Students also placed 13 chairs in the city square representing the 13 ministries of education that operate in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Only the minister of education from the Sarajevo Canton, Mr. Damir Marjanovic, was present to talk to students and answer their questions. Minister Marjanovic expressed his hope that this generation of students will be the one that will change the country for the better, and emphasized that only if and when they speak loudly and clearly enough will politicians listen. He urged them to talk to their school administrator, principal and even their education ministers if they feel their rights have been violated.

This protest is part of a wider movement called “We want to know” that included gatherings of students in all the major cities in the country with the aim of raising awareness of the current situation of education system in BiH and the issues students have to deal with on every day basis.

Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina is highly decentralized. There are 13 ministries of education – 2 entity, 10 cantonal and one for Brcko District – each following different programs and curricula. Certain schools still practice de facto segregation of children based on their ethnic belonging, even though this was ruled unconstitutional in 2012.

Creative Commons Love: SocialistWorkerNZ on Flickr.com

At the fair, students offered 107 different projects aimed at solving variety of issues their local communities and youth are faced with, ranging from environmental protection and conservation of the local forests, theater, youth camps, and the preservation of local culture and traditions. The Mayor of each participating municipality will receive a booklet containing projects initiated by the students in order to financially support their realization.

“Volunteer-Finance” was started in 2007 with the idea of strengthening the capacity of BiH youth and enabling them to take responsibility for their future, while interacting with their local community to promote solidarity, volunteerism, and general work ethics. So far, over 7000 students took part in this project, raising total of 130.000KM (cca. $87.500).

Creative Commons Love: mtsofan on Flickr.com

‘One BiH, One Book’ is inspired by the American projects of reading in communities such as ‘One City, One Book‘ and ‘What if the entire Seattle read the same book?’, initiated by the librarian Nancy Pearl. The idea of having similar projects in BiH was born when Nancy Pearl visited Bosnia and Herzegovina in January 2013 and held workshops and seminars in schools and libraries across the country.

The book of choice for this project was Sherman Alexie’s award winning novel The absolute true diary of a part-time Indian. According to Sunshine Ison, the cultural attaché at the US Embassy in BiH, this book is a chance for BiH students to learn more about culture and traditions of the United States. She also emphasized that this project is an opportunity for young people to get to know each other and communicate their ideas and opinions, and use the book’s theme to discuss challenges of a multi-cultural societies such as BiH and US.

So far, 1400 books were distributed across participating schools, but it is estimated that around 2000 young people already read it; an impressive number considering that the books are entirely in English. The program will end in mid-May with the two day festival that will include English spelling bee contest, students’ presentations, plays and performances and the visit from the book illustrator Ellen Forney. 21 BiH students will also have the opportunity to visit Seattle where they’ll meet book’s author, Sherman Alexie.

Creative Commons Love: Steve Rhodes on Flickr.com

What should be considered illegal and unethical, passes in BiH as a legitimate business, because the current legal framework does not have a provision that could ban such activities. On the one hand, ministries of education claim that it is up to each university to discover and sanction plagiarized work. Universities, on the other hand, are understaffed, and students often don’t get to have “one-on-one” contact with their supervising professors. This results in a lack of direction and support that students need from their professors. Additionally, professors are unfamiliar with their students’ work, which makes it easy for students to turn in plagiarized papers. There is also no plagiarism detection software available to professors, making the recognition of stolen work that much more difficult.

College papers are not the only things being bought and sold in BiH. Recently, a large number of “fake” diplomas were discovered, some belonging to high ranking government officials. This begs the question: has BiH become a society that values the diploma more than actual knowledge?

Creative Commons Love:  Wesley Fryer on Flickr.com

This push for external evaluations comes from the European Union. Under its IPA (Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance) project, “Strengthening the institutional capacity of the preschool, elementary and secondary education,” the EU granted 500,000 euros to BiH to use for this project and its other components: comparative analysis, institutional development, agency networking in EU, and capacity building. The consortium partner in the implementation of this project is the Republic of Slovenia, a former Yugoslav republic and a recent EU member. The Slovenian National institute for education, National examination centre, and Centre for vocational education and training will share their experience and knowledge with Bosnian counterparts and assist the BiH Agency for preschool, middle school and high school education in becoming a totally functional institution, capable of providing quality education in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The external evaluation tests students’ knowledge in five areas: “mother tongue” (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian), main foreign language studied during junior high, math and two elective courses in the field of social and/or natural sciences. Similar to SAT tests in the United States, the exam will be available in various practice editions for students. Preparation documents will catalogue questions from all five fields, so that students can practice and prepare for the actual evaluations. However, the BiH evaluation is more than just a test of students’ knowledge. It is also a form of teacher and curricula evaluation and it will provide insight as to how well schools have followed the curricula and whether any adjustments should be made for the following school year.

Although the introduction of external evaluations is a legal obligation for all ten cantons in the country, only students from Sarajevo Canton will in fact take part in the evaluations this school year.

Creative Commons Love: biologycorner on Flickr.com

Hoping to improve the situation, the Education Development Center (EDC) launched a pilot internship program aimed at providing training in the ICT skills required for some of the most common sector careers, such as web developer and software programmer. A four week program was attended by 50 high school and university students across BiH. Participants received both theoretical and practical learning, with six private companies mentoring them, teaching them theory, and helping them with their software development projects.

“The internships provided students with a bridge from the classroom into business,” said EDC’s Cornelia Janke, director of Partnership for Innovation. “The internships show them how what they learned in school—for example, in math or engineering—is applied in business. They learned the theory behind software development and how to carry out and manage their own hands-on projects.”

The internship program is just one of several Partnership for Innovation projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Four Business Innovation Centers, set up across the country, will serve  as help centers for small and medium sized businesses wishing to use ICT to enhance their competitiveness and productivity, as well as as training hubs for young people who want to learn ICT skills or start their own business.

The Partnership for Innovation project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and managed by the EDC.

Creative Commons Love: Carol VanHook on Flickr.com

The round table was aimed at strengthening regional cooperation in the field of science and technology. The ministers recognized that science transcends political borders and that it can enhance cooperation and act as a catalyst for stability in the region. They acknowledged the relevance of the EU Framework Programs and other EU funding schemes and agreed that Southeast European countries should speak in one voice to the European Union when it comes to the issues they commonly agree on.

Some of the recommendations and conclusions from the meeting include:
• SEE countries will continue to draw attention towards increasing budgets for science, technology, and innovation.
• Facilitate partnerships between public and private sectors in the fields of science, technology, and innovation.
• Create better strategies and increase investments in international science, technology, innovative projects, and research capacities in SEE.
• Facilitate partnerships between the public and private sectors in the fields of science, technology, and innovation.

UNESCO expressly stated that SEE countries are of great importance and interest to the whole international community because of they are the proof that, despite their differences, they share many similarities that can help build a base for a solid partnership.

Creative Commons Love: Anosmia on Flickr.com

The three-day bootcamp brought together young JavaScript developers across the country with the aim to further educate them in the field of HTML5 technologies. Lectures and workshops provided participants with knowledge on how to use Google’s JavaScript Framework and AngularJS to build a dynamic web interface, and they were able to put that knowledge to use in the practical portion of the workshop. Participants had the opportunity to pitch their ideas and compete for some worthy prizes, such as visit to the Blackbox Mansion in Sillicon Valley, CA (airfare and accomodation included), consultancy services and yearly web hosting packages, and office space in Sarajevo.

Overall, there were 80 participants, 17 mentors, and 10 team members attending the event.

SSST is the best and most renowned private university in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It recently opened a new, state-of-the-art campus in the country’s capital of Sarajevo. The new campus takes up 10.000m2 (cca.108.000ft2) of land, and with building costs of six million euros, it is the biggest private investment made in the country in the past two decades.

Creative Commons Love: keso on Flickr.com

The idea behind the creation of this website is the need for a platform where students can, without fear or embarrassment, freely express what they see as problematic in the education and school system. This, in turn, stimulates them to become more proactive and take part in discussions that pertain to their education.

Some categories of problems that students can address include infrastructure, quality of education, corruption, textbooks, curriculum, extracurricular activities, etc. Once reported, the problem is verified by an outside party, usually volunteers within created organizations. Then, it’s taken up to municipal officials, if necessary. Some of the most pressing problems reported include safety issues due to poor school infrastructure, corruption, and lack of proper textbooks that follow the teaching curriculum.

Project Fix My School was one of 38 winners of the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund 2011 (there were 700 entries) and is partially funded by a United States government grant.

Creative Commons Love: blandm on Flickr.com

Han Sol’s reasons for choosing BiH are unclear. However, some believe the choice will serve to benefit him, despite the fact that the country has suffered from recent conflict and is ethnically divided. “I think it’s a good school for Kim because I think it will give him insight into other conflicts – the ways in which they’re being handled or mishandled, as the case may be. I think it will broaden his perspective of something that I know matters a lot to him, and that is the division on the Korean Peninsula,” said Stephen Codrington, former principal of UWC Hong Kong.

In a recent interview on Finnish television, Kim Han Sol expressed his dream of going back home and making life better and easier for his people. “I also dream of unification because it’s really sad that I can’t go there and see my friends over there, and yeah, its a really sad story,” Kim said. His plan is to work on building peace in the world, especially in his motherland.

Creative Commons Love: Global Photo Archive on Flickr.com