Caution Urged in Skopje Education Initiative

The Heads of Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, the EU, NATO, and the United States signed the statement.

It comes after the government accused the OSCE of changing its position, saying that it had previously endorsed the ongoing introduction of Macedonian language classes to non-majority first graders. The measure has caused a nationwide controversy and faced opposition.

Proficiency in the state language “will help to promote integration of the different communities, and is indispensable to all citizens, as they seek better educational and employment opportunities later in life”, the statement reads.

However, the heads of mission note that the introduction of these classes must be gradual and done in close cooperation with teachers and parents “in order to ensure that changes in the curriculum are carried out in a spirit of mutual understanding and consensus”.

At the start of the second semester elementary schools across the country faced a boycott from ethnic Albanian teachers and students. They claim that the addition of a third language in the first grade - alongside their mother tongue and English - will overburden students.

The move was condemned by several ethnic Albanian NGOs and also by the largest ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, which is a junior partner in the ruling coalition headed by the centre-right VMRO-DPMNE.

Until this year, ethnic minority students were not required to take Macedonian language classes until the fourth grade.

The introduction of the new initiative will not be stopped, Education Minster Nikola Todorov said recently. The move is part of the country’s strategy for integrated education, which has been prepared in consultation with the OSCE, he added.

However, in a letter that was published by local media, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knud Vollebaek wrote to Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and warned that the move came too early.

The government, in a press release issued in response to the letter, expressed surprise at the OSCE statement. Skopje argued that the measure was launched after OSCE experts explicitly endorsed it.