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Sarajevo, 23 July 2008 --The situation with the secondary school in Stolac is moving from tragedy to farce. It is, more precisely, beginning to resemble the theatre of the absurd.
It now appears as if that school has two directors, two school boards (or equivalents thereof), and no statute. First-year students still lack permission to enrol, some recent graduates of the school still lack signed and stamped certificates, and teachers are not now being paid.
It would seem high time to change this situation for the better. The solution surely lies in a compromise whereby the school gains legal standing as a unitary body, students are allowed to study the “national group of subjects” of their choice if they so wish, and material costs and teachers’ salaries are once again covered.
It would also seem to be a good time for parents throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina to ask themselves whether the systems of education created by the people they have elected to office – systems that would appear to be hold-overs from former Yugoslavia with national or nationalist elements added – are providing the kinds of education their children need and deserve. The current systems give every appearance of threatening the long-term security and stability of this state, not to mention its prospects for economic and social advancement, which is exactly backward from the way things should be.
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