There is a countless number of ways to create trust, promote friendship and acceptance of the difference as a quality, not as a curse. The government must provide conditions for this.

Over 200,000 elementary and high-school students started their first school year in the Republic of Macedonia. Many schools are in a disastrous shape financially. But, problems do not stop there with money issue. Most of the school personnel including teachers are poorly trained. Many of them are either demotivated or party soldiers, working according to the agenda of parties in power.

The list of problems continues with the very low quality of the textbooks and curricula offering highly problematic contents to children and youth in the schools. Nationalist and discriminatory contents may be found in many textbooks in students’ bags today.

Schools in the country are divided along ethnic lines. In combination with education which often promotes nationalism, kids in schools nurture ethnic hatred against each other, leads to frequent incidents and violence.

Therefore,

We appeal to the government and all relevant institutions at local and national level to take immediate steps to build and implement a strategy to overcome nationalism and ethnically motivated violence in schools.

We appeal to the parents to exclude national-chauvinism from the meal they serve to their children before they send them to school. It is poisonous. On a long run it causes cancer that will degrade the society in which your dearest ones will need to live.

We appeal to the teachers take initiatives to open opportunities for creative expression of young people and by doing so, overcome intolerance, chauvinism and violence. That ought to be done urgently in order to prevent ethnic hatred during the classes, but also after the official hours, in order to catch up with what they have missed by now.

Integration of the society and mutual recognition and respect of the various ethnic communities in the country will be achieved through schools. Current practices in the education system in the country will only lead to violence and disintegration.

There is a countless number of ways to create trust, promote friendship and acceptance of the difference as a quality, not as a curse. The government must provide conditions for this.

Civil – Center for Freedom will continue implementing numerous activities to overcome the existing situation in schools throughout the country. Such is Civil’s project “All Colors of My Country” dedicated to awareness-raising on human rights and tolerance through creative expression by children and youth, as well as working with parents and teachers. So far, Civil held a creative summer schools on creative writing, visual arts and video production. In the following months, Civil will take numerous activities that will include several thousand students in many schools throughout Macedonia. The project “All Colors of My Country” is supported by the Civica Mobilitas Programme, financed by the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency, implemented by CIRa.