PROFESSORS QUARRELLING OVER "DIRTY" TEXTBOOKS

AIM Zagreb, March 29, 1996

A few school subjects, primarily history and Croat language and literature, have been stumbling-blocks for all ministerial teams in charge of education ever since the first days of the independent Croat state. Nevertheless, in a severe competition with her predecessor, Vesna Girardi-Jurkic, the climax of all misunderstandings undoubtedly coincides with the mandate of the current minister of education, Ms. Ljilja Vokic, who has become famous for her unforgetable observations in numerous public performances during her not very long mandate. She incurred such animosity that it should not be a surprise that recently a weekly with high circulation - for the purpose of professional disqualification of the always self-confidently smiling lady minister, and to much satisfaction of the readers - published a copy of her faculty marks establishing that with no exception she barely passed all the main subject with quite rare average total grade of 2.4 (out of 5), which really just a negligible number of graduates succeeds in doing.

But, the latest gem among her statements is linked to the most recent scandal with the public competition for textbooks, among other for literature in secondary schools. Minister Vokic, namely, declared literally that, according to her judgement, "there is no dirtier business in Croatia nowadays than the business with textbooks. It all revolves around a conflict of interests between not only some of the authors, but also some of the publishers. The essence of everything is money, of course, because a a textbook published in a large number of copies brings a high and sure profit both to the authors and the publishers. Unfortunately, the fact that textbooks are written for students is forgotten along the way."

This comment of hers, however, is far from being just principled; it refers to quite a specific case, and some specific people who have indeed understood the minister's remark as an insult and intend to protest, especially because the Ministry of Education intends to present itself as completely innocent, which is to say the least, far from being true, since it was the one who actually stirred up the trouble.

Briefly, this is the chronological order of developments: after dissolution of the former state and abanodoning textbooks which were founded on the so-called "joint bases", at first, textbooks used in Croatia were modified former literature textbooks in secondary schools which were for years signed by a couple of professors, Dragutin Rosandic and Miroslav Secel. The mandate for elaboration of the new curriculum was then given to professor of theory of literature at Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy, Dr. Ante Stamac, who also assumed the obligation to write all four secondary school readers. (Textbooks of Croat language were written by a team of professors from the Department of Modern Croat Language, in time and without any difficulties). Dr. Stamac, however, failed to write the readers, and his curriculum was much criticized by the professional public, most often due to its being too demanding, in other words, for it not being adapted to students' age and school timetable. The old, somewhat improved readers written by the couple of authors Rosandic-Sicel returned to the schools, and last year (after Rosandic and Sicel split) a completely new reader for the fourth year of secondary school appeared, signed by three authors, all of them professors of Croat language: Miroslav Sicel, Joza Skok and Kresimir Nemec.

Wishing finally to find a lasting resolution of the problem, the Ministry invited a public competition on September 25 last year, among other for textbooks of literature for secondary schools and vocational schools which were to be finished by January 3, 1996. Due to a comparatively short time limit, the authors were asked to work out in detail only one unit on approximately fifty pages, and enclose a concept of the whole textbook. Two textbooks duly arrived for each of the four grades, signed with the code names: "SKH" and "Be your own master". In polemics which soon started, it turned out that a group of more than 20 authors stood behind the first code name, coordinated by the editor of "Skolska knjiga" (School Book), Ms. Dinka Juricic, that they were the best team of professors from the Department of Comparative Literature and Croat Language of the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb (Miroslav Beker, Josip Bratulic, Dean Duda, Dunja Falisevac, Dubravko Jelcic, Nevenka Kosutic-Brozovic, Zoran Kravar, Kresimir Nemec, Darko Novakovic, Joza Skok, Milivoj Solar, Miroslav Sicel, Mirko Tomasovic, Andrea Zlatar-Violic), and several secondary-school professors and people who work in libraries (Majda Bekic-Vejzovic, Lidija Farkas, Neli Mindoljevic, Vesna Muhoberac, Venka Perkovic, Zeljko Vegh, Mirjana Zivny), while behind the second code stood three university professors, also from the Faculty of Philosophy (Josip Kekez, Vlado Pandzic and Dragutin Rosandic) who were supported by a relatively new publisher "Profil international".

By decision of the Ministry of Education, and based on the opinion of two committees (both) headed by the President of Assembly Committee for Education, Science and Culture, Dr. Nedjeljko Mihanovic, the advantage was in all cases, for all textbooks in secondary schools and vocational schools (for all grades and the two types of school - seven on the whole) was given to the second code "Be your own master", that is, the group of authors Kekez-Pandzic-Rosandic. A well-meaning interpretation could be - no wonder, the better team won, which had a more professional and more modern conception. However, it soon became clear that it was not all so simple and that the background was indeed "dirty", although not as the Minister tried to interpret it in quoted sentences.

First, the team of twenty people did not manage to do in an extremely short period of time what only three men did with the greatest ease: not only did they offer integral textbooks instead of the demanded experimental parts and elaborated concepts of the rest of the textbooks, but they even had time to supplement them with additional material which nobody asked them to provide - exercise-books, and even teacher's books! When the team of their competitors asked to have an insight into this miracle, they could not get hold of it. There are different interpretations of the reasons for it: some people think that it is in fact a plagiarism, that is, that textbooks signed by the code "Be your own master" are founded on someone else's, namely long-standing work of Rosandic and Sicel. The others surmise that Kekez, Rosandic and Pandzic were in a way favoured, that is, that they had worked on the manuscripts for much longer than the few months determined by the competition. Because, by the way, Vlado Pandzic is also one of the authors of the curriculum according to which the textbooks were made. (It is true, though, that so is Dunja Falisevac from the other group of authors.)

"Dirty business" in the procedure included also games with negative reviews some of which were in handwriting and consist only of three or four sentences, and the one (also negative) by Dr. Nedjeljko Mihanovic which mentioned pages and names which do not even exist in the manuscript by "SKH", so it is a riddle what manuscript the president of the committee actually had in his hands when he was making up his mind (and decision). Responsibility for all these failures, or as the Minister cared to call them "dirty business", undoubtedly belongs to the Ministry. However, at the session of the Croat School Council on March 15, the Minister resolutely refused to annul the competition and invite a new one. The greatest concession she was ready to make was to take textbooks made by the other group into consideration and suggest to schools as an alternative. What must strike the eyes of anyone who has any knowledge of the expertise of some of the authors is the obvious advantage the group of authors signed by "SKH" had, so one cannot but wonder at the easily rejected effort of so many respectable names. Another thing which is often mentioned by the media and which sheds an even uglier light on the affair is the kinship which connects (and perhaps obliges) the author Pandzic and Minister Vokic (who is his goddaughter). Third, there is the money mentioned by the Minister: it is no secret that "Skolska kjniga", the until recently monopolist in publishing textbooks, does not pay its authors too well, but that other publishers ("Profil international" inclusive) offer authors seven, eight and even up to ten times more. It is also by no means the same whether the money is divided into three or 20 parts.

One should wait and see: will "Skolska knjiga" persist in its support to its group of authors, or will it knuckle under imputations about "inaptness" of some of them which have already appeared in newspaper articles? Will the Minister allow use of alternative readers, as she unwillingly promised to do? Or will she, which would not be a special surprise, reach out for some "magic guidance" thanks to which she will "recommend" to schools only one of the two sets of textbooks?

MERI STAJDUHAR