Breakthrough for integrated education in Croatia

NDC Osijek has worked for integrated education in the Vukovar region for the last seven years. We started then to dream about a school where Serbs, Croats and every other ethnic group could feel treated with dignity and respect. This is not a particular problem in Croatia/Vukovar. It is becoming a central political issue all over Europe. We can see how students are segregating in the Oslo schools as well. I assume there is a connection between  500 days without a government in Belgium and the segregated schoolsystem in parts of that country.

NDC Osijek has mobilized teachers, parents, students. Local and national politicians. Still the final breakthrough never came. The Ministry of Education did not embrace the idea. Although the President of Croatia Ivo Josipovic has been very supportive all the time. He showed that last week when he gave the Award of the Republic of Croatia for the exceptional results in the education of children of different ethnicities in a multi-cultural community and the fight against segregation in education. With the recent election and change in government, we believe that the issue of segregation in schools will be addressed more seriously.
Our hope is that Vukovar, which in 1991 became the symbol of war, destruction and the breakup of Yugoslavia, can become the symbol of hope, integration and reconciliation. If the “new school” is realized Vukovar will show the road toward the future for people in divided communities all over Europe. And to NDC Osijek it will show that Nansen maybe was right when he said that the impossible only takes a little longer time. Dedication, commitment and hard work still pays off in the world we live.


Steinar Bryn