prijava
KONJEVIĆ-POLJE, October 18 (FENA) - Children in Konjević-Polje have major problems at school. Initially, they attended Primary School in Konjević-Polje, but there was no water or toilet. They were taught Russian even though their parents wanted them to learn English or German. They were not even allowed to study in their own, native Bosnian language.
This and many other reasons forced the parents to enroll the children at an improvised school which teaches in accordance with the Sarajevo Canton's curriculum.
A representative of parents of children from Konjević-Polje, Muhizin Omerović returned from Switzerland to Konjević-Polje in 2005 with his wife and two children, two and three years old. They have four children today.
"The children went to the Petar Kočić school in Konjević-Polje. The first thing I noticed when my children started going to school is that the Bosnian language did not exist, that we Bosniaks do not exist in the textbooks of RS, nor did my children learn anything about Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nothing Bosnian exists. That's when I started speaking against this, asking the school manager to solve the problem," head of the parents' association Muhizin Omerović said.
Omerović also recalled that parents rejected the RS Ministry's proposal that the mother tongue be called “language of the Bosniak people” instead of the “Bosnian language.”
The problem appeared when the RS Education Ministry decided to abolish the name “Bosnian language” for Bosniak children speaking that language and instead call it “language of the Bosniak people,” citing the RS entity Constitution which says the people in this entity speak Serbian language and the language of the Bosniak people as well as language of the Croat people.
The parents insist on the term 'Bosnian language', which has been in use for centuries, from the earliest medieval period, as evidenced by inscribed monuments, charters, grants, trade contracts, letters and inscriptions on ‘stećak’ tombstones.
That is when parents stopped sending their children to school, protesting the Ministry's decision, and authorities in the Sarajevo Canton started sending their teachers to teach children classes according to the Sarajevo Canton's curriculum.
The Islamic Community in BiH also got involved and put to use their premises in the village of Nova Kasaba, some five kilometers away from Konjević-Polje, for Bosniak children to attend school there, but Omerović pointed out that some villages are 18 kilometers away.
Solidarity Forum EMMAUS equipped the rooms with basic school material and the project was also supported by the FBiH Education Ministry which decided to fund the teachers and books for students, and the FBiH Displaced and Refugees Ministry provided transportation for students.
(FENA) S. R.
