A/HRC/25/49/Add.1
Bosnian and Croat curriculum, including, for example, mathematics. In general, pupils
from west Mostar choose the Croat curriculum, while pupils from the east select the
Bosnian curriculum. According to interlocutors, nothing more can be done by the city and
school, since cantonal and pedagogical decisions regarding curriculum content must be
followed. A common curriculum simply does not exist, including in the said integrated
schools. Hence, further efforts are completely blocked owing to the operative political and
administrative environment.
49.
Nevertheless, joint extracurricular activities such as sports have started, and
administrative bodies, such as teachers’, parents’ and students’ councils, have been
integrated, easing interaction and the organization of joint activities like competitions. Still,
pupils reported a lack of connectedness across communities and expressed their desire for
enhanced joint activities. Teachers organize theatre clubs separately, without sharing
information with students from other communities on how to join. In addition,
organizational arrangements obstruct interaction: there is no cafeteria, so shared meals are
not possible. Pupils from the primary school attend in the morning, while pupils in the
secondary attend in the afternoon. It is interesting to note, in contrast, that students
themselves have organized initiatives outside of the school to interact, for example bridgebuilding events outside their school premises and on the Mostar bridge. The Special
Rapporteur recommends that they receive robust support for such activities.
50.
The system put in place in Brčko is often presented as a good model of integrated
schools, where the pupils from different communities attend school together and mainly
receive instruction in their own languages in the same classroom. According to the
Education Law of Brčko District, “the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian languages, and the
Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, shall be used in equal terms in the realization of curricula and
facultative activities in primary and secondary schools” (art. 9). The law stipulates that
students have the freedom to express themselves in their own language, and that school
documents are to be issued in the language and alphabet requested by a student or parent. In
class, only the blackboard is divided, enabling teachers to use both the Latin and Cyrillic
scripts and to show the differences existing between the various languages.
B.
Common core curriculum
51.
Separated classes facilitate, and are seemingly aimed at, teaching a non-harmonized
curriculum and various narratives, in particular related to ”national groups of subjects” –
language and literature, nature and society, religious instruction, geography and history.
52.
For more than a decade, many steps, supported by the international community, have
been taken to develop a common core curriculum to reduce differences of perspectives
among students and to promote mutual knowledge and understanding. In 2003, the State
Framework Law on Primary and Secondary Education provided for the development of a
common core curriculum for all public and private schools, consisting of “the curricula and
syllabi of all subjects of primary and general secondary education in Bosnia and
Herzegovina that have as broad an agreed common core as possible” (art. 42). All Ministers
for Education pledged to introduce the common core curriculum under their jurisdiction in
the 2003/04 school year.
53.
Unfortunately, an assessment widely shared in the country is that the reform did not
bring about significant progress. The main curricula currently used in Bosnia and
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