RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION FOR COEXISTENCE IN CONTRAST TO POLITICIZATION OF RELIGION IN THE CONTEXT OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM

Abstract

In keeping with the educational reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina Criteria were passed for the school names and the symbols. The criteria were used to determine which symbols and names of schools can be present in everyday life of this institution and which cannot. The theoretical side of this story was concluded with the passing of the criteria. When the criteria had to be implemented, things were far more difficult. This is best illustrated by the fact that the authorities of two cantons (excluding the ministries of education) refused every kind of cooperation on that issue and did not allow the poll-takers to enter the schools. The findings of one nongovernmental organization demonstrate the level of nonapplication of these criteria. The author of this text especially focuses on the use of various symbols in the context of teaching religious education and analyzes the current conditions of public life of our public schools as far as the misuse of religion for political aims. At the end of this work possible solutions of how religious instructors can contribute to the de-ideologization of religion and religious content in schools. The author advocates a certain kind of religious education for coexistence as a possible solution.