ZAGREB, Oct 19 (Hina) - The Croatian government on Thursday sent into parliamentary procedure a bill on the establishment of a council for textbooks and postponed a decision on increasing the salaries of secondary schools teachers.
The new law on textbooks, regulating the procedure of their approval and use, could replace the current law, adopted 22 years ago, at the beginning of next year. The bill, which was drawn up by the Education Ministry, envisages the establishment of a council for textbooks, which would make expert decisions in the process of textbook approval. The council would have a president and six members - experts on education, who would be appointed by the education minister. The council would, among else, decide whether a textbook should be withdrawn from schools, whether textbooks whose approval date has expired should undergo another review, and est
ZAGREB, Oct 19 (Hina) - The Croatian government on Thursday sent
into parliamentary procedure a bill on the establishment of a
council for textbooks and postponed a decision on increasing the
salaries of secondary schools teachers.
The new law on textbooks, regulating the procedure of their
approval and use, could replace the current law, adopted 22 years
ago, at the beginning of next year.
The bill, which was drawn up by the Education Ministry, envisages
the establishment of a council for textbooks, which would make
expert decisions in the process of textbook approval.
The council would have a president and six members - experts on
education, who would be appointed by the education minister.
The council would, among else, decide whether a textbook should be
withdrawn from schools, whether textbooks whose approval date has
expired should undergo another review, and establish the elements
of a review.
The ministry would publish the list of approved textbooks by March 1
at the latest for the next school year, and announce which textbooks
will be used in schools by May 20 at the latest for the next school
year.
Textbooks will be approved for a period of two years and in the next
approval round for a period of four years. Textbooks would be
assessed by a commission of five, whose composition would depend on
the type of the textbook.
The quality of a textbook would be assessed on the basis of research
results and students' competence tests as well as on the basis of
data on the usage of textbooks in schools.
The bill also envisages that a total of 450,000 kuna should be
secured from the budget for the operation of the council.
Although such a decision was expected, the government today did not
decide to increase the salaries of secondary school teachers but
announced that it would offer an integral solution for the salaries
of all employees in the public sector within one month.
The government made this decision at the closed part of today's
session, after it studied a regulation on increasing the wage
bracket of secondary school and students' hostel teachers.
The regulation was aimed at removing differences in teachers'
salaries as the salaries of secondary school teachers are lower
than those of primary school teachers.
(hina) rml