Teachers are less interested in working as part of textbook author groups, the Ministry of Education and Research ascertained after organizing two acquisitions of textbooks corresponding to the new curriculum. In these circumstances, the authorities are considering the possibility of amending the normative documents so as to encourage and motivate authors to design new textbooks of a high quality, IPN reports.
In a meeting with representatives of publishing houses, Galina Rusu, secretary of state of the Ministry of Education and Research, spoke about the new provisions of the Law on public procurement. Under these, in the process of selecting textbooks, the price will matter in the proportion of 30%, while the quality of the content of school textbooks in the proportion of 70%. This will minimize the number of cases when draft textbooks with the lowest price, but not with the highest score for quality are chosen.
There were discussed proposals to amend the Regulations on evaluation, selection and acquisition of textbooks for general education. It is suggested to extend the deadlines for preparing textbook offers from six to eight months, the deadlines for evaluating draft textbooks from two-three weeks to three-four weeks and the deadlines for preparing textbooks for these to be “Approved for Printing” from three to four weeks. These changes could give authors and editorial teams sufficient time to prepare content, and reviewers – the possibility of thorough analysis, in order to exclude all shortcomings and obtain high-quality textbooks as a result.
The Ministry of Education noted that the representatives of the publishing houses underlined the need to empower all actors involved in the development of school textbooks. They also stressed the necessity of ensuring transparency in the procurement process and expressed their readiness to cooperate to identify optimal conditions for developing and purchasing school textbooks.
The discussions took place in the context of consultations on the conditions for launching a new acquisition of school textbooks for primary and secondary schools.
