In this episode Ronan discusses the post conflict experience of Bosnia. He is a student journalist with us on a placement organised by the Oxford University Career Services. This article was edited using the Hemingway Editor.
🎧 listen to Ronan’s backstory here - he discusses his motivation & research as well.
Educational Space and Human Needs of Understanding and Education in Post-Conflict Bosnia
Choices regarding the allocation of spaces. Along with their socio-political freight is a challenge common to all post-conflict regions. One space most associated with the ongoing human needs problems is the education system. Bosnia and Herzegovina's post-war education system presents a critical case study. Its outstanding problems with principles of separation in peace settlements. The efforts are currently espoused to alleviate these troubles.
Context
Bosnia and Herzegovina's population has not had the fundamental right to state-sponsored education itself challenged. In all entities of the country (Republika Srbska ("Republic of Serbs" or "Serbian Republic"). Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. And Brcko statute) education is compulsory and provided free of cost from the ages of 6 to 18. This right is also secure under Bosnia and Herzegovina's constitution. Under the statutes of the Dayton Accords. This education system possesses no central, national quality. A federal ministry oversees the coordination of implementation and activities within schools. While each entity determines the local quality of curriculum, studies, and implementation. The difference between Republika Srbska and the Federation is notable. The latter has 10 cantons of de-centralized school ministries, the former one ministry.
While this structure's creators intended to give autonomy to local communities and prevent inter-ethnic tension. Its devolved nature translates to pragmatic difficulties. With the federal education ministry playing a coordinating role. No federal reform has yet appeared to address a practice within the school system that experts say has fostered tension. The "two schools under one roof" solution.
Two Schools Under One Roof
The "two schools under one roof" practice. It became a provisional solution to post-conflict tension's manifestation in societal spaces in 2002. The war, which took place from 1992-1995. It produced 2.2 million displaced people and devastated the country’s infrastructure. Only in the late 90s did these refugees begin returning to their communities. As Bosnian refugees returned to their home communities or settled in new ones. They feared for their children's safety and security and perceived school environments. With their proposed multi-ethnic student bodies, as a potential realm for continued hostilities. The refugees' experience of conflict based on their identity made them seek spaces where their children and the culture they came from could be understood. Rather than grounds for targeting, bullying, or maltreatment. Consequently, many parents began either homeschooling children. Sending them to makeshift "schools" in homes. Or sending them to schools in nearby villages or cities according to their dominant ethnicity. This situation proved untenable for myriad reasons. The first was that many facilities for makeshift schools were wholly inadequate to function as schools. Or foster the social needs of children. The second was such ad hoc institutions did not educate according to any standardized curriculum. Or attempt at objectivity. International bodies determined them to be engaging in ethnocentrism and perpetuating inter-ethnic tension. The third reason is returnee parents wanted their children to have a right to education within their community. And, embrace school as a community for the development of supportive relationships.
Consequently, the OSCE mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina created a provisional solution. Attempting to reconcile the post-conflict population's need to maintain their identity and culture with the efforts at sustainable peace through creating mutually used spaces. This solution was the "two schools under one roof" practice. This statute brought schools composed of one dominating ethnicity into a single institution. By separating class groups by ethnicity rather than entire institutions. This solution was meant to be an initial move toward the full re-integration of schools. And the use of schools as a space to promote understanding. Acceptance, and nuanced conceptions of identity among Bosnia and Herzegovina's youth. The solution's formulators never meant the practice to stay in place, neither de jure nor de facto. While most schools have reformed to integrate multiple ethnicities under a core curriculum. Many schools still retain this two-school, one-roof practice. The education ministries have not agreed on a standardized definition of "two schools, one roof". Nor have they agreed on a standard core curriculum. This problem came to a head in a 2013 federal court case that demonstrated troubles rooted in the practice. Along with the vagueries of the ongoing peace process concerning schools.
Mostar Canton Supreme Court Case
The case concerned an institution under the auspices of the Mostar canton ministry of education. The Osnovna Skola Stolac/Prva Osnovna Skola Stolac. These two schools, sharing a building, educate Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and Croat youths. They are meant to foster interaction between the two groups. Classes are conducted according to separate curriculums. One in Croatian and focusing on Croatian history, culture, and the Catholic religion. The other in Bosnian and focusing on Bosniak history, culture, and the Sunni Muslim religion. Both curriculums deliberately bend facts. As does Republika Srbska's curriculum, all of which state the religious, cultural, or economic supremacy of the ethnicity. The illegitimacy of the other two major ethnicities.
The building has two separate entrances and divides space internally. Walls that bifurcate the building into virtually two institutions. The single space for mutual interaction is the schoolyard. The "shift" system. Also practiced in other Balkan countries. Often results in a schoolyard break time where children from years one to four will represent one ethnicity. And children from years five to eight will represent the other. Consequently, little interaction takes place between the two. Which translates to ethnic tension later in life and some cases, inter-ethnic violence.
Perpetuation of Artificial Difference
A human rights NGO named Vaša Prava (Your Justice) filed a suit against Mostar's Ministry of Education. This was for this conduction of education. The case eventually reached the Supreme Court. Vaša Prava claimed this practice violates the fundamental human rights and needs of the country's population. So it must be done away with. Their case rested on the school system's violation of several international statutes agreed to by Bosnia's government. Such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration on the Rights of the Child. And, the Council of Europe's post-accession requirements. Vaša Prava, along with the European Parliament and the UN, argues that this system instills an artificial difference in children's minds. By teaching them that they are different than the other children who share the building. Rather than offering an opportunity to mollify the historical trauma of the refugee experience undergone by the previous generation. This system threatens to perpetuate it.
The Bosnian Supreme Court ruled in favor of this argument. Seeing the policy as an obstacle to lasting reconciliation. And to fully re-integrating the children of the refugees created by the wars of the 1990s.
Aftermath of the Case to Today
After the decision. Protests broke out in different parts of the country. Most notably in Sarajevo. With some parents protesting the use of one ethnicity’s curriculum to teach their children. And others protesting in favor of a core curriculum. Two years later. Thinking back on his role in the protests. With a wish to have his children taught under a different curriculum. Bosniak parent Muhizin Omerovic said, "just like we couldn't sit down and talk and deal with the issues that caused the war, we can't sit down and deal with education, and it's hurting our children."
Several organizations have proposed improvements and launched efforts to implement the Supreme Court's decision. Also to prevent the education system from becoming a barrier to peace. On the broadest level. The OSCE's mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina has attempted to foster further administrative cohesion within local schools. By recommending and encouraging the registration of divided schools as single legal entities and the development of multi-ethnic school boards.
Extra-academic efforts have included interesting approaches. Organizations such as MindLeaps have partnered with local bodies to encourage interaction and grassroots social cohesion. They achieve this by bringing together students of different ethnicities for camps and programs. These programs are focused on creative activities such as art and dance. Recognizing that the small differences between the Bosniak, Croatian, and Serbian languages often create tension inhibiting social interaction. Other peacemakers have embarked on projects like the "Tolerance Through English" Program. This program takes advantage of the neutral nature of the English language in this context. It places students of several ethnicities in a classroom together under the same curriculum. In 2017, however, several professors, NGO representatives, and other peacemakers from the former Yugoslavia signed the "Declaration Regarding the Common Language". A document recognizing Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, and Montenegrin as four legitimate variants of the same language. While no signs show that the declaration's sentiment has reached school-age children or broken down the "Two schools under one roof" policy in Bosnia. The document has nonetheless prompted a discussion in the country about using a common language curriculum in schools to strengthen reconciliation. Which represents one of the most significant steps forward in assuring that communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina are given opportunities to retain and express their identities in a multi-ethnic educational context.
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