Bujanovac – Fatmir Hasdani, an MP from the Party for Democratic Action (PDA) in the Serbian Parliament, said that primary schools students from the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, who attended classes in the Albanian language, were already using primers and textbooks in the Albanian language that had been published in Tirana, but that they lacked textbooks for other school subjects.

Mr. Hasani said that the textbooks from Albania were used in schools in the three southern Serbian municipalities on the basis of the agreement between the Ministries of Education of Serbia and Albania.  

"There is an agreement in principle that all textbooks for primary and secondary schools in the southern Serbian municipalities would be procured from Albania, but no agreement has been yet reached by the Ministries of Education of the two countries due to differences in the education systems," Mr. Hasani said.

He said that he had discussed the subject with Lindreta Nikoli, the Albanian Minister of Education, in Tirana on Thursday.

“The Ministry of Education of Albania is able to provide all necessary textbooks in the Albanian language but the problem is that the Albanian curriculum does not coincide with the Serbian one. Therefore, these textbooks cannot be used in the schools in Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, "Mr. Hasani said.

According to him, the primer, which had been published in Albania and which had been, to a small extent, adjusted to the needs of students in Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, was already being used.

"In order to use the same textbooks, it is necessary for the curricula of the two counties to coincide at least 70 to 80 percent, which is not the case. The Ministry of Education of Albania told me that their proposal was have textbooks used in Serbia translated into the Albanian language, "Mr.Hasani said.

Source: “Beta” news agency, N1 and Coordination Body