There are no national textbooks until further notice

As "Vreme" unofficially learns, Proposal for the Law on Amendments to the Law on Textbooks which should be introduced in Serbian primary schools national textbooks, was sent back to the Ministry of Education for revision.

We were unable to get confirmation of this information from the Ministry, but given that none of the 47 items on the agenda at the first autumn session of the Serbian Parliament were devoted to the aforementioned Bill, it means that the law is not yet ready for adoption.

And it was announced as "urgent" back in mid-July, when it was adopted by the Government and then by the Parliamentary Committee for Education.

It's not the first time

This is not the first time that the law on national textbooks is being revised.

The package of national textbooks was first announced in 2021 after the film Dara from Jasenovac when Aleksandar Vulin presented it in an inspired motivational speech in the Parliament, and a few days after that, Aleksandar Vučić in one of his televised addresses. The then Minister of Education Branko Ružić immediately took steps towards the realization of the project, the acting director of the Official Gazette and the former Minister of Education Mladen Šarčević stated that he would do his best to have the mentioned books in front of students as early as September 1, 2023, but the then convocation of the Assembly did not adopt it.

It seemed as if the whole story was started at the moment when the authorities needed to instill in the people the awareness that Serbia was a victim of the NDH, and indirectly to encourage separation from the current Croatia, and that when that task was accomplished, national textbooks were no longer needed.

National reader

Then, in April 2023, it was decided that instead of national textbooks, only national textbooks would be produced national reader, so that failed too.

In October 2023, the Law on Amendments to the Law on Textbooks was adopted, in which it is written that the national reading book is the only compulsory textbook, in February 2024, the Ministry of Education allocated 329 million dinars (2,7 million euros) from the current budget reserve, in May of the same year Miloš Vučević, in his Prime Minister's speech, spoke about the content of future Serbian language, history and geography textbooks from the first primary to the fourth secondary, all with the aim of "identity socialization", and after that it was no longer talked about.

In the end, "Treasury 1", a national reading book for the first and second grade of elementary school, appeared, but not on the first day of the 2024/25 school year, as it should have been, but only at the beginning of October. The then Minister of Education Slavica Đukić Dejanović said that the other three "Treasury" will appear successively by the end of that school year. They did not appear, and the first "Treasury" was not printed in the planned circulation, so it was not distributed to all elementary school students in Serbia.

The return of national textbooks

The story of national textbooks was resurrected at the beginning of this spring, with the news that the Ministry of Education presented the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Textbooks.

At that moment, education was overwhelmed with pressing problems - from unpaid educators and the survival of the school year, to collapsing school ceilings, and national textbooks were a means of diverting attention.

Minister of Education Dejan Vuk Stanković pointed out at the public debate that the aim of the amendments to the Law on Textbooks is to preserve national identity, develop a sense of belonging, respect the mother tongue and nurture tradition, while at the same time encouraging interculturalism and preserving cultural heritage.

According to the draft of that law, all primary school students in Serbia will receive textbooks of national interest, namely in the Serbian language and literature, history, geography, nature, music and art. The Government of Serbia, if it so decides, will be able to extend them to secondary education as well. Everyone will have identical textbooks. They will be prepared by the public publisher, the Institute for Textbooks, and printed by the public company Official Gazette.

However, the Assembly of Serbia, as it was said, will not deal with it in the autumn session.

Marta Kos

In the middle of the session, the pro-regime "Evening News" published a text in the middle of the session, as some justification why the deputies will not vote on national textbooks, in which they remind the readers in detail that foreign publishers operating in Serbia rebelled against those textbooks.

And that it came to Commissioner Marta Kos, who stated that the Commission will monitor that topic, especially in the context of Serbia's accession to the EU, in connection with Chapter 8 on competition policy, Chapter 26 on education and culture, and Chapter 23 on justice.

"And that's exactly where we should look for the reasons why there was no place for this legislative proposal at the current session," the text concluded.

However, there will certainly be another opportunity to activate the story about national textbooks in order not to divert attention from something pressing and big, unfavorable to the government.

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