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Recommendation 1454 (2000)
Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina
1. The Assembly considers education in Bosnia and
Herzegovina to be one of the most critical factors both for establishing
democratic stability in the country and for bringing about the return of
refugees and displaced persons.
2. It has taken particular note of problems relating to the ethnic
segregation of children, language issues, ethnic stereotyping in school
textbooks and the authorities’ refusal to develop a common curriculum or to
co-ordinate the different curricula.
3. These problems are incompatible with the principles of the Council of
Europe and unworthy of a state signatory to the European Cultural
Convention.
4. The Assembly would point out the good co-operation in the field between
the Council of Europe, the Office of the High Representative, Unesco, the World
Bank and the European Union.
5. It is pleased to note that progress has been made in the education
sector, in particular through the agreement of the three ministers to remove
offensive terms from school textbooks and to set up a conference of education
ministers. It welcomes the leading role played by the Council of Europe in both
developments.
6. It regrets that, despite these modest examples of progress, education in
Bosnia and Herzegovina remains far behind the corresponding European
standards.
7. Accordingly, the Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
7.1. provide the means for the Council of Europe
to maintain its decisive role in promoting co-operation in the field of
education in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
7.2. work with the High Representative and the other international
organisations present in Bosnia and Herzegovina towards a re-interpretation of
the Dayton Agreements in such a way as to achieve a more workable distribution
of responsibilities at the level of the cantons, the entities and the
state;
7.3. co-ordinate its work with that of other international organisations
in order to establish a close link between financial support from the
international community and the authorities’ compliance with prior conditions,
especially regarding the content of school textbooks, segregation,
co-ordination and language policies;
7.4. continue to press for acceptance of a moratorium on teaching about
the most recent conflict so as to enable historians from all the communities in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the help of international experts, to develop a
common approach;
7.5. ensure that local educational initiatives - in particular those
designed to counteract segregationist thinking - continue to be encouraged and
developed with the aid of moral and material support, so that what have been
isolated projects become the rule rather than the exception;
7.6. give consideration, on the basis of pilot projects, to setting up
multi-ethnic schools in places where they will have the broadest impact, such
as the towns of Brcko and Mostar;
7.7. ensure that, in addition to the three constituent communities, all
minorities present on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina are also fully
able to exercise their right to education in a multi-ethnic
perspective;
7.8. propose administrative, financial and legislative solutions designed
to lay the foundations for a cost-effective higher education system which will
meet current and future needs;
7.9. consider using distance learning to overcome ethnic segregation at
university level.