Macedonia Awaits Results of Schoolbook Revision

Teams of university professors tasked with checking the content of over 200 school textbooks have completed their job but the results are still being reviewed by the Education Minister, Nikola Todorov, the ministry said.

"We expect the whole thing to be completed soon," the ministry spokesperson, Goran Galev, told Balkan Insight.

Declining to divulge specific details on how many flaws the revision process had spotted, Galevski said: "We hope to eliminate all possible mistakes, if any, with the next editions of the textbooks."

In September, experts rushed to revise schoolbooks following revelations that one contained numerous mistakes and dubious assertions. Critics said it was proof of official incompetence.

The book in question, “Society”, which was later withdrawn, named TV show hosts and local celebrities as noted figures in the field of culture. Not one writer or painter was mentioned, an omission that prompted complaints from the Macedonian Association of Writers.

Another section of the book contained a picture of the Prophet Mohammed, whose depiction is forbidden in Islam, drawing protests from Macedonia's large Muslim community.

Other errors or questionable statements included an assertion that being sick was a form of deviant behaviour; that all ethnic groups in the world had their own states, and that the Ohrid Swimming Marathon took place in July. It is held in August.

The blunders prompted critics to pinpoint other mistakes and oddities in other textbooks. The opposition urged Minister Todorov to resign, which he declined to do, blaming the authors and the reviewing boards for the books' poor quality.

In one of his latest statements this month, Todorov said the revision process had revealed various mistakes and announced moves to improve the quality of textbooks “systematically" by law.

The proposed changes, which have passed their first reading in parliament, expand the competences of the National Board for Textbooks, which revises schoolbooks. They also change the rules for the election of its board's members.

Critics have said that one problem with schoolbooks is that experienced lecturers in one field are empowered to revise and approve textbooks dealing with a completely different topic, which may be one reason why so many flaws in textbooks occur. Zoran Radic, head of the National Board for Textbooks, said he supported the proposed changes.