On April 26, the Minister of Education and Science, Liliya Hrynevych, held a meeting regarding the printing of textbooks for grades 4 and 7, as well as the textbook competition for grades 8, which was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the Institute for Modernization of Education Content, and publishers.
The minister stated that until now, administrative problems regarding the timely printing of textbooks have not been solved and even additional difficulties have been created.
"One of my first decisions was to present to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine a resolution that enables local authorities to prepay for the printing of textbooks for 4th and 7th grades. This resolution was adopted by the government, the funds allocated by the state and local councils can now be used. We are obliged to solve this artificially created problem as soon as possible and to provide schools with the textbooks that belong to them", Liliya Hrynevych stressed.
According to the minister, the crisis situation with the printing of textbooks was caused primarily by the lack of communication with all interested parties: "Local authorities were not explained their capabilities and powers in this matter, there was no reaction to their proposals and adequate management assistance in difficult situations. The system of purchasing textbooks "50 % (state) for 50 % (local authorities)" took place for the first time, but it was known about its introduction long before the beginning of last year. We are now correcting errors due to the untimely reaction of the Institute for the Modernization of the Content of Education to the problems that arose. I do not accept the position that printing the remaining textbooks for grades 4 and 7 is only a problem for local authorities. Therefore, in the near future, we will hold a conference call with heads of regions, directors of education departments, where we will jointly discuss the current situation and agree on further steps. We need to unite the efforts of the ministry, the IMZO, publishers, consolidate orders at the level of regions, agree on joint actions regarding timely delivery, work out the correct logistics and a joint plan of action."
Liliya Hrynevych also ordered an investigation into the situation that arose with the refusal of a number of publishing houses at the end of 2015 to print textbooks for grades 4 and 7, the return of funds to the state budget, and the refusal to pay a fine for an unfulfilled state order.
As for textbooks for 8th grade, the Minister noted that the competition for their selection was announced too late and teachers, unfortunately, will have little time to choose textbooks on the electronic Repository.
"On April 28, almost 180 titles of textbooks were submitted to the Board of the Ministry of Education and Science, which experts recommended to be given the seal of the ministry and to allow their use in school. Experts rejected only 10 % textbooks submitted to the competition. We must be honest - this is a very small percentage of rejected textbooks, again we have a big risk that many textbooks will not be of high quality and we physically do not have time to change it before September 1 without the risk of leaving children without books again." Therefore, according to Lilia Hrynevych, the tactical task for today is to ensure the printing of textbooks for the 8th grade before the beginning of the new school year. As for the strategic plans for the selection of textbooks for the following years, the minister announced a radical change in approaches: "This process will no longer be backroom and confidential. We will create a public platform where the textbooks will be discussed openly while still in the development stage. We are already starting this work to prevent artificial crises from being solved at the last moment in the future. We have to work in the interests of children and decisions will be made only in their interests," Liliya Hrynevych stressed.
