The lyrics from the song “Secas li se, lepi grome moj”, sang by the Serbian folk singer, Svetlana Ceca Raznatovic, have been incorporated into the Serbian language workbook used by the fifth grade pupils – says Olivera Djikanovic, editor-in-chief of the BIGZ publishing company.
She says that the workbook’s author, Vlado Djukanovic, consciously chose an example that properly shows the vocative (one of the cases in the Serbian language), adding that it was not a mistake, nor a material error.
Djikanovic adds that the fifth-grade workbook, which was written according to the new curriculum, was approved by the Institute for the Promotion of Education.
The controversy surrounding the lyrics of Svetlana Raznatovic’s song finding their way into school textbooks was first started on social media after a photo the controversial textbook was posted. The lyrics appear in one of the exercises where students are asked to underline the nouns in the vocative case that appear in the lyrics of popular culture songs. In addition Ceca’s songs, there are also the lyrics from Riblja Corba, Bajaga and YU Grupa’s songs.
“The source of the lyrics has not been mentioned in the textbook and everybody recognized that the lyrics come from Svetlana Raznatovic’s song because they have heard them before. The author mentioned them only as an example of the vocative case. He purposefully wanted to take the examples from the popular culture that is close to the age of the children that will use this textbook. Ceca, Bajaga and Riblja Corba all belong to the same segment of the popular culture which is recognizable to fifth grade pupils. It’s a completely different issue whether you like their songs or not”, Djikanovic explains.
She adds that the textbook was written in accordance with the requirements of the education reform which is more result- rather than content-oriented.
“This is a more intriguing example that is also result-oriented and it is not a mistake”, Djikanovic says.
The Danas daily approached the Institute for the Advancement of Education, but got no reply from them as yet.
(Danas, 02.05.2018)
https://www.danas.rs/drustvo/pesma-cece-raznatovic-nije-greskom-u-skolskom-udzbeniku/
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