“The Republic Pedagogical Institute is an institution that has the right, given by law, to propose a curriculum that is then confirmed or not by the Ministry of Education and Culture, said the director of the institute, Sladjana Tanasic, reacting to the condemnations of international officials and domestic politicians for changing the curriculum for the subject of history for the ninth grade of elementary schools in the territory of this entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), according to which students will learn about Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, but not as war criminals but as commanders and war heroes.
In an interview, Tanasic said that there are no new textbooks, but that the news is that the curriculum for eighth and ninth grade history has been changed.
“The topics are identical to the old curriculum. The eleventh topic is Republika Srpska (RS) and the war of homeland defense, and it has attracted a lot of attention in the Federation of BiH (FBiH)“, the director of the institute emphasized, assessing that “our history is as it is and we have an obligation to mention the people who were part of that history”.
“It is quite normal to introduce the student to the history and events that marked one of our stages. The goal is that students should not hate anyone, to know their history, to know who they are and where they are from and what their origin is, but at the same time to accept others who are different from them, who do not share their views on the past,” Tanasic said.
To recall, yesterday, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA)assessed it as an “anti-civilizational act” of the entity authorities that children in the RS are taught that war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are heroes.
“It is a continuation of the aggressive policy of Greater Serbia, which now also wants to be passed on to children through school. The consequences of such actions do not need to be explained to any reasonable person. The Office of the High Representative is obliged to react and, with its decision, invalidate the acts of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the RS”, the SDA said.
Also, the American embassy pointed out that such a plan would not only prolong the suffering of the victims, but also threaten the stability of BiH. The OSCE stated that the plan conceals the complex roots of violence and creates obstacles in calling responsibility for wartime violence, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
