The Necessary Teaching about the Goli Otok in the Educational System

The seminar was opened by Dr Ralf Melzer , director of the regional officeof the FES for Southeast Europe based in Sarajevo. He elaborated on the importance of supporting this initiative and emphasized that the professors have a wonderful profession, with huge responsibility in transmission of knowledge.  

"The Association of History Professors of Montenegro participated in several international projects dealing with sensitive topics. However, in this process, Goli otok remained quite marginalized , because the emphasis is on topics related to the events of the 90s. Although a certain number of materials containing sources and work methods for the SFRY period were created, today's program that we are talking about, which is Goli otok and the SFRY as teaching topics in Montenegro, represents a significant step forward that can be very relevant for teachers in Montenegro”, said historian Miloš Vukanović from HIPMONT.

Daliborka Uljarević , executive director of the CGE, referred to the previous work of the CGE in the creation of auxiliary teaching materials for the teaching of history and the teaching of controversial topics in history. She also emphasized the importance of studying Goli otok in Montenegro today. " Goli otok is a reminder that the authoritarian mechanisms of government do not have the possibility to overcome internal differences and contradictions on an elementary humanistic level, but differences are erased by violence and terror." Goli otok is also a reminder of how Russian imperialism uses the internal weaknesses of society to destroy the system and reach "warm seas". Goli otok is also reminds us that pure repression and authoritarian mechanisms cannot solve the problem in the long term, if there is no in-depth work with society, the system cannot be changed, and this can only be done through essential democratization, which is especially important to understand in relation to the current processes in Montenegro ," emphasized Uljarević.

Dr. Boris Stamenić , Croatian historian and the editor of  the Virtual guide through history of the Goli otok camps, presented this learning tool to participants from Montenegro. "The virtual guide through the history of the Goli otok camps provides a relatively simple and comprehensive introduction to a complex historical topic . The virtual guide provides information to visitors to the site, but it can also be useful for covering topics in school or extracurricular education. The content of the guide is available in nine languages. The educational materials that can be downloaded from the goli-otok.net website offer teachers and lecturers different ways of using the virtual guide in the preparation and processing of the topic . FES recognized the importance of thematizing the Goli otok, and financially supported the creation of this guide, as well as the activities of its presentation in Montenegro and other countries ," he explained.

The final session in the seminar was a panel discussion "Goli otok in contemporary historiography and memory culture", with inputs from Dr. Adnan Prekić , historian from the Faculty of Philosophy, Tea Gorjanc Prelević, executive director of Action for Human Rights (HRA) and Filip Kuzman, historian and head of the National Museum of Montenegro, moderated by Tamara Milaš, coordinator of the Human Rights program at CGO.

"The topic is current and extremely interesting for anyone who deals with history, and it is especially important for Montenegro because we all know at least some of the victims who were imprisoned on Goli otok. From the school point of view, the biggest problem in the Montenegrin education system is that this topic is studied in the 9th grade of elementary school, that is, in the 4th grade of high school, and there is insufficient number of classes to properly cover it. The materials and everything that was presented today at the seminar can significantly help teachers in better processing this topic. It is especially important that this topic is used for scientific purposes, and not for daily political purposes, which we witnessed in the previous period. Greater involvement of teachers is also necessary, because only with a greater joint effort can we achieve better results in science, and through that also in history", said Miloš Mrvaljević , a teacher at Elementary School "Vladimir Nazor" from Podgorica.

The seminar gathered around 30 participants, who actively participated.

The original text was authored by Vasilije Radulović , program associate, and available at this link.