The risk of losing our humanity


Bosnia and Herzegovina is struggling to rebuild its education system after four years of civil war. Interview with the Minister of Education Mujo Demirovic, a former teacher and university professor.

What particular problems does your education face ?

Our country has just come out of a war, our schools are devastated and we lack modern educational facilities. The Dayton agreement imposed a series of solutions and we now have eleven education systems in the various cantons of the country which makes it hard to harmonize our education efforts.

How can schools help people live peacefully together?

Promoting tolerance among pupils is a process, not a subject that children are forced to learn in school. Teachers play an important role in setting off this process. It's easy to teach maths and biology, but it's more important to instil in children a humanitarian and positive approach to life. We have taken out all insulting words from history textbooks. The next step is to make room for diversity and convey to our pupils that we cannot move ahead with nationalist approaches.

Is it realistic to expect schools to teach tolerance in the present context?

As a teacher and a father I know that education is not the only thing that makes a man. Education makes civilizations advance but the modern world is killing the humanity in men.
The high tempo in which we live and our struggle for survival and more status are putting our humanity aside. The result is non-tolerance in the form of street violence and terrorism.

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