Teaching about the Roma Genocide

 Inclusion of the topic in the school curriculum

Learning about the Holocaust is, for the most part, integrated into school curricula throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina (See OSCE report “Holocaust Memorial Days: An overview of remembrance and education in the OSCE region”, page 24).

 Inclusion of the topic in the school textbooks

According to the OSCE ("Education on the Holocaust and on Anti-Semitism: An Overview and Analysis of Educational Approaches", page 35), Holocaust education can be difficult in Bosnia, due to varying perspectives on national history. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the “major obstacles to teaching and learning about the Holocaust are the different interpretations of national history. There are currently three different interpretations in force that are contesting for superiority in the country.”

By 2005, even though Bosnia had committed itself to incorporate the Holocaust education at the Stockholm Conference in 2000, it was unable to do so as the federal political system made it difficult. Furthermore, the country is still in the process of building a viable education system and Holocaust education is not its current priority.

"“Federal political systems also generate problems in many countries, with the absence of national curricula allowing significant regional differences in educational practice to emerge. Bosnia and Herzegovina is an example of the principal dilemma posed by federalist political structures, which delegate responsibility for education to the regional level. Although Bosnia and Herzegovina committed itself to including the Holocaust in the school curriculum at the Stockholm Conference in 2000, Jakob Finci, head of the Jewish community of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has pointed out: ‘Unfortunately, our educational system is strictly divided along ethnic lines and there is no institution on the state level that deals in education. Thus the obligation we undertook in Stockholm has not been implemented yet.", according to the OSCE's "Education on the Holocaust and on Anti-Semitism: An Overview and Analysis of Educational Approaches", page 37.

 Training of teachers and education professionals

According to official sources, teachers are not provided with national in-service training on the subject of Holocaust education (See "Education on the Holocaust and on Anti-Semitism: An Overview and Analysis of Educational Approaches", page 62).

The first Council of Europe seminar concerned with the teaching of history in schools was held in Sarajevo in 1999. The topic was “Teaching Controversial and Sensitive Issues in History Education in Secondary Schools”. The seminar was co-organised with the Office of the High Representative within the framework of the Council of Europe’s Activities for the Development and Consolidation of Democratic Stability. Participants were cantonal Ministers of Education, historians, curriculum experts, teacher trainers, textbook authors and teachers.

In February 2015, the Association of History Teachers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUROCLIO HIP BiH), in cooperation with ZFD in BiH, YIHR BiH, Humanity in action Bosnia and Herzegovina and Anne Frank House, organised Training for trainers for the purpose of implementation of a pedagogical tool “Memory in motion” about culture of remembering and role of monuments. Pedagogical and didactic material “Memory in motion” is a result of joint work of a team of teachers and professors of history and history of art from Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad, who took in consideration the contributions of NGO representatives that work on non-violent conflict resolution, building peace and human rights issues. The training was organised in eight towns across Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from March to August 2015. The training is intended for both secondary school teachers - history, democracy and human rights and sociology and for professors at university as well as teachers and educators in the field of informal education.

 Particular activities undertaken at the level of education institutions

The Committee for the Reform of History Teaching in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been operating with the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina in cooperation with the Agency for Pre-primary, Primary and Secondary Education since 2011. The Committee agreed upon continuing the training of history teachers in 2014 with the aim of introducing the draft document Learning Outcomes in History and Standards of Student Achievements and educating all history teachers across Bosnia and Herzegovina on how to adjust the teaching in regard to the defined learning outcomes.