AGREEMENT ON PROVIDING TEXTBOOKS IN ALBANIAN SIGNED

10. August 2016.

Belgrade - Representatives of the Ministry of Education, the National Council of the Albanian National Minority and the Institute for Textbooks signed, yesterday, an agreement on providing lacking textbooks in the Albanian language.

Srdjan Verbic, the outgoing Minister of Education, said that by signing the agreement, the Ministry of Education managed to finish a big job, so that the textbooks in minority languages could be provided.

Minister Verbic recalled that agreements with representatives of seven national minorities had been signed a few months before, and that the Albanian national minority hadn’t signed the agreement on that occasion.

He pointed out that the positive initiative had been launched by representatives of Bujanovac and Presevo, as well as that the signing of the Agreement would be followed by preparation of all lacking textbooks.

He recalled that the activity of providing textbooks in the languages of national minorities was best evaluated in the implementation of action plans for Chapter 23.

“We, now, need to undertake a joint activity for preparing the textbooks, either by translating the existing ones or by developing the new ones," said Minister Verbic.

Jonuz Musliu, the President of the National Council of the Albanian National Minority, said that pupils in the municipalities of Presevo and Bujanovac hadn’t had textbooks in the Albanian language for years.

"Although September is a short notice, I hope that several textbooks will be translated by then," said Mr. Musliu.

Dragoljub Kojcic, the Director of the Institute for Textbooks, said that the agreement was important both for the Ministry and for representatives of the Albanian national community.

"The Ministry has thus fulfilled Serbia’s obligations towards national minorities," said Mr. Kojcic.

Representatives of the Ministry of Education signed previously the agreement on providing the lacking textbooks with representatives of seven national minorities – the Bosnian, the Bulgarian, the Hungarian, the Romanian, the Ruthenian, the Slovak and the Croatian one.

The Ministry of Education provided 134 million dinars for the printing of the lacking textbooks in the languages of national minorities.

Source: “Tanjug” news agency, “Politika” daily, Radio and Television of Serbia and Coordination Body