Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
Riza Brada UDC 376.744(497.115) 
Provincial Institute for the 
Advancement of Education and 
Child Care, SAP Kosovo 
Pristina, Yugoslavia 
EDUCATION AND INSTRUCTION FOR THE COMMUBITY AS AN ATTRIBUTE OF A 
MULTINATIONAL ENVIRONMENT: THE EXPERIENCE OF KOSOVO* 
The common educational-instructional work or the common 
curriculum and programme of the educational-instructional work in 
Kosovo consists of two dialectically interlocking components: 
teaching and common educational-instructional activities. The 
teaching is carried out according to an established curriculum 
and programme in the given language of instruction. The 
precondition of the implementation of teaching is knowledge of 
the language of instruction. The teaching is carried out, in the 
main, by the teachers of a determined nationality. All the 
teachers teaching in the languages of instruction form a common 
teachers' Council and the other bodies of management. While the 
teaching is carried out in a certain language, the other 
educational-instructional activities, such as social activities 
of the Pioneers and the youth, socially beneficial work, public 
and cultural activity of the school, protection and promotion of 
the living and working environments, and the like, are carried 
Out in the languages of instruction used in the school. On such 
occasions, there mostly occurs "the disintegration of the 
classical class-lesson system." The sections "merge" into a 
class, so that all the pupils of the section which form the class 
work at common activities and communicate in the languages of the 
nationalities and ethnic groups freely and spontaneously. This 
means that everything that cannot be fully offered by the 
teaching is offered by the rest of the educational-instructional 
activities, and this is directly a coaction and interaction, 
Similar to the coaction and interaction in the actual social, 
working-living conditions. 
A special aspect of the educational-instructional work in the 
teaching contributing to education and instruction and to a 
common life and work of the children and youngsters in the 
multicultural school or social environments, respectively, is the 
learning of non-native languages or of the languages of the 
social environment, respectively. In Kosovo the Albanian, Turkish 
and Romany (Gypsy) children learn the Serbo-Croatian language, or 
the children of the other nationalities and ethnic groups learn 
the Albanian and Turkish languages. At the beginning of their 
schooling the children voluntarily decide (consulting the 
parents or guardians) on their learning a non-native language. 
After their decision, the non-vernacular language becomes a 
compulsory one like all the other subjects of instruction. 
  
* Original: Serbo-Croatian, ll pages 
223

Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
Basic Principles of the Organization of the Education and 
Instruction 
Education in multicultural environments - including SAP Kosovo - 
is organized on the basis of the established principles of the 
common life and work of nationalities and ethnic groups within 
the course of their historical development, and especially in the 
course of the building up of the socialist self-managing society. 
These include: the principle of the historical existence and the 
perspective of the self-assertion of the nations and ethnic 
groups, and the principle of democratism, many-sidedness and 
permanence. These principles have not been laid down arbitrarily 
under the provisions, but confirmed by the revolutionary action, 
so that they have the force of moral norms an the features of the 
building up and development of the socialist self-managing 
relationships. Any deviation from them means a deviation from the 
ideals of the socialist revolution, 
The principle of the historical existence and of the perspective 
of the self-assertion of the nations and ethnic groups represents 
a fundamental principle of organization of education and 
instruction in the multinational environments. The common life 
and work of the nationalities and ethnic groups is a historically 
conditioned fact that did not originate in the provisions of 
governments and parties, but under the conditions and needs of 
life and work, having arisen even prior to the establishment of 
governments and parties. There are no aggressive peoples, but 
only individuals and small groups within the party. As a rule, 
almost all the peoples want a peaceful development, peaceful co- 
operation and mutual respect and solidarity. This need expressed 
as a wish presents a basic driving force behind the common work 
and life, asserting education and instruction as a science, 
method, means and condition of achieving this goal. The 
nationalities and ethnic groups in their common life and work, in 
their common education and instruction see the possibility of a 
complete assertion of human qualities, freedom, brotherhood and 
unity of the peoples with respect to their origin and not their 
colour, nationality, social and other background. Thus, the 
education and instruction for the community is asserted as an 
attribute of a multinational environment. 
The principle of democratism is determined by the need for a free 
development of the individual as a precondition of a free 
development of the society as a whole. This principle is 
manifested by the individual's right to education and instruction 
in his mother tongue or in his chosen teaching language, 
respectively; by the right of the nationalities and ethnic groups 
to organize their education and instruction in their own 
languages, as they organize and develop their entire spiritual 
and material life together with the other nationalities and 
ethnic groups. In relation to the society this principle means 
the obligation on the part of the society to create the 
organizational and material conditions for organizing education 
in the languages of the nationalities and ethnic groups. As the 
education and instruction represent the attribute of freedom, 
under our circumstances, not only in (undeveloped) village 
environments, but also in those of the towns, for the purposes of 
securing education and instruction in the mother tongue, sections 
have been formed having but a small number (1-3) pupils. This 
224

Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
rule is applied to all the nations and ethnic groups in Kosovo. 
Not only is education organized and the teaching method 
(textbooks and other school literature) in the mother tongue 
secured for Romanies, Turks, Serbs and Montenegrins, 
representing, in certain areas, a smaller group of the population 
as to their number, butealso for the Albanians, who represent a 
smaller group living among the Serbs and Montenegrins. 
The principle of many-sidedness is determined by the need for the 
development of many-sided man, or of a many-sided assertion of 
the history and culture of the nationalities and ethnic group in 
education and instruction. In the programmes of the educational- 
instructional work there are selected contents covering the 
spheres of language, art, the social and social and natural 
sciences, mathematics, industrial arts, physical education and 
health, as well as defence and self-protection, and other 
educational-instructional activities having a special character. 
These programmes comprise contents of the histories and cultures 
of all the nationalities and ethnic groups, not neglecting the 
national history and culture. In this way the formation of 
national consciousness and of national tolerance is secured, as 
well as respect and solidarity in relation to the other 
nationalities and ethnic groups. This indicates that self- 
managing socialism does not practise the assimilation of 
nationalities, but, on the contrary, asserts their national 
existence in the spirit of socialist internationalism and 
patriotism. The assertion of a real national consciousness always 
leads to internationalism, to love and respect of the national 
existence of the other nationalities. 
The principle of permanence is manifested in the sense of 
enabling each and every individual a lifelong education, This 
principle has been asserted entirely in our Province, in 
particular where the Albanian ethnic group is involved, since it 
is in a position to develop its history and culture at the 
University of Kosovo and within the framework of the Academy of 
Sciences and Arts in its mother tongue. 
To prevent the exercise of the equality of rights of the 
nationalities and ethnic groups in education and instruction, 
anti-self-management forces try to incorporate into the common 
contents more history, literature and musical creations of their 
nationalities, or “of the great nationalities," under the 
assumption that therein lie "the actual educational values.’ 
These forces tend to assert "their mother tongue" as the language 
of the "majority" and make it compulsory for the others, 
especially for the ethnic groups. These forces are bothered by 
the cultivation of national traditions, the continuous learning 
of national history, literature, and musical and visual-arts of 
the ethnic groups. 
The next problem causing certain difficulties in the achievement 
of greater results in education and instruction for the community 
of the nationalities and ethnic groups is the insufficient 
theoretical development of pedagogy of educational work at the 
schools teaching in the languages of nationalities and ethnic 
groups. Teachers work more on the basis of the pedagogical 
intuition, of the "tried practice." The lack of theoretical and 
225

Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
practical considerations causes a number of teachers to be not 
always efficient in the educational work. 
It is therefore necessary to develop the pedagogical science 
parallel with the development of the society, its material base 
and superstructure. In our case, the pedagogical science as a 
part of the social superstructure is not developed, nor does it 
sufficiently reflect the development of our socialist self- 
management, the revolutionary gains in the legal exercise of the 
equality of rights of the nations and ethnic groups in the field 
of education. Among other things, many a mistake made can be 
accounted by this insufficient development. 
References 
The Constitution of the SFRY (1974) 
The Constitution of the SAP Kosovo 
The Act on Pre-School Education (1978) 
The Act on Elementary Education (1980) 
The Act on Secondary Vocationally-Oriented Education (1980) 
The Act on Higher and University Education (1979) 
Curricula and Programmes of the Educational Work (for Pre-School, 
Elementary, Secondary, Higher and University Education. 
226