Mašić welcomes ruling on abolishing 'two schools under one roof'

The Federal Ministry of Education and Science welcomes the ruling of the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which overturns the second-instance decision of the Cantonal Court in Mostar and, at the same time, confirms the first-instance verdict of the Municipal Court in Mostar from 2012 - in the case of the Association „Vaša prava BiH“ Sarajevo against the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, i.e., the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, and the elementary schools Stolac and Čapljina - which clearly states that „two schools under one roof“ represent ethnic segregation of students and such practice must be abolished, announced the FMON, reports the Bosnian news agency Patria.

- We recall, the verdict of the Municipal Court in Mostar established that the defendants, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, and the Elementary School Stolac and Elementary School Čapljina, by organizing schools on an ethnic principle and by adopting and implementing school plans and programs on an ethnic principle, separated students in schools in the area of HNC based on their ethnic affiliation, thereby committing discrimination. The verdict ordered the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of HNC „to undertake the necessary and legally prescribed steps and actions aligned with the legitimate and specific goals of education in accordance with the regulations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the aim of ending further discrimination of children in schools in the area of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton based on their ethnic affiliation, and in such a way that, no later than 01.09.2012, it establishes unified integrated multicultural educational institutions – schools for the determined enrollment areas with a unified teaching and scientific curriculum, with full respect for children's rights to education in their mother tongue, and the second and third defendants are ordered to create, within the same period, through integration, the foundation of multiculturalism of the school and education of children regardless of ethnic affiliation, according to a unified plan and program in the mother tongue - states the verdict.

Minister Damir Mašić said that the ruling goes in the direction that the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e., the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, and we believe also the Central Bosnia Canton, after more than ten years of divisions and separation of children, will finally be in a position to return to the system that normally existed and functioned for centuries, which is that children live with each other and spend time together.

Minister Mašić emphasized the firm commitment of the Federal Ministry of Education and Science to the necessity of abolishing all forms of separation and discrimination in education, reminding that the Ministry has developed the “Model of unification and elimination of parallel structures in educational institutions in the Federation of BiH”.

This document was created with the aim of assisting the competent cantonal ministers of education where the phenomenon of “two schools under one roof” is present, so that based on it, they can develop concrete action plans for the complete integration of schools in those cantons. 
- Unfortunately, the Federal Ministry does not have mechanisms or levers to influence and guide this process, but what we can and are doing is to help the competent cantonal ministries, through maximum effort and finding solutions, in abolishing this unacceptable practice in BiH - said Minister Mašić.

He reminded that, in addition to the problem of segregation in the Federation of BiH, the Republic of Srpska also has a pronounced system of gross discrimination in education, given that in a large number of schools, children of non-Serb nationality, especially the returnee population, have many problems in realizing basic human and educational rights, reports Patria.