24-02bw...
The usual nervousness brought by the beginning of the new school year, this September 1, families in Serbia will feel stronger than ever. The May tragedy opened not only the most painful question (to which, unfortunately, we still do not have an answer) - are our children safe in schools? - she has already (again) confronted us with topics that periodically trouble both parents and educators: what do we teach our children, how much do we invest in the education system, do we have satisfied students, teachers, and pedagogical workers? Why do final grade students show us an unsatisfactory level of functional literacy over the years, despite the constant increase in material and the growing pressure of school obligations; why teacher salaries are below the national average; why are our budget allocations for education among the lowest in Europe?
These are big and essential issues, which can only be solved with political will and in an institutional way. But the same applies to all the "smaller steps" that we could take in order to achieve a better and fairer education. And they, too, must rest on a clear political vision and be part of long-term and careful planning. Can the same be said for the project of free textbooks that Mayor Šapić promised for this September to all Belgrade elementary and high school students? Is it one of the important steps towards building a better education system? I'm afraid the answer is no, and at the risk of criticizing a fundamentally good and popular idea - that learning resources should be equally accessible to all children - I feel the need to point out the flawed and fundamentally wrong political logic behind it.
IDEAS AND IMPLEMENTATION
The debate about free textbooks has been held several times in our public, the last time with the greatest enthusiasm when the "Alek Kavčić" Foundation offered electronic versions of some textbooks (with the favor of one publisher) for free use on its website. The move turned out to be controversial in many ways, triggering accusations of copyright infringement, populism and denial of quality brought by textbooks from different publishers; on the other hand, the topic of monopoly on the textbook market and non-competitive conditions for different publishers was opened. It turned out that the issue of free distribution of textbooks requires a more complex approach than the one that can be provided by a private foundation. Instead of grappling with the essential problems related to this topic, such as the Law on Textbooks or considering different models that could provide equal access to all accredited textbooks, the discussion went in the wrong direction. The top of the state abused her by directing her to the question of who writes textbooks in "nationally sensitive" subjects and why, allegedly, they should not be private publishers.
But let's put that aside for now. And without getting into debatable discussions about "better" and "worse" publishers and textbooks, local authorities (which is certainly better than private companies) have the option of making all approved textbooks available for free. It happened before in Belgrade, as it happens in many other cities and regions in Europe. What drives such local policies is usually a carefully planned social policy: a long-term intention to make the education system more inclusive, and to reduce the social differences that deepen through schooling. Therefore, the idea of free textbooks makes the most sense when it is part of a wider package of social policies and the intention to make the education system more fair.
In our country, this is not a small problem, given the data that show that every tenth child lives in poverty in Belgrade. These children not only have a problem getting textbooks, they don't go on excursions, they don't participate in extracurricular activities, and other learning materials and resources are hard to come by. In light of this problem, can we consider the decision of the City of Belgrade that all Belgrade students will receive free textbooks this year as a small but important step in the fight for a better and fairer education system?
ANNOUNCEMENT WITHOUT PLAN
The sequence of steps was as follows: first, Mayor Šapić, before the session of the city assembly where the budget for 2023 was adopted, announced that textbooks for all school children next year will be free, just like all kindergartens in the city, because his decision was for the city to adopt a "people care budget". However, it soon turned out that there was no elaborate plan behind this idea. Negotiations continued for months with disgruntled publishers who were not ready to accept the mayor's offer to pay them the cost of "free" textbooks starting in 2024 and in installments. For a long time, the necessary public procurement for the realization of this project was not even carried out.
Today we know that these problems will be solved one after another - for example, the purchase of textbooks for secondary schools was launched on July 28 - and the idea will be "pushed", even if with some delay, although it is clear that no long-term plan has been made and that it is not known what this procedure will look like in the future, nor whether it will even exist. However, this is not the biggest problem or the main proof of the absence of long-term planning and commitment to the idea of free textbooks (and more broadly, a fairer education system). Let's go back to the assurances that the "care for people" budget was adopted for this year.
BUDGET INCREASED, BUT FOR "CAPITAL INVESTMENTS"
The budget for 2023 is almost one third higher than the budget adopted for the previous year. Therefore, it should not be surprising that all items, including education, social protection and culture, nominally increased compared to the previous period. However, the real picture of priority policies is seen when we look percentage the share allocated to each area. And all the mentioned items have been reduced in percentage, not only in relation to the previous year, but we can follow the continuous trend of their reduction from year to year. For example, in 2022, allocations for secondary education made up 3,8 percent of the budget, now they make up 2,71 percent; the share of money allocated for preschool education fell from 13,4 to 11,85 percent; environmental protection from 5,36 to 4,98 percent; social protection from 3,76 to 3,28 percent.
On the other hand, allocations for capital investments are skyrocketing. The most expensive among them are the furnishing of Makiški polje (the future metro station, in a part of the city where no one lives yet), the construction of the so-called of the linear park in the Old Town (actually a complex with commercial facilities), installation of a huge mast with a flag. When we put things this way, it becomes clear that the City Assembly did not adopt a budget that takes care of citizens, but a budget that takes care of investments, none of which is in the service of protecting the public good and does not concern the improvement of health, education and social protection.
Finally, what undermines the belief that there is any serious intention for the city to systematically and long-term deal with the problem of inclusive education (or at least the provision of free textbooks) is the absence of planning and studies that would even inform us about the situation on the ground and how and for what purposes to plan budget expenditures in the future (while, on the other hand, we have very studious plans regarding capital investments). In other words, on the basis of which data are projects like free textbooks planned? Why is data not collected on the real needs of the most vulnerable students? Why are initiatives to improve the social position of those teachers who enter into employment contracts with the city ignored - such as the initiative of councilors from Ne davimo Beograd and the councilor group We must stop the discriminatory position of teachers who work for an extended stay based on contracts for temporary and casual jobs?
Primary and secondary schools in Belgrade have hundreds of problems that could be solved at the local level by targeting vulnerable and vulnerable groups, and solving specific problems in a specific way. On the contrary, the city opted for populist and lump-sum measures, such as awarding vouchers for the purchase of sports equipment to all students and employees in education, which, without achieving any social or institutional effect, spent about two billion dinars from the city budget. Therefore, there remains a real fear that the "free textbooks" project, apart from not being planned for the long term, will not achieve any higher goal other than achieving an instant political message that the city government supposedly cares about its fellow citizens.
The author is a city councilor and senior research associate at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory
