Finally good news: 17 schoolchildren with their families returned to Živinice from abroad this year

(Patria) - The new 2024/2025 school year began in the Tuzla Canton (TK) area on Monday, September 2nd.

Approximately 34,000 students will attend primary school, and around 14,000 will attend secondary school. Among them are about 3,500 first-graders who will be sitting at school desks for the first time.

A particularly interesting piece of information comes from Živinice, where last Monday, 17 primary school students, who recently returned with their families from abroad, took their seats in classrooms.

This good and positive news was confirmed for Patria by the principal of the Živinice Primary School "Dubrave", Sanel Mumić.

According to him, the families of these 17 students returned to Živinice from Slovenia, Germany, France, and Canada.

The school where Mumić is the principal has three new students this year, who also returned to their homeland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with their families from abroad.

Mumić has been working in education for 16 years, since 2008. He says he was particularly impressed by the number of new schoolchildren, given the fact that since 2015/2016, there has been a constant trend of young people leaving our country, and consequently, students.


Mumić: Three students returned to us

- At the beginning of each school year, one or two students regularly leave with their families abroad. This year, something happened that we haven't had the opportunity to witness before – three new students arrived at our school - Mumić tells us.

He reminds that in 2019, then as the principal of the Živinice Gymnasium, he sent a letter to the principals of all nine primary schools operating in Živinice, asking how many students had left for abroad at the end of the 2018/2019 school year.

- When I added everything up, I got a figure of 45 students – that's a full bus - Mumić points out.

Regarding the three children who are attending classes at Primary School "Dubrave" starting this year, Mumić explains that two returned from Slovenia, while he did not have that information for the third student. Two students are in the third grade, and one is in the fourth grade of primary school, meaning they are eight and nine years old.

- Not a single student left our school at the end of the previous school year, and now we are fortunate to be enriched by three new ones. Their parents have completed all the necessary paperwork and enrolled their children with us without any problems.

These are not students who came from another school district, who moved from another BiH municipality. These are children who have returned with their families from abroad to continue their lives in our homeland, where else - Mumić concludes in an interview with the Patria News Agency.

Given that TK, as the most populous canton in FBiH, consists of 12 municipalities, and considering that 17 families have returned to Živinice alone, it is certain that the number at the canton level is significantly higher.

(D.K.)