FMON: Mutabdžija continues to discriminate against Bosniaks in RS

The Federal Ministry of Education and Science considers the statement by the Minister of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska, Goran Mutabdžija, which explicitly stated that students in Konjević Polje and Vrbanjci will not be provided with a national group of subjects, as well as the reasons for making such a decision, to be completely unacceptable and discriminatory, as it continues to violate fundamental human rights and children's rights to education, reports the BH News Agency Patria.

- We consider it particularly unfair that Minister Mutabdžija, instead of applying the law and the court decision from Srebrenica, conditioned the introduction of a national group of subjects for students in these returnee settlements on a "political agreement at the BiH level" - the Ministry states.

For the truthful information of the public, we remind that it was Minister Mutabdžija himself who, a year ago at a session of the Conference of Ministers of Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, voted against the proposal of the Federal Minister of Education and Science Damir Mašić to resolve issues concerning the national group of subjects and the issue of discrimination and segregation in education through joint work and finding unified solutions at the BiH level. Furthermore, the competent educational authorities in the smaller BiH entity could find good examples for resolving issues concerning the education of the returnee population throughout the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as classes for children of Serb nationality returnees are organized in a large number of schools in the Federation of BiH, i.e., in all schools where parents have requested such solutions.

The non-compliance with court decisions on temporary measures for the introduction of the right to study the national group of subjects within regular classes for students in Konjević Polje, and the public statement that "they will not grant this right to anyone until the same right is provided to Serb children in the Federation of BiH", only confirms the fact that the Ministry of Education and Culture of RS does not intend to provide equal rights and equal access to education to students of other constituent peoples, but rather continues to try to shift obvious and serious problems within the jurisdiction of that entity to another.

We remind the Ministry of Education and Culture of RS that it is not and must not be the ministry of only one people, and that such messages do not represent encouragement to returnees or other citizens and students, but on the contrary, indicate a public disregard for the rights and freedoms guaranteed by constitutional and legal solutions.

We remind that the Federal Ministry of Education and Science, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of Sarajevo Canton and the Islamic Community in BiH, provided and financed instructional classes for primary school-aged children of Bosniak returnees in Konjević Polje, Nova Kasaba, and nearby places during the past school year, and will continue to finance them as long as there is a need, in that and any other area where fundamental human rights are denied and prevented, as is the case in Vrbanjci near Kotor Varoš.

This instructional program was launched precisely because of the ignorant attitude of the Ministry of Education and Culture of RS, which does not allow children of constituent peoples to study the Bosnian language, as well as other subjects from the national group of subjects within regular classes.