Curriculum reform is a never-ending story.
Before coalition partners in the government have managed to reach an agreement on the dismissal of the head of the curriculum reform expert group (ERS) Jasminka Buljan Culej, Education Minister Blaženka Divjak decided to speed up the process and reactivate more than 350 teachers, associates and experts who worked on the curriculum documents under the leadership of Boris Jokić, Culej’s predecessor, reports Jutarnji List on September 13, 2017.
Within the first 19 hours, out of the 359 members of the working groups, more than 200 submitted positive responses to the Ministry’s question whether they were ready to participate in future curricular reform activities.
Approximately half of members of the working groups have not yet replied, and some of them are concerned with the fact that they are being asked to come back before it is evident who will lead the process. HNS and HDZ should soon announce what will happen with the leading expert group (ERS) which was elected in May and headed by Culej.
Minister Divjak announced at the beginning of her term that she would annul Culej’s election. An internal analysis completed on 15 July showed that the appointment of Culej and some other members of the expert group was non-transparent and possibly illegal.
The Minister has now apparently decided to skip the current ERS altogether and activate working subgroups which operated under the first ERS.
When asked why the members of the working groups had been activated without the issue of ERS being solved, the Ministry replied that the working groups were formed in 2015 by the decision of then Education Minister Vedran Mornar (SDP) and that the decision was still in force. “This is just a reactivation of existing bodies. While waiting for the outcome of the coalition partners’ negotiations on the ERS, we have decided to reactivate working groups so that the process would not be unnecessarily blocked,” said the Ministry.
Asked if additional members of groups would be appointed in case some of the more than 350 members do not respond positively to the questionnaire, the Ministry said that all vacant position would be filled. They aim to finish the work on curriculum documents in order to prepare for their implementation in the next school year.
“It is logical that the same people should continue to work on curriculum documents. I do not remember there were any political appointments and I do not see anything wrong in the decision made by Educational Minister Divjak,” commented former Minister Vedran Mornar.
Translated from Jutarnji List.
