#1: Life on the Flipside - A Closer Look at Bosnia’s Educational System
- Team TRAM
- Jun 14, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 15, 2020
By G Taranya
A Different Reality from What We Know
One compound, one shared space, yet two entirely different schooling systems - a concept reminiscent of a fictional setting or even a dystopian movie setting. Yet for Bosnian students, this is their everyday reality. The “two schools under one roof” policy was part of a “peace process”, rather than a “peace agreement” (Torsti, 2009), to the question of an educational system in the conclusion of an inter-ethnic war. However, this temporary solution has taken on a far more woeful tone, considering the system has been in place for over 20 years and has no sign of undergoing drastic change any time soon. Does that mean that the young voices of Bosnia, experiencing the educational system themselves, are in complete agreement with the ethnic segregation? And is it possible to enact an alternate lived reality in this era, one where Bosnian kids are not separated by ethnicity?
Integrated Schools - A Deviation from the Norm
As you will soon hear from youths like Majra Hasanefendic, it is possible to not be in complete agreement with the educational system and its nuances. Majra, a 21-year-old Bosnian studying in the University of Sarajevo, is very clear of her stance - and was equally clear to make us aware of it as well. But to understand Majra’s perspectives, her lived experiences with the educational system must be contextualised. Majra was one of the handful of students to have access to, or were allowed to, attend an integrated school. While it is definitely uncommon to attend an integrated school in Bosnia, it is not unheard of, with one famous example being the very first of them to be set up - the Mostar Gymnasium (Hromadžic, 2008). These schools lack the divisive line that prevents kids of different schools from interacting with each other, the staggered recesses, and even allow their students to attend shared extracurricular classes.
How Education Can Make or Break History, Quite Literally
Being taught one consolidated narrative in regards to the Bosnian War allowed Majra to see all perspectives of the groups involved in the war, meaning she was not coerced into seeing one ethnic group as war criminals while another as war heroes. And this was one of the biggest differences for a high schooler like Majra, who did not have to programme herself with ethnic identity markers in order to know “who is who” from a very young age. For many of Majra’s youth counterparts though, this is a reality frequently encountered, in part due to parents’ convictions, who might send their child to a segregated school in support of having them interact with peers of the same ethnicity and learn the “right side” of history (Torsti, 2007). Politics too has some role to play according to Majra, who attributes politicians pandering to ethnically homogenous masses as a possible reason for these ethnic groups voting for politicians whose educational stance leans towards segregation rather than integration. Majra is but one exception to the system that gives youths impetus to ethnically categorise. Yet it is also impossible to expect these youths to break the mold in the way Majra has, as banding together with peers of the same ethnicity, language and religion does more than give you friendship - it gives you a place to identify as a Bosniak, Croat or Serb.
The Future of Bosnia?
What this spells out for both current and future generations of youths, is a lack of understanding of what Bosnia once was before the war, the history that drove it to what it is now, and the divisions continually enforced in the educational system. For Singaporeans like us, having to even envision a reality where one ethnic group’s war heroes are another ethnic group’s war criminals is unimaginable. Most likely because we are so interconnected with the world around us, such that we are Singaporeans first and global citizens second. While usual sources of information (take for example, the Internet and social media) may occur to us as places to clarify contrasting historical narratives, Majra was quick to tell us that it is up to Bosnian youths to accept these different perspectives as truth or lies. And with such stories clearly conflicting with the history and identity these youths have found for themselves, it is not hard to imagine why they may reject these other stories of the war as “made up” by the supposed “enemy”.
The Challenges Against Educational Reform in Bosnia
Naturally then, a question we had for Majra was - do you think the removal of the “two schools under one roof” policy, along with the bringing about of more integrated schools through a reformed education system, will help ease ethnic tensions in Bosnia? As with most of her answers regarding Bosnia’s future, she was cautiously optimistic, recognising that change takes more than one person. The educational reforms that have taken place in the past decade already are signs of such change, which gives Majra hope that more positive reform will take place within the approaching decade.
Yet she was also quick to offer another perspective, in that reform may not be synonymous with just internal change, since Bosnian politicians and the educational ministry are still extremely divided on this issue. Even with external help, there is no guarantee that reform will be successful, considering the Dayton Agreement brokered by the international community was the very agreement that enacted the “two schools under one roof” phenomenon. Voices like Majra’s are not amplified enough in Bosnia’s political and activist scene, and these youths can only do so much through speaking out against the system for fear of retribution, in cases such as David Dragicevic’s (Balkan Insight, 2019), or possible blacklisting of them against attaining well-paying civil service jobs in the future.
Does this mean that Bosnia is doomed to its future of a perpetual divisive educational system? We like to think otherwise - and so do families like Dzana’s, our next interviewee. Head to our next post to find out more about a student who claims namesake to both Bosnia and Singapore, yet has a worldview entirely of her own.
References
Balkan Insight. (2019, March 19). One Year On, Dragicevic Death Still Haunts Bosnia.
Retrieved June 13, 2020 from https://balkaninsight.com/2019/03/19/one-year-on-
dragicevic-death-still-haunts-bosnia/
Hromadžic, A. (2008). Discourses of Integration and Practices of Reunification at the Mostar
Gymnasium, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Comparative Education Review, 52(4), 541-563.
Accessed June 13, 2020. doi:10.1086/591297
Torsti, P. (2007). How to deal with a difficult past? History textbooks supporting enemy
images in post‐war Bosnia and Herzegovina. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 39(1), 77-96.
Retrieved June 13, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220270600765278
Torsti, P. (2009). SEGREGATED EDUCATION AND TEXTS: A CHALLENGE TO PEACE IN
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA. International Journal on World Peace, 26(2). 65-82.
Retrieved June 13, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/20752886
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