Macedonia 'Very Surprised' By OSCE Letter

The introduction of Macedonian language classes to non-majority communities is a sensitive issue that needs better preparations, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knud Vollebaek wrote recently to Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

“I have received a number of reports that this initiative has caused some disquiet among non-majority communities, including the ethnic Albanian citizens of the country”, Vollebaek wrote to the PM on January 18, just two days before the measure stepped in to force.

In the letter, published by A1 TV, Vollebaek recommends that further dialogue between communities should be established, and the professors and the literature should be better prepared before the start of the program. Also he recommended encouraging non-obligatory Albanian classes for the Macedonians in the areas where the Albanians are the majority group.
 
The government claims the prime minister never received the letter and that it arrived only at the addresses of the vice prime ministers and the ministry for education.

“The credibility of this organization has been hindered in our eyes”, the government said in its press release. “We remind the OSCE that at the mutual meeting we had in August their representatives suggested that Macedonian language classes should be introduced to all first grade students”.

The start of the second semester in 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.

Until this year, ethnic minority students were not required to take Macedonian language classes until the third grade. The introduction of the new initiative is part of the country’s strategy for integrated education, which has been prepared in consultation with OSCE.

Education Minister Nikola Todorov recently reiterated that he did not plan to reverse the decision.

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. The DUI asked for a revision of the decision.