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In the same period, the first professional school was founded in Stara
Gradiška where pupils were taught wood-carving. There are no records related to this school (51) but its foundation was the result of the King's decree for theology and education issued on 21 September 1885. The first teacher of this school was Stevo Obradović, a teacher from the elementary school in Komić. At the end of the nineteenth century, Martin Vrbanić was the mayor of Stara Gradiška, which was part of the Požžega district. Ivan Štajcer was the municipal clerk and treasurer and Mišo Vinčić was the judge.
Ivan Crnko was the head-master of the new school while Nikola Maričić, Sof Tatomirović, Kata Nemin and Terezija Šimunović worked as teachers. During the same period, the Catholic parish of Stara Gradiška came under
the control of the archdeaconry of Since, in accordance with the church policy and the parish priest was Stjepan Bešlić assisted by Stjepan Vincijanović. Dositije Kutuzov was the Orthodox church parish priest. The Orthodox community of Stara Gradiška was part of the presbytery of Nova Gradiška and the diocese of Pakrac.
Before the First World War in 1914, the elementary school in Uskoci was attended by 219 pupils and the school employed four teachers. Due to the war and ensuing economic difficulties, the population of the surrounding villages was considerably reduced. In 1921 the newly established Kingdom of Yugoslavia turned the former fortification into a prison which caused more people to emigrate. At that time, the ethnic structure of the Croatian villages surrounding Stara Gradiška started to change. Amongst other reasons, this process was hastened by the fact that the prison employees were mostly Serbs, brought from other parts of the new state, who were not in the least inclined to the surrounding Croatian villages. Due to these new political circumstances, the Austrian population also soon started to emigrate, particularly the retired officers and their families.
Before the Second World War, the school's headmaster was the teacher , Josip Durum, and the school was attended by 185 pupils. The largest number of pupils (83) came from the village Gornji Varoš, from Uskoci - 27, Donji Varoš - 53, Pivara - 7 and from the prison where the families of the employees lived - 15 pupils. In a report (52) by the headmaster, Durum, there are interesting records of pupils' speech and accents. He noted that in everyday speech, Croatian pupils used the old ikavian dialect, while the pupils coming from Serbian families, used the jekavian dialect.
In their free time, pupils cultivated the school garden and orchard. The yield, however, did not depend on their efforts, but mostly on the periodical flooding of the River Sava.
The following women teachers worked in the school together with Durum: Zdenka Kodžić, Dobrila Skulin and Milena Ljubičić and catechism was taught by the parish priest Ivan Ferdo Maretić and the Orthodox parish priest, Ilija Jovanović. The report points out that pupils were very successful despite their poverty and that the low illiteracy rate was thanks to their great diligence.
After the Second World War, in 1946, this school was attended by 152 pupils and when it took on the eight-grade programme (1957), the number gradually increased to 296 pupils. The stagnation of the development of the school system was thus slowed down but not entirely stopped. Older pupils from the surrounding villages had to travel to neighbouring Bosanska Gradiška or Okučani and this was an additional reason for emigration. Due to the unfavourable political and economic situation, the number of pupils was reduced so that at the beginning of 1990 the school in Uskoci was attended by considerably fewer pupils.
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