School Disputes

The Serbian authorities are always underscoring that Serbia's southern province of Kosovo is Serbia's internal affair, contrary to ethnic Albanians who no longer recognize anything coming from the republican top. International mediation is sought on all issues, and the international community has complied since the republican, i.e. the federal leaderships have not managed to resolve the basic problems in Kosovo.

Some 60,000 ethnic Albanian secondary school pupils will finish this school year in schools housed in private houses. The same fate awaits the pupils of 15 primary schools, because the local police organs did not allow them access to school facilities, and there is every reason to believe that the doors of Pristina University will remain closed to ethnic Albanian students.

It all started in 1990 with the adoption of the Serbian Constitution under which changes ``had'' to be carried out in education. The old school curriculums and programs which had been adopted separately in Kosovo had been coordinated together with the Serbian authorities. All of a sudden they had become ``untenable.'' New programs were drawn up, but ethnic Albanians did not accept them. They refused to let their pupils be taught that their ancestors were Slav, or learn exclusively about the works of Yugoslav and foreign musicians and only a symbolic number of musical achievements by their compatriots. At the same time a ``plan'' aimed at decreasing the number of pupils in secondary schools was adopted, one which was concerned with ethnic Albanian pupils only. Under this plan the ratio of ethnic Albanian and Serbian students at Pristina University was supposed to be 1:1. The remaining departments would include the Albanian language department, History and Geography departments, thus ensuring teaching cadre for secondary schools. In short, this would mean that ethnic Albanian students would be able to enroll at other faculties, but that the curriculum would be followed in the Serbian language, so that if they refused to do so, they would not be able to become doctors, engineers, economists, lawyers, etc. one day.

All this resulted in the organizing of a parallel system of education in Kosovo, one which follows the plans and programs drawn up in 1990. The necessary school papers, school reports, etc, are printed in accordance with the so-called Kacanica Constitution adopted three years ago, and have ``Republic of Kosovo'' printed on them. This was enough for a large number of ethnic Albanian professors and directors of parallel schools to be harassed by the police, while the school reports of the youngest, who are being prevented from attending regular schools, are not recognized.

It has been clear for a long time that all these misunderstandings can be overcome, but both sides refuse to yield an inch in their wish to have the final say in the matter. Analysts agree that both sides want to use the educational problem for the resolving of Kosovo's political status. The Serbian side wants to prove that Kosovo is a part of Serbia's territory, while ethnic Albanians want to achieve the right to self-determination, i.e., an independent state. Ten attempts at ensuring the right to education of young ethnic Albanians, through dialogue, have failed so far. What next?