Background
The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina established a Department dedicated to supporting the education reform process in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in 2002. The country’s post-war, fractured and divisive education policies were clearly detrimental to the Mission’s goal of helping BiH evolve into a democratic, stable and secure state upholding all human and constitutional rights.
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Approach to the pre-school education institutions discussed in Banja Luka (Photo:Z.Gruhonjic) |
The primary objective of the Mission’s work in education is to promote political and legislative changes so that BiH develops a holistic education system accessible, acceptable and effective for all citizens, irrespective of their ethnic background, gender or socio-economic status, thus supporting the long-term stability and security of the country. Mission members work in Sarajevo and in the Mission’s 14 field offices, providing the only school-level, community view of the status of reform implementation, and of the current state of education in the country.
It is not an exaggeration to note that the country will only be as successful, stable and united as its schools. If the voters of tomorrow are educated according to the norms of nationalist division and exclusionary ethnic principles, BiH will remain at constant risk of further fragmentation or dissolution. If future citizens receive an education that promotes tolerance, an appreciation of complex European identities and civic participation in social and public life, post-Dayton BiH will have a much greater chance at democratic consolidation.
Education reform is not traditionally a post-conflict, transition support activity. However, there is growing awareness in the region and in other divided post-war societies that education plays a critical role in shaping the worldview of youth and their families, in forming attitudes to human rights and diversity and in promoting (or hindering) the development of tolerant, civic-minded future leaders and citizens. The current fractured system, in which students learn according to several biased, ethnically-coloured curricula, and are therefore either assimilated or segregated, is having the effect of creating three separate sets of citizens, each ignorant and distrustful of the “other”. |
