Newspaper “24 Hours” 4 November

Policy, Concerning the Textbooks, Will be Changed

Nino Barabadze

I-VI graders of all public schools of Georgia will study with the new textbooks from September 15, 2011. These textbooks will not be changed for 5 years. The scheme, developed by MES, excludes technical or content mistakes that present one of the main problems nowadays. Herewith, textbooks will be available for everyone and the future generation will be able to use them as well. New approach of MES creates equal terms for the publishers as the artificial deficit of the books and unavailable prices defined by the publishers were creating harmful conditions for the parents. Therefore, MES will announce competition for I-VI textbooks from November 2, 2010 till March 1, 2011. Individuals as well as the legal entities will be able to participate in it. In the case of approval,  MES becomes the co owner of the textbook automatically and may purchase the copyright after negotiations and agreement with the owner.

Newly approved new National Curriculum will come into force in the Public Schools of Georgia on September 15, 2011 that will be introduced at the first level (I-VI) firstly and in 2012 – at the second level (VII-XII). Compulsory 60% component in humanitarian subjects and 80% in the natural sciences are envisaged in the new Curriculum.

In line with the development of the new Curriculum, automatically all approved books will be abolished and approved according to the new regulation according to the new Curriculum. All publishers or printing houses will be able to publish the textbook that will fully satisfy the standards and receive approval. This will provoke the competitive environment on the free market and the low prices.

New approach of MES is the guarantee of this process as MES becomes the co-owner of the approved textbook. If the Ministry and author come to an agreement, the State will purchase the copyright and all printing houses will be able to publish them. As the result, nobody will have monopoly in the textbook market. Competition among the producers will decrease the process of the textbooks as well as reduce the expenditures of the parents. All publishers should pay 25%of the profit to the owner of the copyright.

Economic fascism with textbooks

Problems concerning the quality and deficit of textbooks are known for the public as well as the Ministry. MES began to solve this problem in 2010 and only partly was available to stop the process. But, MES gives guarantee that blemish will be fully corrected by 2011-2012 academic years. One of the technical parameters of the textbook approval is forbidding notes in the textbooks. As a result, textbooks will be used for several times and the schoolchildren will have opportunity to use these books as well. Herewith, the secondary market will be established and the vulnerable families will use it.

The reality showed that several reasons provoke the textbook problems: everybody have the right to write the book in Georgia and then these books are approved. Afterwards negotiations between schools and several publishers begin. According to the preliminary agreement, the schools choose the textbooks, printed by these publishers. Therefore, these publishers become monopolists.

Parents have no alternative and they have to buy textbooks from them. In addition, publishers create the artificial deficit in order to raise the price of the textbooks. For example, artificial deficit was created and if the  publishers had the profit of 300% before that, they obtained 800% profit after the deficit.

In regard with these factors, it is seen that the free market of the textbooks does not exist. The free market has the different approach from the Soviet economy and its cost – the free market is not interested in the  cost. According to the competitive environment, the price is regulated by the market itself. Therefore, experts believe that state intervention concerning the textbooks is justified.

Dimitri Shashkini, Minister of Education and Science: “this is a very important decision as the problems concerning the textbooks will be solved finally. According to the National Curriculum, textbooks will not be changed for 5 years. By the new approach, the high quality textbooks will be cheap and the schoolchildren will be able to use them in the next years as making notes in the books is prohibited according to the technical parameters.

The only motive, state becomes the co-owner of the textbook is to avoid artificial obstacles from the publishers. In order to avoid monopolists, many producers should be in the market.