Seminar Report "Teaching History in Serbia" (Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, 21-22 January 2023)

Description

The first seminar on history teaching, organised by the Ministry of Education of Serbia and the Council of Europe, was held in Belgrade in March 2001. Since then, there have been continuous contacts on this subject, and, at the end of 2002, when programmes for a complete reform of school curricula in Serbia were presented, ideas for a seminar on history teaching were put forward, and, at a short notice, this seminar was arranged. Due to bad weather conditions in Belgrade, the opening of the seminar was delayed, and the last foreign participants did not arrive until late in the afternoon of Tuesday 21 January 2003. The formal opening of the seminar was, therefore, only on the morning of Wednesday 22 January. Ms Alison Cardwell, on behalf of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, thanked Ms Biljana Stojanovic and the Ministry of Education for the cooperation in organising the seminar. She introduced the Council of Europe in general and mentioned that there were negotiations underway for Serbia to become a member. Ms Cardwell then presented the on-going, extensive educational programmes of the Council of Europe, especially focusing on the range of activities and contents concerning history education, which is seen as one of the main pillers. She mentioned such examples as The Black Sea Initiative project and inside the framework of the Stability Pact for South East Europe, and Ms Cardwell announced a new 3-year project on the European dimension in history teaching focusing on key dates and key events such as 1848, 1913, 1919, 1945 and 1989, the first conference of which would be in May 2003 in Braunschweig, and the next in Yalta in the autumn of 2003 around the events of 1945.

Keywords

Council of Europe

History teaching

Srbija

Србија