Balkans
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Serbia: The Slow Pace of Change
BELGRADE, Serbia | During the 1990s, Srbijanka Turajlic was one of the Serbia’s fiercest opponents of Slobodan Milosevic and an organizer of numerous student protests. After the ultranationalist president was […]
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Moldova: Misleading First Impressions
This past spring, Mariana Diaconu from Yaloveni, a town around 15 kilometers south of Chisinau, passed her final exams with flying colors. Those results at her lyceum carried new importance […]
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Romania: Change for Change’s Sake?
Bucharest, ROMANIA | Thirteen-year-old Ionut Sim may well be one of the first generation of Romanian students to finish middle school after grade nine instead of grade eight. He would […]
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Macedonia: Learn to Forget
SKOPJE, Macedonia | Ivana’s homework has a familiar refrain: she memorizes lessons from physics, chemistry, math, and history classes. She does this until her head aches, she complains, “and that’s […]
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Romania: One More Chance
CLUJ-NAPOCA, Romania | It is 11:10 on a Thursday morning when a slightly unusual science class, the last of the day, begins at Nicolae Iorga School in the Iris industrial […]
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Macedonia: Macabre Market
SKOPJE | Like a character in a crime movie, Olga walked through the dark alleys of the city’s Taftalidje district late one February night. Waiting in the shadows was a […]
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Montenegro: Getting its Story Straight
PODGORICA | Predrag Raznatovic quickly reads aloud through the part of the history book that states thousands of Montenegrins were killed by Serbs in 1918. He doesn’t believe what he […]
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Bulgaria: Classsroom Blues (and Grays)
SOFIA, Bulgaria | At the German Language High School, the teachers’ lounge is a gloomy room with faded sofas, drab chairs, and dust-covered computers that no longer work. Time stopped […]
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Bosnia and Herzegovina: New Law, Old Chaos
SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina | The question of where the buck stops in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s education system isn’t easy to answer. The country has 14 ministries of education. There […]
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Romania: Going for Gold
CLUJ-NAPOCA, Romania | As the little white table-tennis ball rolls on the floor, Dacian Mackszin leans on the side of his wheelchair to drag the ball closer to him with […]
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