Orthodox leaders urge Brcko school
boycott over multiethnic curriculum
By Ward Sanderson,
Bosnia bureau
BRCKO, Bosnia and Herzegovina — Orthodox church leaders are urging Serbs to
boycott schools in Brcko because of a multiethnic curriculum starting this fall.
"Serb children, children from the Serb entity, are not allowed to be taught in
their mother tongue," complained the Rev. Slavko Maksimovic, according to a United
Nations’ bulletin.
The language spoken by Serbs, Croats and Muslims is 97 percent identical, and under the
new curriculum all three groups will study only their variation.
A group called the Serb Education Club, however, has called for students to ban Brcko
schools for at least the first year.
Last year, about 1,000 Serb teen-agers rioted over Muslim students sharing Brcko
schools with them, even though classes at the time were segregated.
The commander of U.S. forces in Bosnia, Maj. Gen. Walter L. Sharp, last week warned
that troops and police would work together to curb trouble.
Maksimovic said there would be no protests this time, but Serbs may set up private
schools.
The first of its kind, the curriculum and a new education equality law require that all
ethnic groups be treated the same in the district.
Brcko — the town whose status was not settled by the Dayton peace accords —
belongs to neither the Muslim-Croat Federation nor the Bosnian Serb Republic.
International officials only worked out its independent, multiethnic status two years
ago.
After Serbs in the Brcko Legislature failed to pass an education reform law,
international supervisor Henry Clarke stamped it into being July 5.
Teachers are supposed to begin training for the new curriculum next month.
"The new curriculum is a product of the existing, combined curriculums,"
Clarke said, stressing that educators from all three ethnic groups wrote it, not
foreigners.
He said history and music classes will also differ between ethnicities, but that all
students would study the sciences and math together.
Clarke added that the program is not inflexible.
"I believe, in the future, there will be some innovations in the curriculum and
improvements."
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