WHEN Slovakia’s pupils return to school in early September, they will have to make do without about a quarter of the textbooks that the schools have ordered, the SITA newswire reported on August 18.
Most of the missing textbooks are for secondary schools and for pupils in the fifth to ninth grade in primary schools. First graders and pupils in special schools should not be without any books when the new school year starts, Education Minister Peter Pellegrini announced.
“We have procured more than 2.2 million textbooks for €3 million, which represents almost 75 percent of the overall requirements that have been laid upon the ministry,” Pellegrini said, as quoted by SITA.
The minister announced shortly after he took the ministerial office in July that the procurement of textbooks for schools has been delayed. He then decided the first to fourth grades of primary schools would have priority for the ministry.
It is impossible to have all the textbooks ready by the start of the school year, since some of the books have not been printed yet, and some have not even been written.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
presented in its Flash News postings.
