made the restoration and maintenance work of these buildings. These institutions stood in time against the religious and political suppression by neighbor countries. Ottoman Empire was tolerant against Macedon Bulgarians and Born Again movement. Government gave necessary support for establishing religious, cultural and educational institutions in order to develop this movement.
After the first half of 19th century, Ottoman Empire imitated European military, economical and political reforms in order to stop the collapse. This application started officially with Gulhane Declaration on 3 November 1839. XIX. The most important reform was the guaranty given for properties and rights of all Ottoman elements irrespective of their religion and nationality. Being in force in February 1856, Reform Declaration had also similar articles. Principal reforms were guaranty for the life, property and rights of its citizens, respecting the privileges granted to non-Muslims beforehand, tax exemption for churches, freedom for religious ceremonies, employing all citizens in governmental and military charges irrespective of their nationality and religion etc. Government imitated also European Education system in 1869. These laws and regulations were prepared in order to modernize and strenghten Ottoman State. So they created opportunities for cultural, educational and economical progress for both Turks and non-Turk elements in the Empire.
Benefiting from the opportunities of Reforms, Bulgarians in Macedonia opened modern schools in the region instead of these school-like Cell Classrooms. New libraries and churches were built. Newspapers in Bulgarian were published. Macedonian Christians were organized their education as they wished and made their own curriculum in accordance with their own religion, sect and national ideals.
With the tolerance and permission of Ottoman Empire, they built church and municipality schools all over the country between 1836 and 1876. For example, they opened a school in Koprulu in 1837, in Istip in 1840, in Uskup in 1848, Komanova in 1852, in Kalkandelen in 1854, in Selanik in 1866, in Prespa in 1873 and so on.
To be continued