Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Communist Regime: an Outlook on Educational Policy

Abstract

Bosnia and Herzegovina as one of the nine republics of Yugoslavia was always among the poorest republics in the former state. However, the school system, as it was the case in the totalitarian regimes, was under direct control of the state. The state had the power to influence school programs and to decide who could apply for school profession. After World War II, education became compulsory for all children and the state could have influenced easily all aspects of education. The state conception how to educate a new society and how to produce a common Yugoslav identity was in focus of the new ideology and those who did not agree with this concept were exposed to negative connotations and even to persecution. Human rights of an individual were openly proclaimed but not respected. Totalitarian societies commonly expect the system of education to operate as a main transformational force that will facilitate the creation of the new man in the social order they have proclaimed. After the split of the Soviet model of pedagogy (1945–1949), the changes occurred in education when the communists established a new regime with universal characteristics of the Yugoslavian education which differentiated among the republics in accordance with their own specificities. Bosnia and Herzegovina with its multi-ethnic nature occupied a special place inside the common state as a model that served as a creation of possible, multiethnic, socialist Yugoslavia.