OSCE Mission works with teachers and students to promote inter-cultural understanding in Serbia
Serbia is a land of great cultural diversity - the richness of which is not always appreciated, even by the country's own citizens. But a series of study tours for students and teachers organized by the OSCE Mission to Serbia is now helping to tackle the issue.
From 7 to 9 December last year, 24 high school directors and teachers from 16 multi-ethnic towns across Serbia participated in a study tour to Belgrade, part of a project which previously saw around 160 high school students visit the Serbian capital.
The visits were made possible thanks to the assistance of the Ministry of Education and Sports. The National Minority Councils also helped in planning the initial student visit by suggesting to the OSCE Mission multi-ethnic schools from which the students and teachers could be picked.
"In our efforts to build democracy in Serbia, we in the OSCE recognize that education is the base where we must begin," said the Deputy Head of the Mission, Anthony Pahigian, in his welcoming address to the teachers.
Discovering Belgrade and its institutions
The December tour included an interactive session on tolerance, presentations by several prominent Belgrade non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and visits to the Council of Europe and the headquarters of the OSCE Mission. The cultural element included a play at the National Theatre of Belgrade and the screening of a film on human rights which could be used as a teaching tool.
The teachers' study tour came as a follow-up to an OSCE-sponsored project, "Getting to know your country better", under which 158 secondary school students and their teachers visited Belgrade earlier last year. The students were from a wide range of ethnic groups, including Hungarian, Bosniak, Roma, Albanian, Romanian, Slovak, Bulgarian, Croat and Serbian.
"We based the programme for the students' visits on the assumption that minority secondary school students from multi-ethnic regions do not perceive themselves as citizens of the Republic of Serbia," says the Mission's Youth and Education Adviser, Stephanie V. Grepo.
"Through these trips, many of the students had the opportunity to visit Belgrade for the first time and to meet young people from the capital city and other parts of the country."
During the trips - organized by the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence - the students visited the National Assembly, where Speaker Predrag Markovic explained the importance of parliamentary practice in Serbia's development. They also saw a short film describing the duties of citizens and the right to vote, and visited the offices of Serbian President Boris Tadic.
On the cultural side, they also took a tour of the city, visiting sites including the Belgrade Fortress, the Military Museum, the Rudjer Boskovic Observatory and Kalemedgan Park.
Top marks from students
The students rated their visits to state institutions highest, outscoring all the cultural activities. And the benefit of meeting students of different ethnicities from was felt by everyone - even those from Belgrade, for some of whom it was the first opportunity to meet their counterparts from around the country.
"I think it was important for students to learn that more than 20 different ethnicities are living in our town," said Rada Glava, a teacher from Bela Crkva, a town close to the Serbian-Romanian border. "I have invited them all to visit us."
Future of the programme
The programme is scheduled to continue in 2007, as the Mission plans to build on what has been achieved so far by organizing a summer camp for students from the areas included in last year's visits to Belgrade.
The implementing partner, the NGO Group 484, will work with teachers from the schools. The teachers will learn how to help their students to prepare presentations on the multi-ethnic aspects of their towns. The students will share their presentations with one another at the camp.