SARAJEVO, July 6 (Hina) - Groups of experts, who in the last 12 months were revising the contents of textbooks used in Bosnia-Herzegovina, have completed their work by eliminating all textbook contents considered potentially insulting
for any of the peoples living in the country.
SARAJEVO, July 6 (Hina) - Groups of experts, who in the last 12
months were revising the contents of textbooks used in Bosnia-
Herzegovina, have completed their work by eliminating all textbook
contents considered potentially insulting for any of the peoples
living in the country. #L#
Twenty-four primary and secondary school teachers from all around
the country had been entrusted to revise textbooks from the so-
called national group of subjects and identify potentially
controversial contents and messages.
Along with insulting and potentially nationalist texts, the
revisers also eliminated all illustrations and maps which depict
the situation in the country in the way that may irritate any of the
national groups in the country.
The head of the education department of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia,
Pat Pingel, said in Sarajevo last Wednesday that domestic experts
had successfully carried out all the work, while international
representatives had only supervised them.
As of the next school year, all students will use revised
textbooks.
Pingel said that the problem of inappropriate contents had been
most frequently encountered in history books. The history
textbooks of all three ethnic groups promoted exclusively the
history of only one people, ignoring the other two, the only common
thing being the promotion of the concept of nationalism and
national state as existed in the 19th century, he said.
The head of the Republika Srpska Institute for Education and
Pedagogy, Milos Milincic, said history classes were such a problem
that the teachers decided that events from history should be only
stated, without being interpreted. This particularly referred to
events from the more recent history starting with 1974, when
extensive constitutional changes had been implemented in the
former Yugoslavia.
Along with history books, also revised were language, literature,
geography, nature and society, and religion textbooks.
A deputy director of the Institute for Education and Pedagogy of the
Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ismet Krnic, said the revision
of textbooks alone would not be enough because a teacher burdened by
nationalism could malevolently interpret even the best of
textbooks.
Marijan Kvesic of the Institute for the School System in Mostar
believes this is only the first step as the entire education system
in the country is in need of thorough reorganisation to eliminate
the existence of three separate curricula.
(hina) rml