Following the Government's decision on e-textbooks, parents react: Instead of free books, we will now give money for printed

October 1, 2020, Skopje / Photo: Dragan Mitreski - Free Press.

At the last session, the Government adopted the amendments to the Law on Textbooks proposed by the Ministry of Education and Science, according to which students up to third grade will learn from printed textbooks, while up to ninth grade and high schools will learn only from textbooks in electronic form.

Such information excites the public. Parents are outraged that they think they will incur additional costs by printing textbooks, and are unhappy that their children will have to spend most of their time in front of an electronic device instead of with a book in hand. 

- Such, such textbooks did the job. My children can not sit in front of a computer all the time, they lose concentration. This is a catastrophic decision. If until now our textbooks were free, now we will have to print them and thus have additional costs. This is especially true for younger children, as they write in textbooks, solving tasks. It will be interesting when from September the teachers will ask us to have the textbooks in printed form - says Sanja Aleksova, a mother of two.

Another parent agrees, asking to consider the option of having both options available - electronic and printed textbooks, not just online.

- If the option is printed and electronic textbooks, then it will be fine, but only printed is out of the question. This is a serious problem for younger students - thinks this revolted parent of a fourth grader.

The teachers we contacted are divided on this issue.

- Considering the online teaching and the fact that 90 percent of the students in the whole country have already successfully got used to distance learning, my opinion is that there will be no problem for the students to adapt to the electronic textbooks - says for "Free Press" the Macedonian language teacher Biljana S. Divjakovska.

Divjakovska is currently working with sixth graders and from her experience so far she says that these textbooks will even help students, because so far they have learned from torn and old books.

- The textbooks they have received so far, especially students over the sixth grade, are passed down from generation to generation, so some are insufficiently preserved and I think this is a much easier variant. This way, they will have the textbook in front of them at all times, and if there is a need, there is always the possibility to copy it, but I think it is easier for everyone - adds Divjakovska.

On the other hand, a teacher who works with fourth grade students from the Stip primary school "Vancho Prke", believes that the electronic textbook can not replace the paper.

- Maybe it's up to me because I'm older, but my students are used to paper materials from a young age, we can not just change everything in digital form at once. Online teaching is still a difficult challenge, not to mention that all textbooks are available only electronically - says this teacher from the primary school in Stip for "Free Press", who asked to remain anonymous.

 

 

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