In recent months, Serbia has become the scene of discussions about the proposal to introduce a national primer, that is, a national reading book that should be mandatory in the education system.
“The only real goal of this ‘textbook’ is to poison the youngest through the education system in which new generations of dogmatic nationalists are created, who at best end up as ideological dilettantes and followers of the Serbian world. At worst, they are future members of the Red Berets or ‘Scorpions’.”
In recent months, Serbia has been the scene of discussions about the proposal to introduce a national primer, i.e. a national reading book that should be mandatory in the education system. This initiative has not only caused numerous controversies, but also led to questions about its purpose and possible consequences, as well as the intentions of the Serbian state.
But what exactly is a national readership?
According to the law, and as N reports, the national reader will have a role in “the development of national identity, state affiliation, as well as the respect and preservation of the Serbian language, tradition and culture.”
And what is specifically written in the reading books, only the youngest will soon understand.
“In September, it will be distributed to first and second grade students. We believe that a good knowledge of the national identity of one’s own people is a prerequisite for understanding someone who belongs to another nation, another religion, another cultural environment and cultural models,” says Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, Minister of Education of Serbia.
At first glance, the proposal seems like a step towards better understanding and integration between different ethnic and cultural groups. However, when we look deeper into this idea, we discover complex and potentially extremely dangerous aspects that need to be considered carefully.
Because the national reading book, that is, the national primer, will have the task of glorifying the Serbian nation and the Serbian state on the basis of the “excellence of the Serbian race”. Well, this is actually a nationalist primer whose only task is to humiliate others and the different, and not at all contribute to the “understanding of someone belonging to another religion or nation”.
“It is easy to assume that the national reading book will be nothing more than a reading book of nationalism, a kind of compulsory military service in schools, dedicated to mental training. It would serve as an additional means of bad education, a new textbook of arrogance, arrogance and departure from objectivity, in a word – an undisguised or poorly disguised incitement to the further spread of intolerance, or at least the removal of the dam to allow similar evil to take root,” he says in his excellent text in Serbian. “Peshqanik” doctor of legal sciences and writer Slobodan Beljanski.
And in fact, the only real goal of such a “text” is the structural poisoning of the younger generation through the education system in which new generations of dogmatic nationalists are created, who at best end up as ideological dilettantes and followers of the Serbian world. At worst, they are future members of the Red Berets or “Scorpions.”
And speaking of the Serbian world, wasn’t the joint platform of the All-Serbian Parliament on relations between Serbia-Montenegro and the entity Republika Srpska the basis for building nationalism through the education system? So it was completely expected that the “Defensive-Patriotic War” would be included in the curriculum of school textbooks in RS, all with the glorification of war criminals and the complete lack of study of, e.g., the genocide against Bosniaks.
Here we must return to the recent past and point out the classical ontological law according to which it is not only what is said that matters, but also who says it.
The paths of pedagogical crime
Namely, five years ago, the then president of the Association “Creators of Republika Srpska”, Momčilo Krajišnik, otherwise a war criminal, said that with the publication of a single Serbian primer, “differences will be overcome and all Serbian children, wherever they are, will learn from a common primer.”
Speaking about the implementation of the “Unique Serbian Primer” project, which was proposed in April 2019 in Belgrade by Serbian national organizations from the countries of the region, Krajišnik said that it is a crucial task, but that there will be many difficulties in its implementation.
“There will be many difficulties, but we have set this task and we will insist. We will advocate with institutions, both in the mother country and in the surrounding area, for that project to be completed. I think the issue is the cultural and educational connection of all Serbs in the region, with the fact that we have touched on the Cyrillic alphabet, the Serbian alphabet and the neglect of Serbs in some places,” Krajišnik said at the time.
Today, the criminal Krajišnik is not among the living, but his goals for the “unique Serbian primer” can be plastically described in the reality we live in. And that article after article! From the “neglect of Serbs in the region” to the “educational association of all Serbs”.
The declaration of the Serbian world, that is, the Pan-Serbian Parliament as it is being beaten, is the most literal copy of the idea of a war criminal that is being implemented in vivo both in RS and in Serbia and it was expected that he would be incorporated into the Montenegrin educational system, which after the Chetnik counter-revolution of 2020 .completely transformed into a part of the Serbian world.
That this is so is also evidenced by the “Prayer just made for the blessed beginning of the 2024/2025 school year” on September 1, at the Cathedral of St. John Vladimir in Tivar.
What does “prayer” have to do with secular (constitutional) Montenegro, and even more so with elementary school students? If Montenegro is no longer secular and if the Church of Serbia has not also taken on a pedagogical role? And it is!
Of course, the Serbian world works according to established rules, and even the few who oppose it do so in an unorganized, spontaneous, reactive, subservient incident.
How does the national reading book theoretically create the preconditions for a new chaos?
From a theoretical point of view, the introduction of a national primer can create cultural monolithicism, where certain cultural and historical narratives are positioned as the “only correct ones”. This approach can marginalize and suppress other perspectives and cultural identities, leading to greater division within society.
And this is the primary goal of the priests and ideological gurus of the Serbian world. Thus, the creation of an elitist Great Serb position among the younger generation and the isolation of others and differences as a pedagogical norm.
Moreover, “national cohesion through education” is a very dangerous argument when you consider that it can also be used to exclude and demonize other cultural and ethnic identities. If the primer/reading book is used to advance a national agenda or propaganda (and it will be used), then it is clear that the goals are far from real cultural understanding and tolerance, as Minister Djukic-Dejanovic said.
And the third thing, no less important – the introduction of the national primer will be a new step towards the further politicization of education in Serbia and the Serbian world. If educational content becomes a means of spreading nationalist political ideas or views, academic freedom, which is already a rarity in the Serbian world, can be seriously undermined.
In this case, education is used as a means of shaping social opinion according to political agendas, rather than as a means of developing critical thinking and real cultural awareness. So, then church dogma is a “quick fix” for freedom of thought and becomes the only verified method of learning, and the opinions of church personalities (p) remain the only (pre)science.
Digital-analog middle ground in practice
When things are put like this, then the picture of a boy holding three fingers together the other day at the football match between Serbia and Spain with his eyes completely blinded by national pride, in fact describes the future of the school and life system both in Serbia. and in the rest of the Serbian world.
And this is a system in which children will actually be the potential meat of the Serbian future for a kind of war in which the same Serbia would dominate other countries, peoples and territories for the umpteenth time.
The consequences of introducing the national reading book into the school system have not yet been discussed, but we can already say that Serbia is indeed preparing for a kind of Russification and that as a result it will once again express the need to expand its territories, under the pretext that “Serbs are threatened” or that they “historically belong” to it.
To the detriment of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro, of course.
And the abused children who grow up today in that spirit will be ideological, but also field soldiers in those dangerous, inhuman goals.
// Analytics
Source
