Skopje, 8 June 2023 (MIA) - We will be ready with textbooks by September 1 because we do not face the same challenges we did during the previous school year, said Education Minister Jeton Shaqiri on Thursday.

"All textbooks approved by the national commission, and which are in accordance to procedures, will be printed. As for the textbooks with errors, as were the history and humanities textbooks, even though schools were given guidance for said errors, the seven-member Committee decided to withdraw those same ones and issued a public call for a group of new authors on the same textbooks. Concerning technical errors within the textbooks, we will try to find a way together with the authors, so that we have as few technical errors as possible. We will be ready by September 1 because we do not face the same challenges we did during the previous school year. We will definitely have textbooks," Minister Shaqiri told reporters.

Shaqiri elaborated the procedure of approved textbooks for printing.

"When it comes to some textbooks, as the one for Macedonian language, there were more than 4-5 calls from the Pedagogical Service for the same one. They had a situation when authors did not act on the comments they received, and then the National Textbook Council decided to not approve any of the textbooks or start a new procedure. Therefore, most of the manuscripts for the 3rd grade textbooks have not been submitted, and the 6th grade ones are being reviewed. The economic operator procedure ends in June, and in July regardless of what the appeal procedure is, approved textbooks will begin to be printed. What is most important is that we will have textbooks by September 1," Minister Shaqiri said. ssh/ik/