In response to an open letter issued on Tuesday by 18 members of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences and ten historians who insist on the withdrawal of two history textbooks for the eighth grade, Orsolic told Hina later in the day that in compliance with the law, the Science, Education and Sport Ministry could set up a new expert commission if there was evidence that the two textbooks, whose authors are Snjezana Koren and Kresimir Erdelja and Igor Stojakovic, contained incorrect and false information.
The Ministry can request the withdrawal of those textbooks if they are proven to contain misinformation but for the time being the Ministry has no information to that effect, Orsolic said, adding that history textbooks which have so far been used interpret the Homeland Defence War in various ways, often without due attention and superficially.
That is why on 15 September last year, the Ministry adopted a new curriculum which, among other things, clearly determines topics that must be tackled by history textbooks for the eighth grade.
Orsolic added that teachers had a deadline until 31 May to give their position on the textbooks offered, when the ministry was expected to make a catalogue of selected textbooks.
Apart from the above mentioned academicians and historians, the Croatian Cultural Council (HKV), that gathers mainly intellectuals and academicians who are perceived as having rightist views, today criticised the contentious textbooks as well.
The HKV has said that "until now subversive fabrications (of recent Croatian history) have been restricted to the press, the electronic media and books". However, the falsification of recent Croatian history has now "moved into school textbooks under the auspices of the Science, Education and Sport Ministry".
These and similar fabrications neglect the real causes of the Homeland Defence War and dimensions of plans for Great Serbia expansion, the Council said among other things.
It called on history teachers and students to reject and ridicule such textbooks,