The Schoolbook Law, pending promulgation

A controversial bill on schoolbooks gives the government full control over textbooks

Daniela Budu, 23.05.2018, 13:35

The draft Schoolbook Law was endorsed by the Senate of Romania, which is the decision-making parliamentary body in this field, and the document will be sent to the President for promulgation.

The bill stipulates, among other things, that further to an assessment there will be 3 versions of the basic textbooks, and that the Education Ministry will be directly responsible for the quality of schoolbooks. Under the bill, as of 2020 each schoolbook will come in 4 formats: paper-based, digital, interactive, and a format for the visually impaired. Here is Liviu Pop, a Social Democrat Senator and chairman of the Education Committee:

Liviu Pop: “The new law does 3 things. First, it makes the Ministry of Education responsible in case schoolbooks do not reach students in due time. Secondly, it ensures a maximum of 3 textbook options for each subject, or, in case there are no participants in the schoolbook tenders, entrusts the Ministry with putting together a particular textbook. And thirdly, it introduces a new element, namely the schoolbooks for the visually impaired, which has never been done before in the Romanian education system.

The Opposition Senators criticised the draft, which, they say, will not ensure the quality of schoolbooks and will open the door for Education Ministry abuse. From the National Liberal Party, Senator Mario Oprea believes this law eliminates any kind of competition, and that the Ministry will have a monopoly on schoolbooks:

Mario Oprea: “We are against the essence of this initiative, which has nothing to do with any principle in use in European countries. What we expected from this bill was principles on which a modern education system could be built. As we can already predict, the centralised publication of schoolbooks will be non-transparent, bordering on the unlawful, and running against everything that the multiple education reforms in post-1989 Romania have been aimed at. The National Liberal Party cannot agree with this kind of education system for Romania.

Meanwhile, many teachers warn that the law will push the public education system 30 years back, forcing children to study the textbooks published by one publishing house alone, that of the Education Ministry. In turn, one of the best known textbook authors, Prof. Octavian Mandrut, has this year refused to submit a schoolbook draft, although children have been studying geography using his books for the past 20 years.

2017 data indicate that the Romanian schoolbook market reaches about 60 million euros, but only 6 million euros come from the public budget, with the balance covered by parents. Experts say the textbooks and the curricula are a burden to students, who work more than the normal adult working hours, and are overloaded with information. In turn, at the end of each school year parents hope that the next year will no longer be fraught with uncertainties regarding their childrens schoolbooks, and that families will no longer have to pay for these books.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)