New school year in Kosovo began amid debates on text supply

Although the Kosovo Ministry of Education has been distributing textbooks for 15 years, this year this minister decided to compensate parents for money after they bought them.

Compensation for the purchase of textbooks will be made through the digital platform cekosova where students from the first to sixth grade will be separated from 80 euros, while for classrooms from six to nine will be separated from 30 euros for other materials since textbooks are provided from the previous year.

This form of textbooks supply has been criticised by the United Education Union, the Council of Parents of Kosovo and opposition parties in the country, which, among other things, have expressed concern over the possibility of misuse by libraries.

Education ministry representatives have pledged that in co-ordination with the Competition Authority, they will avoid any misuse with textbooks prices.

The Education Ministry announced Thursday that so far the number of applications has reached over 115 thousand, stressing that the platform for compensation will remain open by the end of September.

The ministry said that at the same time it has launched a process of reviewing all textbooks aimed at improving quality in education.

Education experts in Kosovo have consistently raised concerns about numerous problems that, according to them, characterise the country's educational system. They stress that international estimates point out that students in Kosovo are 7.8 years behind in quality from peers in other countries. / VOA