Kosovo parents have been touring one bookstore after another recently – just as they did last year – to get textbooks for their children ahead of the new school year, which starts on Monday.

Two weeks ago, the government said it had allocated 13.8 million euros to be distributed to parents’ accounts for school books after they apply individually through an online platform.

Kosovo’s teachers’ union says the government was wrong to go for this option. Until 2022, the government supplied pupils with textbooks directly in schools. Last year, the government decided not to tie any deals with publishing houses, claiming that it would cost the budget more.

“We expected the Ministry of Education to not repeat last year’s mistake and to reach an agreement with publishing houses in order to distribute textbooks to schools, but that did not happen,” Rrahman Jasharaj, Head of the Education, Science and Culture Unions, told BIRN.

“Let’s wait till Monday and see how it goes but I am afraid that situations like last year will be repeated, when pupils were not properly supplied with textbooks,” he added.

Bedri Dragusha, head of Kosovo’s Parents’ Council, told BIRN that his organisation has not received any complaints so far from parents, although he admitted that the current way of purchasing books is more complicated.

“Most parents wanted the ministry to supply textbooks to schools in order to avoid sending money to bank accounts,” Dragusha said.

“But we have not received any specific complaints so far and the process [of buying textbooks] is going smoothly,” he added.

By August 27, the ministry announced it had received more than 194,000 applications from parents and had reimbursed more than 171,000 of them.

“No pupil will remain without textbooks and any complaint will be addressed as a priority and necessary support will be given in order to make it possible for them to get a reimbursement,” Arberie Nagavci, Minister of Education, said on August 20.

Confrontations between teachers’ unions and the Kosovo government have often affected the start of the new school year, with teachers staging strikes to publicise their demands for better working conditions and salaries.

Dragusha said that the Parents’ Council has urged unions not to strike. “We have asked the Teachers’ Union not to strike. The school year should start regularly and the union should use other means to address their demands. Pupils and parents should not be damaged,” he said.

Rrahman Jasharaj, from the Teachers’ Union, said on Friday that the school year will start as usual this year, but did not exclude action at a later stage.

“The school year will start on Monday. We have not planned any action. We will wait until the end of September and then the union’s steering committee will convene to decide on any next step,” Jasharaj said.