Third week of instruction without textbooks in Kosovo

One of Sophia's children attends sixth - grade classes and the other in ninth grade.

I don't understand, here they say they give free books in schools up to ninth grade and over, children don't have all the books”, Sofia tells Radio Free Europe.

This is posing a problem for children to get needed acquaintances, she says.

School textbooks with which students should be equipped are for sale in several libraries, but their purchase, says Sophia, is also a heavy financial burden on the family budget.

“They will go without books at school that I can't afford to buy books for children”, says Sophia, who also has a child in the tenth grade who had to spend 100 euros to buy all the textbooks, since they are not given for free.

Free Europe Radio has asked in some of the libraries in Kosovo about the prices these textbooks have.

From sixth to ninth grade, a set of textbooks for a class can be found at a price of 60 to 80 euros.

Complete textbooks are not found in a library. They are divided into two and three, depending on the publishing house which has been entitled by the Ministry of Science and Technology Education and innovation (MASHTI) to publish.

According to Statistics Agency data, Kosovo has over 200,000 students continuing education in primary-medium education in 2020/2021.

Otter: Old textbooks are useless

Lack of textbooks is conveying all schools to Kosovo municipalities, says the chairman of the United Trade Union for Education, Science and Culture (SBASHK), Nundman Jasharaj.

We've had complaints of missing textbooks from our colleagues at schools. The worse these texts are missing now when even the lesson began late due to the pandemic”, he says.

Forced schooling in Kosovo under the Law for Pre-university Education is offered for free.

School texts for compulsory schooling, from first to ninth grade, are distributed free of charge by the Law, but the same must be returned at the end of the school year.

MA SHTI: Schools have had to make sure students return textbooks

MA SHTI has announced that they will distribute complete textbooks to primary education students (first by fifth grade) and to eighth grade students. While other sixth, seventh and nine textbooks should be used in the preliminary year.

There has been a decision by the Ministry of Science and Technology to return textbooks from students since 2016.

But if the student has damaged or lost his textbooks, the parent is responsible for compensation.

This 2016 decision, says Nundman Jasharaj is wrong, since those texts are almost useless.

“The students are children and those texts are used in nine months, underline teaching units, any leaf removal, not talking about work notebooks that must be completed. Those texts are simply useless”, says Jasharaj for Radio Free Europe.

MA SHTI in a response sent to Radios Free Europe says on June 15th it has announced to the entire Municipal Education Directorate (DK) that this year, according to administrative direction, the textbooks of class 6, 7 and 9 will be used in the preliminary year.

Schools, according to the ministry, have had to make sure students of these classes return textbooks at the end of the school year, as does administrative instruction.

“MASTI has contracted publishing houses and made the distribution of textbooks based on municipal requirements. So far we have not received any complaints from the Municipal Education Directorate in relation to textbooks. Following some concerns raised by parents and reports by teachers, several school commissions have been sent to ensure that the process of distribution of texts by the DKA has been carried out on the basis of pre-representated requests”, the ministry says.

According to August I, the DKA, in some cases have not been at the proper level of duty, not planning textbooks for students of all schools and making no exact request in relation to the number of students.

But, in this regard, Sahan Ibrahimi from the Kosovo Communist Association has stated to the REL that the DKA has long submitted the demands to the ministry.

Resiti: Family budget is getting worse

The Kosovo Parents' Council calls all this irregularities created with textbooks a concern.

Ymret Resiti, chairman of this council, tells Free Europe Radio that lack of textbooks is forcing parents to buy some of them.

The parents are showing that their children do not have all the books and are forced to buy them. Students' interest is being damaged, the family budget is being damaged”, Resiti says.

The problem with not paying schools with textbooks has been raised by the head of the Kosovo Communist Association, Sazan Ibrahimi.

He tells Radio Free Europe that AugustI is responsible for providing students with textbooks, which, although in the third week of learning, are not in the hands of students.

We're accepting complaints from the municipal director that families can't afford school textbooks. A family is having two and three children in schools, and a set of books is costing 60-80 euros and are not having the opportunity to afford”, he says.

The new school year 2021/2022 started on September 27th, due to the pandemic situation in Kosovo. Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Arberie Nagavci had announced that all necessary preparations had been made for the start of the school year. /rel/