Responding to the statement by Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger about the end of the BCS (Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian) model of mother tongue teaching in Austrian schools, Sr\u0111an Mijalkovi\u0107, one of the founders, the first president of Prosvjeta and the founder of Prosvjeta schools in Austria, said that the Serbian community was ready for the reform of mother tongue teaching, but that the Austrian authorities still lacked the willingness.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Now it is clear how important the establishment of Serbian supplementary schools in Austria was 14 years ago, of which I am very, very proud. With our developed structure throughout Austria, with experience and knowledge, with about forty schools and over a thousand students, we are ready for this change, which we have long aspired to and which had to come much earlier. Although this news was published in the context of Croatian, we from Prosvjeta have been fighting a difficult battle on behalf of our community for more than a decade for the status of the Serbian language and the abolition of the so-called BCS, and our schools have been a role model for many other ethnic groups in Vienna and beyond, showing that we, Serbian citizens in Austria, have also contributed to this decision. Now the situation is finally ripe, the support is greater, the Alliance of Serbs and other partners are also there \u2013 all that remains is for the Austrian authorities to implement this change in cooperation with us \u2013 Mijalkovi\u0107 said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 This proves that what I have often pointed out is unfortunately true \u2013 that some Austrian citizens have greater rights than others, and Serbs seem to be in last place (in spite of Serbian being the most spoken language in Austria after German). We must strengthen joint activities regarding our civil rights and our unity here, in all fields \u2013 he stated.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Our Patriarch Porfirije discussed this topic with Integration Minister Raab three years ago, at our request and according to the facts and data that I had prepared and forwarded to him at the time, at the request of Bishop Andrej. Cooperation with our state Serbia and Republic of Srpska, in addition to the church, has been very important and we cannot succeed without it. Because, Prosvjeta\u2019s schools would not exist if there was no support of the Church and clergy, Serbia and our diplomacy (especially the Diaspora Administration), the authorities of the Republic of Srpska, and dedicated work of Prosvjeta teams, our teachers, parents and good people who helped in the face of difficulties; and many times, it was necessary to endure and maintain both schools and educational programs, in difficult conditions. I expect the competent Serbian authorities to urgently begin preparations for an interstate agreement with Austria on the official status of our language in Austria, and we will, as we have done so far, help in every possible way. I call on our friends and associates from the Alliance of Serbs and all our other organizations to urgently form an Expert Commission for the implementation of these changes, in order to ensure that the teaching and status of the Serbian language are finally raised to the level that we, Serbs in Austria, deserve, and that our children can finally study and learn their native language and the Cyrillic alphabet properly \u2013 said Mijalkovi\u0107.<\/p>\n
He noted that for him personally this would be the realization of a great dream and proof that with dedication, commitment and sacrifice, and with the help of many people, the goal could be reached, especially when that goal was blessed, shared and for the common good.<\/p>\n
Source: VESTI online<\/p>\n
Photo: Private archive<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Responding to the statement by Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger about the end of the BCS (Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian) model of mother tongue teaching in Austrian schools, Sr\u0111an Mijalkovi\u0107, one of the founders, the first president of Prosvjeta and the founder of Prosvjeta schools in Austria, said that the Serbian community was ready for the reform of mother tongue teaching, but that the Austrian authorities still lacked the willingness. \u2013 Now<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vijesti","category-vijesti-dijaspora"],"yoast_head":"\n