The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, on Monday issued a Decision imposing a five-percent fine on the funds allocated to the HDZ in Canton Six.
This Decision will take effect on Friday 30 April if the authorities in Canton Six fail to implement the necessary administrative steps to merge the two-schools-under–one roof in the canton in accordance with the High Representative’s instructions. The fine will be backdated to Friday 23 April, the High Reprersentative’s original deadline for this merger to be approved. The Directive foresees that the funds allocated to HDZ in Canton 6 will be reduced by an additional five percent every week thereafter until the necessary administrative steps are taken.
Other Cantons, including the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, have taken the administrative steps to merge two-schools-under-one-roof. The Office of the High Representative will monitor closely the full implementation of these mergers.
“The HDZ in Canton 6 have one last chance to implement the administrative merger of the two-schools-under-one roof as instructed by the Education Minister, Mr Nikola Lovrenovic, last August. However if they fail to do this by 30 April, the fine will be backdated to 23 April – making it a 10 percent fine. This money will be ploughed back into education for the benefit of the children of Canton 6” the High Representative said today.
The administrative unification of two-schools-under-one-roof does not affect the language of tuition or the curriculum which children follow. It eliminates duplication of expenditure so that instead of spending scarce resources on administration, more money can be spent on teaching children.