BiH Consul General in Frankfurt Luciano Kaluza told Srna that an initiative has been launched for students from the Republic of Srpska who live in Germany to learn about the history, geography and culture of Srpska as part of their supplementary classes in Serbian.
Currently, teaching in the Serbian language is performed according to the curriculum of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia, but based on the need of children from the Republic of Srpska who attend or have stated that they wish to attend it, the plan is to supplement this material.
Kaluža stated that the initiative was launched after discussions with representatives of associations in Germany that gather predominantly Serb-born members, and received the support of the Republic of Srpska’s Ministry of Education and Culture, Serbian Presidency Member Milorad Dodik, as well as His Grace Bishop Düsseldorf and German Grigorije who expressed willingness to be involved in this project.
– At a meeting with Dodik it was concluded that the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska intensifies early cooperation as soon as possible and launched this initiative under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia, in order to harmonize the modalities of joint organization of supplementary teaching abroad as soon as possible. Dodik gave his full support to the initiative and made available the resources for its realization, with which the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska Natalija Trivić fully agrees – said Kaluža.
He stated that a meeting was also held with the director of the Republic Pedagogical Institute Predrag Damjanović, who emphasized that the concept and materials for supplementing the textbooks for supplementary teaching had already been prepared and that a final decision on harmonization and implementation of this process had to be made at the ministry level.
– In order to collect additional information, several meetings were held with the Consul General of Serbia in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, as well as the Coordinator for Supplementary Teaching for Europe, organized by Serbia – said Kaluža.
According to him, it is a very extensive job, which is why coordination between the consulates of BiH and Serbia, teachers and students is very important.
– The BiH Consulate General in Frankfurt and I are personally ready to engage as much as possible during this process, in order to find, together, as soon as possible, a model that guarantees that students will gain additional knowledge from the homeland they insist on. We are ready to coordinate the whole process – said Kaluža.
Kaluža recalled that the Ministry of Civil Affairs in the Council of Ministers is financing supplementary classes for the BiH diaspora and that work should be done to use part and these funds to support the organization of supplementary classes in the Serbian language.
He said that students who professed to learn Serbian were taking supplementary classes organized by the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, and the textbooks contained lessons in the geography, history and culture of Serbia.
– It is an indisputable right of parents and students to declare which supplementary classes they want to attend and we must guarantee this right in practice. In addition, for the first time, children from Serbia would acquire additional knowledge about the Republic of Srpska through regular education, which is also very important – said Kaluža.
Due to recent trends in population migration, the number of children from the Republic of Srpska in Germany has increased, which is more reason to take the issue of their education seriously, which is imperative in order to preserve the identity and culture of the Serbian people.
TST
