This is a sample of Education in Bosnia: Language, Religion, and Control.

 

Chapter 1

 Introduction

 This book investigates the forces shaping the development of education systems in Bosnia and the impact those historical forces may, or may not, have on the condition of current secondary education in Bosnia today. The initial chapters lay the historical groundwork of educational development in the Balkans in general and Bosnia specifically. The accumulative effect of the previous centuries is then captured in a survey of the faculty and students in Sarajevo city secondary schools. The survey is driven by several hypotheses whose origins are imbedded in the historical evidence. The work concludes with thoughts and recommendations about the future development of education in Bosnia, and, again to some degree, the sister nations in Eastern Europe.

Of the many forces at work on the development of education systems within any society, the three that emerge as having some significant influence on that process in Bosnia (and the rest of the Balkans) are language, religion, and control of schools. While not discounting the effect of other forces on educational development such as economic planning, infrastructure, and governmental influence via tax levies, this book does not develop these other dynamics. This work focuses principally on language, religion and control of schools.

It also might appear incongruous to shift gears from a largely socio-historical prelude covering ten centuries into a chapter devoted to current educational affairs that uses hypotheses and survey work. I found no easier way to gain insight into the personal perceptions of Bosnians about their education (and the impact of the previous systems) than with a survey. The people of Bosnia are generally suspicious, not surprisingly, of anybody writing anything down. But if provided an avenue to express their opinion in an anonymous way, they will. Therefore the chapter dealing with current secondary educational affairs transitions the reader from a historical view to a "today" view using the hypotheses-survey method to try and establish some accurate basis for what’s happening today in the Bosnian system.

With that idea in mind, and while gathering basic research material to begin this effort, I found out quickly that there was apparently not a large body of work in English that looked at the development of education in Bosnia (and the Balkans) and then connected that development with the region’s current and future educational challenges. In other words there did not appear to be any work that described why the people of the culture are educated the way they are. So I decided to write the book that would do so.

The future of Bosnian education cannot be properly planned without an understanding of how and why the system developed the way it did and why the current actors who run it act the way they do. Bosnians seek eventual political membership in the European Union and their military in the community of NATO armies and the Partnership for Peace. The leadership of the country, and not just the educators, must be willing to compromise on issues affecting the progress of the country toward these goals.

Reluctance to compromise, at the expense of holding power, while certainly not unique to Balkan countries, is certainly a predominant character of the leadership there. Therefore, anything that contributes to an increase in the willingness to compromise will be better for the people, in the long term, than continuing practices and methods that inhibit it. There are certain social attributes that contribute to such a harmonious approach to compromise. They are, among many others, open communication in a common language, subordination of religious motives to the rule of law applicable to all, and a reasonable amount of local control over issues, especially educational ones. This book examines the origins of the culture’s current challenges in these three areas and offers recommendations for adjusting to these issues in the future.

Revealing the impact of the forces of language, religion, and school control on the education systems of Bosnia (and similar Balkan countries) will provide a basis for rational discourse about the future of those systems and their proper priorities and directions, and will influence the general well-being of the Bosnian people. Most often, given the nature of over a thousand years of cultural molding, the three principal groups seeking power in the region were best known for a lack of rational discourse that ignored the general well-being of all the people. In this book, the author hopes to contribute to a dialogue based on rational discussion that starts with a basis in open truth, not the clouds of passionate ethnocentrism.

Progress is inevitable for Bosnia as it emerges from the influences of the past into a new future in the 21^st century. Education will be a significant contributor to that progress if the leadership can achieve a spirit of open communication that fosters cooperation and harmony of direction. The current challenges in language, religious influence, and control of educational systems can be traced to the impact of early interaction between the military forces of medieval western kings and the Bosnian people.