KAVČIĆ WARNS OF NEW TEXTBOOK LAW: “It All Comes Down to Robbing Parents and Taxpayers Again!”

The state, due to changing international circumstances, has practically decided to take over the monopoly in the textbook market, while absolute price control will determine how much their budget coffers will be filled from book sales, and who will pay for it all. “It all comes down to robbing parents or taxpayers again,” Professor Alek Kavčić told N1, emphasizing that the proposed law contains not a single word about the right of all students to free textbooks. “And that is what worries me greatly,” he says.

It’s clear, says Alek Kavčić, commenting on the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Textbooks adopted by the Serbian Government, “that this illegitimate government changes laws every so often to legalize its unlawful intentions.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t see a noble goal in the proposed changes to the Law on Textbooks. I think the government is already campaigning for the upcoming elections, which we don’t even know when they will be called, and that the change to the Law on Textbooks is something meant to serve those purposes,” says Professor Aleksandar Kavčić, founder of the “Alek Kavčić Foundation.”

He reminds that the Alek Kavčić Foundation has been providing free textbooks in Serbia for years.

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Monopoly and Lack of Free Textbooks Provision

“And, for years, this government has somehow resisted it. They are doing it again now with another change to the Law on Textbooks – this is the fourth time in two years that some education law is being changed – but they also previously dodged the issue by shifting it from the relevant ministry to the goodwill of municipalities or cities, by avoiding dialogue and similar,” Kavčić states.

Until recently, he adds, a German publisher had a monopoly on the textbook market.

“And now, due to changing international circumstances, the state has practically decided to take over the monopoly, while absolute price control will determine how much their budget coffers will be filled from book sales, and who will pay for it all. Again, it all comes down to robbing parents or taxpayers. The Law contains not a single word about the right of all students to free textbooks, and that is what worries me greatly,” Alek Kavčić points out.

Foundation to Continue Free Textbook Initiative

Regardless of all circumstances, the Foundation, Kavčić adds, will continue to produce textbooks for primary and secondary school students, as well as making them available online for free. “Because it is in the interest of students and our citizens, both at home and abroad,” concludes Professor Kavčić.

It’s worth noting that the proposed amendments to the Law on Textbooks, adopted by the Government of Serbia, stipulate that the state will determine the maximum prices of all textbooks for primary school students in Serbia, including textbooks of national importance.

It provides that textbooks for subjects such as Serbian language, Serbian language and literature, world around us, nature and society, history, geography, music culture, and visual arts, for students in primary education who attend classes in the Serbian language, “shall be considered textbooks of national importance.”

Also, according to the proposed law, the national reader is not only a mandatory teaching aid for all primary and secondary education students but also for students attending primary education under a special program in the Serbian language abroad.