Background Information
The Republic of Serbia the surviving residual of the former Yugoslavia. In southeastern Europe, it is bordered by Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. Serbia is not a European Union member state.
- Area: 88,412 sq. km., slightly smaller than Maine.
- Population: 7,478,820 (not including Kosovo); Belgrade (the Capital) 1,575,000
- Currency: Serbia Dinar (CSD), 1 USD = 56.73 RSD as of August 2007
- Ethnic groups: Serb 83%, Hungarian 4%, Bosnian 2%, Albanian 1%, Montenegrin 1%
- Religions: Orthodox 85%, Roman Catholic 5.5%, Muslim 3%, Protestant 1%
- Languages: Serbian 88%, Hungarian 3.8%, Bosnian 2%, Albanian 1%
- Education: compulsory to age 14; 1,661 preschools serving 164,749 students; 1,239 primary schools serving 747,927; 524 comprehensive, vocational, and arts secondary schools serving 326,774; 70 universities enrolling 137,934; and 50 other post-secondary institutions enrolling 42,107.
History
The roots of conflict between Central European nations and religions can be seen in present-day Serbia. Historically, Stefan Nemanja created the Serbian state in 1170 A.D. Serbia's religious foundation came in 1219, when Stefan's son, canonized as St. Sava, became the first archbishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church. At this time, the Serbs enjoyed both temporal and religious independence.
After a series of successions, Serbian King Milutin improved Serbia's position among other European countries, was responsible for many of the brightest examples of Medieval Serbian architecture, and began to expand the Serbian lands, seizing territory in nearby Macedonia from the Byzantines. Under Milutin's son, Stefan Dusan (1331-55), the Nemanjic dynasty reached its peak, ruling from the Danube to central Greece. However, Serbian power waned after Stefan's death in 1355. In the Battle of Kosovo Polja on June 15, 1389 (June 28 according to the Gregorian calendar), the Turks catastrophically defeated the Serbs, and by 1459, the Turks exerted complete control over all historically Serb lands.
For more than three centuries, the Serbs lived under an oppressive Ottoman rule, and began to migrate out of their native land – present-day Kosovo and southern Serbia – into other areas within the Balkan Peninsula, establishing Serbian minority groups there. Movements for Serbian independence began with uprisings under the Serbian patriots Karageorge (1804-13) and Milos Obrenovic (1815-17). After the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29, Serbia became an internationally recognized principality under Turkish suzerainty and Russian protection. Serbia and Montenegro went to war against Turkey in 1876-78 in support of Bosnian rebels. With Russian assistance, this action gained both more territory and formal independence for Serbia gained, though Bosnia was placed under Austrian administration.
In 1908, Austria-Hungary directly annexed Bosnia, inciting the Serbs to seek the aid of Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece in seizing the last Ottoman-ruled lands in Europe. In the ensuing Balkan Wars of 1912-13, Serbia obtained northern and central Macedonia, but Austria compelled it to yield Albanian lands that would have given it access to the sea. Serb animosity against Austria-Hungary reached a climax with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the beginning of World War I. During the war, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces occupied Serbia. Upon the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918, parts of southern Hungary were ceded to Serbia, forming its northern province under the name of Vojvodina. Serbia was the dominant partner in this state, known as the kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which in 1929 adopted the name Yugoslavia, setting the stage for conflicts that are still unfolding.
The constituent parts of the Yugoslav state often resented control from Belgrade. This pressure for local control continued as an underlying stress. After World War II, Josip Broz Tito gained control, broke with Stalin, asserted Yugoslav independence, and went on to control Yugoslavia for 35 years. In the 1980s, however, Yugoslavia's economy began to fail. With the death of Tito in 1980, separatist and nationalist tensions emerged in Yugoslavia.
In 1989, riding a wave of nationalist sentiment, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic re-imposed direct rule over the autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina, prompting Albanians in Kosovo to agitate for separation from the Republic of Serbia. Milosevic's embrace of Serb nationalism led to severe intrastate ethnic strife. Between 1991 and 1992, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia all seceded from Yugoslavia. Serbia and Montenegro joined in passing the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After several years of devastating war, Milosevic was forced to resign following the 2000 disputed presidential election. In 2003, the Parliament ratified the Constitutional Charter, establishing a new state union and changing the name of the country from Yugoslavia to Serbia and Montenegro, which changed again with Montenegro’s independence in 2006.
The education situation in Serbia has been described by a UNESCO report (2002), paraphrased as follows: The education sector has suffered heavily in the last decade, which can be characterized as a time of isolation, neglect, and the pauperization of society. Schools have not been maintained and teachers have been demoralized by political interference and depressed by the sharp decline in their real earnings. Teachers have been forced to look for better-paid jobs or second jobs, mainly in the sphere of the gray economy. The salaries of teachers and other education sector staff in Serbia are extremely low, with the average net salary being under $5,000 per year. During ten-year period from1989 to 1999, the net salary dropped by 71 percent. By comparison, the average annual salary for primary and secondary teachers in OECD countries is $28,519. Also, curricula and teaching methods have stagnated. Finally, due to the influx of as many as 690,000 refugees from Bosnia and 250,000 from Kosovo, and the destruction during the 1999 NATO bombing, the education capacity has been further strained. In spite of all these obstacles, the whole education system continues to operate, at lower efficiently level, but without total disruption.
In early 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia. In the days following the event, several countries including the United States, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, recognized Kosovo’s sovereignty. Many countries, including Serbia, still see the separation as illegal and many fear that it will spark other regions to declare their independence as well.