Increasing number of schools in Sarajevo offer Turkish and Arabic lessons

Illustration: a primary school in Sarajevo. Photo: Anadolu

Sarajevo, (IINA) - A growing number of children attending primary and secondary schools in Sarajevo are learning Turkish and Arabic as "second foreign language" alongside those traditionally taught to Bosnian children, such as English and German, the ministry of culture and education of the Canton of Sarajevo told Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).
Ministry data showed Arabic is being taught in seven primary and secondary schools in the Canton, and Turkish in 12, Balkan Insight news reported.
Mirsad Lelo, director of the Vhrbosna primary school in Sarajevo, told BIRN that English remains the first foreign language.
"But pupils can choose their second foreign language; by law, if at least six of them want to attend classes in a particular language, we organize them", Lelo said.
Lelo School’s organizes classes in both Arabic and Turkish. The teachers are from Bosnia.The director of the private Isa Beg Ishakovic primary school in Sarajevo said that since it opened in 1996, English and Arabic have been the first foreign languages while Turkish was introduced this year as a second foreign language.
If the growing popularity of Arabic and Turkish reflects the growing influence of Turkey and the Arab states in Muslim parts of Bosnia, the increase in Turkish classes also reflects specific agreements between the Bosnian and Turkish authorities, who have been establishing closer ties in recent years.
Turkish was first introduced as an official subject to students from Canton Sarajevo in the academic year 2013/2014 following an agreement between the Canton and the Turkish embassy to Bosnia, according to the Ministry of the Canton.
Outside Sarajevo, Turkish is officially taught in school of seven cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the country's mainly Bosniak and Croat entity.
SM/IINA

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