Corruption with textbooks, heavier than other corruptions

 For good reason, 19 years now experts, educators, parents and students have complained about weaknesses that pre-university textbooks have. And there has come the news of the delay, and good news. The education ministry (MASHT) will announce competition for new textbooks. The plan was even earlier, but government change and other problems postponed the first competition (for textbooks for grade 0, 1, 6 and 10) to April 26, 2018. Then, August 2nd (for classes 2, 7 and 11) on August 31, 2018, in order for both competitions to be reviewed and placed before September 2019.

Where are we today? After six months, since the first competition manuscripts were handed over, MANT held a press conference, in which some extremely insignificant information regarding the core of the process was given; even, the press conference organiser validated by the codified “ ” c. On the other hand, there are only four months left when students should have new books in their hands. There were also some questions at the press conference by journalists, who are not interested in the process of selecting texts at the level of the importance of the process. The conference mentioned the presence of NGOs in the process, but the truth is, they are also far from this very important process of education. The biggest and most professional interest in journalists and NGOs would help August not slip into corruption in selecting textbooks.

Weight of Corruption in School Text Selecting Process

Corruption in every area of activity is harmful to the progress of our country, and in some respects, and especially in terms of increasing citizens' widespread disappointment toward state bodies. However, eventual school - text corruption, in addition to carrying all the damage that corruption carries in other fields, carries two other major damage. The first harm is that there will be many names of authors on the cover of the textbooks who have become the link to the corruption chain between the publishing house and the receivers; whereas on the front page of the books, there will be many names of reviewers who have been corrupted with a handful of money, school books would be filled with names of people immersed in corruption. The second and the biggest damage is that, about 400,000 students would learn for a few years more from the books of quality far weaker than Kosovo is able to offer them.

Dangers of corruption slide, already existing corruption signs

1. The 2006 school textbooks law, under which this process has been developed, is not favourable for the quality of books and favourable for corruption. This is because, according to this law, economic operators (publishers) apply with manuscripts and not directly to authors with their manuscripts. First, this means that the first selection of textbooks is made by the businessman, the owner of the publishing house, because he decides which author he wants to work with and it's easy for many good authors to be eliminated at the start because they haven't found an economic operator to cooperate with. Second, August, instead of having a relationship with the authors of “financially”, there is relationship with the rich “ ”, which has the interest for which material benefit exists. The STAT leadership can say: the law didn't bring up on us, we found it this way when we came to the government of August; but the question is, why didn't the new law vote, which is long pending?
2. The STAT Commission on the matter of textbooks (The Committee of Experts for Plan-Programs and School Texts APUSH), which would have to be a host of the text selection process, is overcrowded and dominated by political advisers. In one word, political advisers (even outside KEPTS) have a 100% in their hands the process of selecting textbooks.
3. The selection of resenses has largely been made by the order of a publishing house, which has compiled the list of reactors in co-operation with its perpetrators.
4. Recensits of the first contest have been chosen at the invitation he issued August last December. What about detectives for the second competition? They haven't been selected at all! Recenses of the first competition have continued to engage in the second competition without a public invitation to apply interested ones without a public decision.
5. The process of selecting textbooks has been delayed very much, and it is unlikely that now when we are in conclusion of the selection, due to the approaching September 1st, significant steps of selecting quality manuscripts will be overlooked and there will be no transparency of the process. So there is no time for normal school textbooks to develop. This delay will bring yet another major problem ) will disqualify many texts that have supposedly not respected standards and curriculum, so that the “is simplified” process. But discriminated publishing houses will thus begin the complaints process. And for publishing houses, full transparency must be provided on meeting (or not meeting) standards and curriculum on the part of the manuscripts offered. And this case can easily end up at the court's doors.
6. So far has been announced “result” key and coded. This kind of camouflage does not talk about healthy and transparent processes.
7. These risks and signs say: The process of selecting textbooks will not be reliable; the textbooks will be concentrated in a publishing house that is connected with the STAT political advisers, will focus on some authors and, worse yet, some authors selected by deft businessmen.

Is there hope for the right process and little reliable?

There is! Since there is already no time for normal selection steps, then there is little time for improvement. This can be achieved, if a re-evaluation of texts is made by new receensive commissions and transparent selection and supervision. They must be excluded from the process of selecting textbooks to political advisers.

Shukri Klink