Law on Textbooks

Tailor-made laws in the Western Balkans and Turkey

Introduction

The Law on Textbooks regulates the preparation, approval, selection, issuance, withdrawal and monitoring of textbooks and textbook kits, manuals and additional teaching aids for primary and secondary schools.

Country: Serbia

Sector: Education

Type of Law: Capturing a market, an industry or public resources

Description of the law

The new law of April 2018, which was introduced under urgent procedure, foresees a greater use of digital textbooks in schools. Education Minister Šarčević and Prime Minister Ana Brnabić promoted the digital textbooks of Klett Publishing House when they visited a school in Belgrade in February 2018, before the new law was adopted. Several other publishers complained that the minister favoured a particular publisher and promoted digital textbooks that had not yet been approved. A group of publishers claimed that Klett and its subsidiaries had donated supplementary didactic material on the condition that schools selected textbooks published by the Klett Group. Additionally, such high value gifts are prohibited by Article 36 of the law.

In 2015, the same group had offered contracts gifting computer tablets to schools if the schools ordered a set of textbooks in return. The ministry informed schools that the contacts were contrary to the law and requested their termination.

During the drafting of the previous version of the Law on Textbooks 68/2015, the Association of Textbook Publishers pressured former education minister Srdjan Vrebić to incorporate their suggestions into the new law. In April 2015, Phillipp Haussmann, who sits on Klett Group’s management board, wrote to the then Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić to warn him that the publishing house would consider cancelling all activities in Serbia if the proposed law was implemented. The Klett Group covers a majority of the Serbian textbook market worth between €50 and €100 million. Former minister Verbić informed the Anti-Corruption Agency that some publishing houses had pressured and threatened him during the drafting of the 2015 law.

The new Education Minister Mladen Šarčević formed a working group to draft the new law in 2017. Gordana Knežević Orlić, Klett’s managing director in Serbia and representative of the Association of Textbook Publishers, said that her association took part in the working group and that this time the process was done properly. The new law, which was passed in 2018, appears to be tailored to benefit private publishers.

Full Law Name

Law on Textbooks (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 27/2018)

Type of law

Act of Parliament

Scope of application

Substantive: The Law regulates the preparation, approval, selection, issuance, withdrawal and monitoring of textbooks and textbook kits, manuals and additional teaching aids for primary and secondary schools.

Personal: Textbook publishers, primary and secondary schools. It is also important for parents because it determines the number of textbooks and any other teaching aids that they have to buy. In this case, they must provide the children with electronic aids in order to use the digital textbooks.

Territorial: Serbia

Temporal: until abrogated

Time of adoption and entering to force

The law was adopted in the Serbian parliament on 6 April 2018 and has been in force since 14 April 2018.

Who drafted it

A working group formed by Education Minister Šarčević

Who submitted it to parliament or other collective body, such local council

Government of Serbia

Relevant developments in the process of adoption that show signs it is tailor-made

Former education minister Verbić spoke about lobbying pressures during the drafting of the 2015 law. Also, in April 2015, Phillipp Haussmann of Klett Group’s management board sent a letter directly to Aleksandar Vučić, who served as prime minister at the time, warning him that the publishing house would consider cancelling all activities in Serbia if the proposed law was implemented.

Verbić reported the pressures from publishing houses to the Anti-Corruption Agency. The agency transferred the case to the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, which determined that the publishing houses did not commit a crime.

After passage of the new law in 2018, former education minister Verbić called it a law about publishers, not textbooks.

New Education Minister Šarčević and Prime Minister Ana Brnabić promoted the digital textbooks of Klett Publishing House during a visit to a school in Belgrade in February 2018, before the new law was adopted.

Who adopted it

Parliament

Enforcement

It is enforced.

Initiatives to challenge it and their outcomes

Opposition MPs criticised the law for its adoption under urgent procedure, noting in particular that students could not afford tablets for digital textbooks. During selection of the textbooks for the second and sixth grades, eight publishers sent a letter to Education Minister Šarčević to demand that he inform schools they should not accept gifts in the form of didactic materials from the Klett Group.

Affected sector

Education

The main beneficiaries are private publishers, mainly the Klett Group, which controls more than 50 per cent of the textbook market.

Direct victims

Students and their parents are the most affected by the law, since they have to purchase new sets of textbooks every year. The number of textbooks for each subject has increased. In order to use digital textbooks, they also have to buy tablets and have computers at home.

Socio-economic impact (on markets, sectors, etc)

The textbook market, which has more than 70 registered publishers, is valued at between €50 and €100 million. The law violates equal competition between publishers. The government favoured one publisher by promoting the publisher’s digital textbooks even before their use in schools was approved by law.

Impact on rule of law

Lobbying and other pressures during the drafting of the 2018 law show weaknesses in the democratic nature of the law-making process.

Corruption cases

Former education minister Verbić reported pressures from publishing houses to the Anti-Corruption Agency. The agency transferred the case to the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, which determined that the publishing houses did not commit a crime.

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