Bosnia - Teaching History

This programme shows the importance of history in shaping national identity, by looking at how the subject is taught in Bosnia.

In this country, where memories of conflict are still very fresh, children are growing up learning a very one-sided account of their history.

In towns of multiple ethnic groups, schools are divided and in the same building Croat children are taught in separate classrooms from Muslim children.

History is taught from different national curriculums that offer different views of the past. It's a situation that while keeping the peace in the present could also drive a wedge between ethnic groups by reinforcing differences.

By learning about another country's treatment of history, the programme also asks from a wider perspective, how much of our own country's past we simple accept.