The Cyrillic script and the language of Serbs in Croatia

The Serb National Council encourages the use of Cyrillic script and the development of the language of Serbs in Croatia by analysing, proposing and monitoring the implementation of language policies, through media campaigns, scientific and expert publications and discussions, by empowering speakers and producing content that might be of interest to citizens, both in the minority and dominant context (forums, round table events), as well as through initiatives in the minority and mainstream education.
Within the Archive of Serbs in Croatia, language policies are researched in the context of wider economic, political, and other societal changes and transformations, in order to gain insight into how language functions as a constituent component of interethnic relations. Apart from the process of standardisation, the Archive of Serbs in Croatia is focused on studying the language of Serbs in Croatia and its relationship with the standard Serb and Croatian languages. It also follows tendencies in various local contexts from Eastern Slavonia to Lika, Banija, Kordun and Dalmatia.
The Serb National Council supports (both institutionally and outside of institutions) the instruction of the standard Serb language and Cyrillic script, but also efforts to raise awareness of and develop the language of Serbs in Croatia with an analytical and investigative view of the classes of Serb language and literature (models A and B), Serb language and culture (model C) and innovations and experimental programs with support to summer schools and additional forms of education carried out by the Council of the Serb National Minority of Zagreb and the SCS “Prosvjeta”.
In 2019, we conducted a media campaign “So that we can better understand each other” with the goal of promoting the Cyrillic script and removing the stigma from its active use in the public sphere.

Education

In Croatia, the right to education in the Serb language and Cyrillic script is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, Constitutional Act on the Rights of National Minorities, the Act on Education in the Language and Script of National Minorities, and by international documents such as the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages which the Republic of Croatia ratified in 1998.
Education in the Serb language and Cyrillic script faces a number of difficulties which affect all aspects of the educational system; some of them are more recent and others have been unresolved since the end of the 1990s war – mostly conditioned by the social, economic and political context. The Serb National Council participates in all segments of promoting and advocating for education in the Serb language and Cyrillic script, in analysing legal documents, working out strategic and advocacy plans, analysing curricula and textbooks, coordinating the work of Serb institutions with the Ministry of Science and Education and the Agency for Education, as well as documenting needs from the field in cooperation with external researchers and experts, other Serb and minority institutions and a number of non-government associations (in the context of the GOOD initiative).

In the research and analytical work of the Education department, the SNV is focused on:

• Researching the forms and direction of the current concept of education in the Serb language and in Cyrillic script
• Designing and creating educational policies, programs, and teaching materials, based on most recent scientific and expert knowledge

Along with work on promoting minority and mainstream education, the Education department is also focused on making a contribution to experimental programs and innovations in education. Among other things, the SNV took an active role in the project Intercultural School Danube in Vukovar, which was initiated by the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education. In this project, the SNV contributed to creating a concept and producing the curriculum of humanities and social sciences, with an emphasis on intercultural language teaching.

Contact in Education

Sanja Šakić
sanja.sakic@snv.hr

Nina Rašidović
nina.rasidovic@snv.hr