Education of National Minorities in Mother Tongue in the Republic of Croatia: the example of Serbian National Minority

Rad se bavi temom nacionalnih manjina i njihovih prava, s posebnim osvrtom na jezična prava pripadnika srpske nacionalne manjine u Hrvatskoj. Prvi dio rada posvećen je definiranju pojma nacionalna manjina, a potom se raspravlja o ulozi jezične politike i jezičnog planiranja u određivanju jezičnih prava nacionalnih manjina. U nastavku rada predstavljene su nacionalne manjine i njihov status u RH, s posebnim osvrtom na jezičnu situaciju Srba u Hrvatskoj. Pritom je posebna pažnja posvećena temama asimilacije i integracije nacionalnih manjina u „većinsku” zajednicu. Središnji dio rada bavi se odgojem i obrazovanjem pripadnika srpske nacionalne manjine u RH, a obuhvaća dvije analize: (1) analizu kurikuluma iz nastavnog predmeta Srpski jezik te njegovu usporedbu s kurikulumom iz nastavnog predmeta Hrvatski jezik; (2) analizu srednjoškolskih udžbenika iz srpskog jezika, namijenjenih učenicima koji se obrazuju po „manjinskom” programu. Cilj rada jest prikazati jezičnu situaciju i probleme vezane za obrazovanje pripadnika srpske nacionalne manjine u RH.The paper deals with the topic of national minorities and their rights with special reference to the linguistic rights of members of the Serbian national minority in Croatia. The first part of the paper is dedicated to defining of the term national minority and then discusses the role of language policy and language planning in determining the language rights of national minorities. National minorities are presented in the continuation of the paper as well as their status in the Republic of Croatia, with special reference to the language situation of Serbs in Croatia. In doing so, special attention was given to the topics of assimilation and integration of national minorities into the ''majority'' community. The central part of the paper deals with the education of national minorities in the Republic of Croatia, and includes two analyses: (1) analysis of the curriculum of school subject Serbian language and its comparison with the curriculum of the school subject Croatian language, (2) analysis of high school textbooks in Serbian language, intended for students who are educated by ''minority'' program. The aim of the paper is to present the language situation and problems related to the education of members of the Serbian national minority in Croatia