Alongside Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, convicted war criminals portrayed as significant figures in the creation of Republika Srpska (RS), elementary school students from that entity may learn about battles and sites of the suffering of the Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) during the 1990s from new history textbooks.
The authorities in RS, led by the SNSD of Milorad Dodik, are preparing new history textbooks, initiated not by experts but by the veterans’ organization of that entity.
They are requesting the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Pedagogical Institute of RS to “enrich” them with lessons on significant battles for the Army of RS (VRS) and places of suffering of the Serbian people.
Strengthening national identity
When asked why veterans’ organizations are involved in creating textbooks, a task that should be done by experts, the Pedagogical Institute of RS claims that they do not have the authority for it. However, they state that respecting their justified demands, institutions will work on defining the content.
“The goal is to strengthen patriotism and national identity, and to provide students with objective, historically-based facts about events from the 1990s to the present day,” stated the Pedagogical Institute of RS.
Textbooks that do not contribute to reconciliation
All ministries of education in BiH adopted Guidelines provided by the Council of Europe in 2006 for writing and evaluating history textbooks for primary and secondary schools.
Among other things, these guidelines prescribe that textbooks should be objective, scientifically grounded, and aimed at creating understanding and reconciliation in BiH.
However, the practice has been completely different for years.
Textbooks present a selective presentation of facts, emphasizing the victimhood of one’s own people and minimizing or completely ignoring the victims of other people while avoiding mentioning the guilt of individuals from one’s own people.
The OSCE Mission to BiH, which was one of the actors in the education reform, appealed to the authorities to refrain from politicizing education and to open a dialogue on common approaches to facing the history related to the 1990s war period, Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
