These great, ambitious and hard-working people are trying to bring their children closer to their homeland
The Bosnian-Herzegovinian Herthfordshire School is located in London, and the premises where classes are held are used thanks to the school’s executive board member Džemal Paratušić and coordinator Ismet Balić, who work there.
The school was founded in 1998 and then had over 30 students. The number of children attending the school varied, but was never less than 15 in one school year.
Two teachers are responsible for teaching the children, one of whom is the school’s founder and coordinator – Sabit Jakupović, who came to England in 1992. The other is Jasmin Odobašić, and both are still there. The school board changes, depending on the need, at the annual General Assembly. The school’s management consists of a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, coordinator and an executive board of five members. In addition to them, there are also volunteers who mainly help teachers with activities outside the classroom, and according to the school’s secretary Elmin Pepelar, the response from volunteers is “really satisfactory”.
They have been trying for years to agree on a new curriculum for children with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of BiH, the school tells us, and they claim that the current curriculum is not adequate for their students. So far, nothing significant has been done to resolve this problem.
Despite the fact that the number of students has been falling since 2010, it has been increasing in the last two years. They regularly organize events on the eve of Independence Day and Statehood Day of BiH, the Commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide (which is given great importance in the UK), White Armband Day, but they also do not miss participating in the Bosnian Supplementary Schools Meetings in the UK – the largest event of Bosnians and Herzegovinians in Britain, which takes place every year in late June/early July.
We are certainly among the oldest Bosnian supplementary schools in Europe, and beyond. In the future, we want to stay together, and we want as many children as possible to attend Bosnian schools. Also, we strive to have our own space where we will be able to maintain all school obligations. We older people attended this school, today we bring our children, and I hope we will continue to maintain that tradition, Elmir Pepelar tells us. 
The time that children spend at this school is not only of an educational nature – during classes, school employees prepare lunch for the children on the grill – burgers, sausages, kebabs and the like. Simply put, these brilliant, ambitious and hard-working people are trying to bring their children closer to their homeland, hoping that one day they will be the ones who, based on their love for Bosnia and Herzegovina, will change things for the better and open the door to return. And we are here to push them in that!
