Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development Dr Srdjan Verbic informed the Committee members about the preparation of the Law on Textbooks and the Ministry’s activities in it, saying that there has been a public discussion on it, as well as several roundtables and forums. He said that the new Law on Textbooks shifts some of the responsibility for the preparation and publication of textbooks onto the publishers who should be aware that they need to be translated into the languages of the national minorities and adjusted for the use by special needs children. Dr Verbic added that the law also sets the maximum price and content of textbooks and the renewal of accreditations every four years which should prove quite a savings for the parents since the textbooks can then be handed down. The Minister said that the law also amends the requisites that need to be met in order to enter the textbook market, saying that everyone with a publishing permit can enter the competition, and it also includes a public list of reviewers.

In the course of the discussion the Committee members asked about the funding for low-circulation textbooks, protection of young teachers, feedback on useful textbooks, electronic supplements, as well as what stage of preparation the Law on Textbooks is currently in.

The committee went on to discuss the proposal to amend the candidate list for the election of members of the National Council for Higher Education and decided to propose that the collective list be amended to include Prof. Dr Milan Jovanovic in the part of the list proposed by the Government instead of Prof. Dr Branislava Belic and forward the amended collective list of candidates to the National Assembly for further processing.

The sitting was chaired by MA Aleksandra Jerkov, Committee Chairperson.