$ SIGNED ZAGREB, 7 Aug (Hina) - The Croatian Education and Sports Minister Ljilja Vokic, the head of the UNTAES Civil Affairs sector, Gerard Fischer and the president of the Committee for Education of the Joint Council of
Municipalities of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, Milos Vojnovic, signed an agreement on the reintegration of the education system in the Croatian Danube river region into Croatia's education system. The agreement was signed in Zagreb on Thursday.
REGION
$ SIGNED
ZAGREB, 7 Aug (Hina) - The Croatian Education and Sports Minister
Ljilja Vokic, the head of the UNTAES Civil Affairs sector, Gerard
Fischer and the president of the Committee for Education of the
Joint Council of Municipalities of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and
Western Sirmium, Milos Vojnovic, signed an agreement on the
reintegration of the education system in the Croatian Danube
river region into Croatia's education system. The agreement was
signed in Zagreb on Thursday. #L#
According to the agreement, the Croatian Government, that
is, the Education and Sports Ministry will take over complete
administrative control of the education system in the area which
is now under the U.N. Transitional Administration.
Education and Sports Minister Vokic expressed satisfaction
with the agreement, and the local Serb representative Vojnovic
said that the agreement was in Croatia's interest but also in the
interest of the Serb people in eastern Slavonia, Baranja and
western Sirmium.
The agreement will be a sign to the people that they are
welcome to the region, said UNTAES representative Fischer, adding
that it was important to apply the agreement in the right way.
The agreement on the reintegration of the education system
was signed after the adoption of several agreements and
declarations and after yesterday's adoption of a decision on a
temporary curriculum for the members of the Serb national
minority in Croatia for the school year 1997/1998.
Since all schools in the Danube river region will apply the
regulations of the Croatian education system in the school year
1997/1998, the above mentioned temporary program will be
integrated into the Croatian education system and Croatian
curricula.
According to the decision which was signed yesterday,
pupils in the first grade of primary schools will learn both the
Croatian and Serbian languages as well as both scripts. 10 % of
all lessons will deal with the Serb national history and another
10% of lessons will be dedicated to other teaching units.
According to the Government Declaration on the Recognition
of Education Rights of Minorities in Eastern Slavonija, Baranja
and Western Sirmium, schools in the Danube river region will have
neutral names for a period not shorter than three years.
A moratorium on history classes referring to the former
Yugoslavia and its constituent republics in the period between
1990 and 1997 will remain in force for five years.
By 18 August, pupils of Serb nationality in the Danube
river region will have to change their old diplomas for new ones,
which are printed both in Cyrillic and Latin scripts and upon
which the allocation of free primary school textbooks and
enrolment in the next school year will be made conditional, Vokic
said.
(hina) rm jn
071930 MET aug 97