Professor, colonel Jože Sivaček

“Then we have the language problem. We were not lucky enough to receive teaching in Czech. For me, the beginning and the end of Czech was what I learned from my grandmother. Thanks to her, I have responsibility for and a love of the language that I have not forgotten to this day. Then again, I got to travel to the Czech Republic often as part of the educational reform; I was fifty and I visited the country of my ancestors for the first time. I had no opportunity to go to the Czech Republic before that and I thought that, like my father and my grandfather, I would never get to see the Czech Republic. While on a visit, I proudly said at one moment: ‘I am a Czech!’ I am saying this because we tend to live with certain misconceptions. People looked at me strangely and my colleague, the Rector of this University, said: ‘Jožka, you are not a Czech; you are a Serb of Czech heritage’.”

“And now for a Czech story… The necessity of reorganising our educational system became apparent in the late 1990s and early 21st century. We were looking for a new model corresponding to the social changes. They offered me steering the reform of the military educational system. First, I was pleasantly surprised to receive such an offer at my age, and second, it was my mission. I realised that the very Military Academy was founded by a Czech – General František Zach – back in 1850 and that, 150 years later, there was another Czech entrusted with reforming military education. It was a unique opportunity, one that few people get in their life. When searching for models we needed the support from certain similar institutions abroad. Why, I turned to none other than the Czech Republic, so the model of our system is based on the model that the Czech Republic has to this day. The institutions are similar. Yes, ours resembles the Czech model.”