With the new law on textbooks in primary and secondary education, which the Ministry of Education and Science has opened for suggestions and comments to the public, the use of digital textbooks in teaching is legalized. According to the proposed law, electronic and digital textbooks are identical to those in written form, but the digital ones contain interactive and multimedia content, videos, tests, narrations, etc. This idea, presented a few years ago by the previous government, met with resistance in the public and the parties, but the Minister of Education and Science, Vesna Janevska, does not expect any reactions to this novelty, because, she says, education must keep up with modern technology.

- It is true that our public reacted very much to the lack of paper textbooks and we will provide it, but that does not mean that in the era of digitization of everything, our students should not get acquainted with new technological achievements and technological possibilities. As a party, we have never been against digitization in education, but we were also against not having paper textbooks, and now we are fulfilling that. Yes, we still don't have fully created multimedia textbooks, that is done by professional companies, it doesn't even have to be a textbook, it can just be content from the topics being studied, but slowly, as opportunities allow us, we will develop it and that. Considering that the plan is to make a program that would not change in the next 10-15 years, except for certain topics that will be necessary to change because in 15 years changes will certainly happen, I hope that over time all those who will lead the education will catch that flow so that we can have such contents that can also be changeable - says the minister prof. Dr. Vesna Janevska in an interview for "Sloboden Pechat".

The novelty in the proposed law on textbooks is that all work related to printing, circulation, distribution and other aspects is transferred to the publishing houses, which should stand behind the authors of manuscripts on a certain subject, a model which, according to Minister Janevska, should lead to the creation of quality textbooks and finally that the students receive all the necessary books at the beginning of the school year.

- The law provides two possibilities, for the Pedagogical Service within the Ministry of Education and Culture to continue publishing, but the past years have shown that it can happen, as the law was conceived, that there are no textbooks. In particular, the previous government complained about the fact that authors and reviewers did not come to the contests for various reasons, and therefore there were no textbooks. Therefore, the law provides two possibilities, to continue this procedure that we have had so far, and the other procedure is for the publishing houses to provide their own authors, while the review remains with the Education Development Bureau (BRO), the Ministry of Education and the National Commission for Textbooks. And we have three steps of checking those textbooks. We start from the premise that if we have more opportunities, we will have more textbooks to consider, the choice will be greater and we will come to quality textbooks and the choice will be reduced to the best quality textbook. Otherwise, as it is, here is a concrete example of why there were no history textbooks. Because, I have no confirmation of this, but my impression is that the historians were too angry and by tacit consensus did not want to write about a program that they did not like, that they really appreciated was not good. In order to avoid such things, we appreciated that we should give more opportunities so that there will always be quality textbooks on the first of September - says the minister.

According to her, the possibility of abuses of the system that will be established by the Ministry of Education in the production of new textbooks is not excluded, but she announced that attempts at corruption in education will be sanctioned, and since the catalog price of the textbook will be determined by the government, there will not be much room for corrupt practices. actions.

- The law does not provide for it, but the regulations that will come out immediately after the law provide for a catalog price determined by the Government and it will be completely clear. Yes, companies and publishing houses work for profit, for those it suits, and I think it will suit most. We are a small country, the number of publishers is limited, but I think that the catalog price will reduce the corruption that could appear. We will not invent hot water. There are already formulas for catalog prices and we will take one of those. In fact, we already have a plan for how it will be, but it is not the minister's plan, it is the work of the Commission. The minister just needs to be well informed so that no mistake is made - says Minister Janevska.

The draft law also provides for more filters that every textbook should go through before it is printed in order to avoid the catastrophic mistakes that have crept through elementary education textbooks in the past.

– And that is a human factor. The first barrier is the Bureau, which has to say whether the textbook is according to the curriculum, then there is the review committee, then the National Commission for Textbooks. I believe that such major mistakes arise first from the authors, who were probably in a hurry to make a textbook. Authors are stimulated because of that compensation, whatever it is, to write textbooks, those authors who have already entered that process, why don't others even call. Another thing, and the review committees, I guess they were in a hurry again. That is the fine answer. Even now the terms are relatively short. It is about responsibility and seriousness in writing and everyone should do their job responsibly - the minister emphasizes.

Since this school year, single-shift teaching has been introduced in most of the primary schools, and the expectations are that with additional optional subjects that will help the students to acquire new knowledge and life skills, the backwardness observed among the students in Macedonia will be compensated. and since there is a surplus of 3.000 teachers in education, they will not remain unemployed but will have the opportunity to engage in extracurricular activities and programs prepared by the Education Development Bureau.

– Our children up to the age of 15 had 900 hours less in school and their knowledge is delayed by approximately 3 years. So if it is the 9th grade as if it has knowledge of the XNUMXth, that is a lot and it must be changed. We do not have a single topic in the educated system for artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, communication, our children do not know how to write a single request, acquiring skills, managing a budget, here and banal, how to make a pizza. It has to be implemented, it is not easy and it will not be easy. The professors will have the opportunity, it will not be imposed on them, I am deeply convinced that everyone will be able to choose additional classes according to their knowledge - Janevska is decisive.

The budget of the Ministry of Education and Culture for 2025 has been drawn up, and according to the minister, funds are provided for textbooks, as well as for textbooks for foreign languages ​​that are currently unavailable, as well as for digital textbooks, digitization, infrastructure improvement, teacher training, improvement of the student and student standard, awards for talented students, as well as more funds for projects on multi-ethnicity and multiculturalism.

– The Ministry deals with publishing and construction and social. There will also be an increase in the salaries of teachers in primary, secondary and higher education according to the collective agreement. In February, we will sign the collective agreement with which they will have a guaranteed salary increase, all with the aim of motivating them to raise the level of education, to be proud of it, and for our education to be equal in terms of knowledge to their peers in the European Union - decisive is the minister Vesna Janevska.