NEWS OF THE DAY – CIVIL holds panel discussion on the topic “Non-discrimination and multiculturalism in education”, as part of the project European perspectives, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany. Minister of Education and Science Mila Carovska, professor Elena Dzukeska from the Independent Academic Union and Blendi Hodai, President of the Union of High School Students participated in the panel. The panel was moderated by Xhabir Deralla from CIVIL. The panel is the first of the series of events regarding the reforms in the education.

Minister of Education and Science Mila Carovska reflected on multiculturalism in schools and non-discriminatory content in textbooks.

“The system is trying to manage all the challenges. We have all witnessed discriminatory content being published in textbooks for years. What is important is that until now these issues have been discussed only as projects. In the new concept for primary education, the main pillar is interculture. The concept is civil and we are a civil state. You cannot adopt laws on discrimination and inclusion and in reality have discriminatory content and be directly creating an atmosphere of dissatisfaction. We should not view all these debates only from a political perspective, but should view them from the perspective of respecting all groups. The education has to respect all”.

“We have problems with not understanding multiculturalism and non-discrimination in the academic field”, said professor Elena Dzukeska from the Independent Academic Union.

Political parties need to show responsibility, we are now in a post-regime period, the dictator is not in the country, but the regime is still here. Part of the academic field did not have some strong arguments on why reforms in the education should not be implemented, there was simply personal and political squabbles”, she added regarding the question about the announced education reforms.

Blendi Hodai, President of the High School Student Union,  spoke about multiculturalism as a value in the family and in schools.

“We as a union of high school students, when we speak about inclusion in society, we always conclude 2 important phenomena. The first phenomenon, the roots of the problems are in the family. Hate speech against some communities is used in our families and thus young people are built who will not respect multiculturalism as a value. And that is a serious problem. Diversity is seen as a threat, unfortunately.

STATEMENT OF THE DAY Zaev: As long as the Macedonian language exists, the Macedonians will also exist

“Today we celebrate Macedonian Language Day, which this government as part of its continuous care, protection and promotion of our mother tongue in 2019 declared as a holiday in honour of May 5, 1945, when the Decision of the Presidium of ASNOM for the adoption of the alphabet of the Macedonian language as an official letter of our language.

This government is sincerely and strongly committed to nurturing and promoting the Macedonian language, because our language is our national and cultural identity. That is why we have launched an initiative for amending the Law on the Use of the Macedonia Language, but we are also listening to all the remarks and suggestions in the direction of promoting out Macedonian language.

FLASH NEWS

COVID MEASURES At the recommendation of the Commission for Infectious Diseases, due to the quieting of the epidemic in the country, the government decided for the curfew to start at 11.00 pm, instead of 9.00 pm, and last until 5.00 am starting from today.

REFORMS IN THE JUDICIARY The report of the State Department, the European Commission, as well as “Freedom House”, GRECO and several other international organizations and bodies, show that the reforms in the judiciary are producing results in relation to the rule of law, says Minister of Justice Bojan Maricic.

JUSTICE Five of the accused for illegal issuance of passports to foreign nationals in the “Dvojnik” case pleaded guilty at today’s hearing before the Basic Criminal Court in Skopje.

STATE DEPARTMENT WITH SUPPORT The US are supporting all efforts of the European Union and its member states to assist North Macedonia and Bulgaria to more easily reach a solution, stated the State Department spokesperson for Voice of America in a reply to a question on whether Washington is supporting Austria’s offer to mediate between the two countries in resolving the problem.  IMMUNIZATION Minister of Health Venko Filipce believes that the response for vaccination should be greater. He appeals to the citizens to register on the website “vakcinacija.mk”, for which he says is working smoothly and that there are no problems with the scheduling.

D.T

translation: N. Cvetkovska