Skopje, 6 June 2023 (MIA) — The Ministry of Education and Science will do its best to supply schools with textbooks at the start of the 2023-24 school year, Education Minister Jeton Shaqiri told a press conference Tuesday.

In response to questions about fifth-graders receiving their Macedonian Language textbooks only now, in June, Shaqiri said: "I'm not pleased that the textbook arrived at the end of the school year, but I'm pleased it will be available to students in the next school year."

The education minister said producing the fifth-grade Macedonian Language textbook had taken so long because no textbook authors had submitted any manuscripts to the education authorities' first three calls. When a manuscript was ultimately submitted in August 2022, it had to be sent back for corrections twice so the authors would align it with the new fifth grade curriculum, he said.

"I expect we will be more prepared this September," Shaqiri told the press conference held together with representatives of the Education, Science and Culture Workers Union, the US Solidarity Center, and the American Federation of Teachers after they held a meeting to exchange experiences.

"I expect, I believe and I'm convinced the Ministry of Education and Culture will do its best to make sure everything is on time," he said, adding that there were textbook manuscripts in the works for 80 percent of the elementary and high school subjects.

If no textbook authors apply for the remaining ones, Shaqiri said the Ministry of Education would find a solution even if it meant supplying schools with piecemeal teaching materials.

"We may have problems, but I don't believe they will happen in all subjects because we already have some manuscripts. There may be – regarding one, two or three subjects. I cannot predict which ones. But I don't believe there should be any problems there either," the education minister said.

"This was a challenging year in two stages: both regarding the approval of the textbooks and regarding their printing," he added.

Shaqiri also said the National Textbook Council had so far authorized most elementary school textbooks and they should be printed in time for the 2023-24 school year.

"I cannot predict the next procedures, but if everything is done within the given deadlines, all textbooks will be delivered on time," Shaqiri said.

Asked about glaring errors in some textbooks, the education minister said he expected greater scrutiny from the reviewers in the Bureau for Development of Education and the National Textbook Council. The existing laws, he noted, did not provide for authors or reviewers of textbooks to be fined for inappropriate content or technical errors.

After education authorities decided to withdraw the latest fifth-grade History and Civics textbook over errors and inconsistencies, their call for new textbook manuscripts ended on Monday. Shaqiri said Tuesday he did not know if any manuscripts had been submitted to the call. mr/