ZAGREB, October 24, 2018 – The temporary principal of the Danube intercultural school in Vukovar, Zlatko Hegeduš, said on Tuesday that the project had not come to life yet because the construction of the school had not begun yet, with only the building for preschoolers built, and no parent has expressed interest in enrolling preschoolers.
The media have reported that Norway, which has granted Croatia 1.3 million euro for the project, wants a refund because the project has not been completed.
The establishment of the school was encouraged by the Nansen Centre for Dialogue from Osijek with financial support from the Norwegian government and the European Economic Forum.
The school has been conceived for an experimental curriculum adjusted to the needs of Vukovar’s multi-ethnic and multi-cultural community. It was established by the Vukovar Town Council in late 2016 and the plan was for preschoolers to enrol in the school year 2017-18 and become first graders in 2018-19.
The preschool building has two classrooms and the plan is to build another structure with seven classrooms for 250 students so that there can be a new class of students every year.
Hegeduš said construction on the second building had not begun due to unsolved property rights, which had discouraged the few parents who were interested in enrolling their children two years ago.
Vukovar deputy mayor Marijan Pavliček told Hina the town authorities had done their job concerning the establishment of the school and that enrolment was not within their remit.
Responding to media reports that Norway wants a refund, Social Democratic Party town councilor Biljana Gaća said “everything was done with a hidden agenda and the realisation of the project was not in the interest of either the central or local government or the Independent Democratic Serb Party.”
Since the peaceful reintegration of the Danube river region in the late 1990s, elementary school students in Vukovar have been taking classes separately, either using Croatian and Latin script or Serbian and Cyrillic script. The situation is similar in the local kindergartens.
