Parental Involvement in the Textbook Approval Process
In the process of textbook approval (griffing), the Ministry ensures the involvement of the most interested segment of society – parents.
A parent is a vital representative of the school community; accordingly, they should have the opportunity to review in advance and participate in the discussion and analysis of the textbooks their child will be learning from.
For this very purpose, the Ministry has introduced an amendment to the textbook approval rules, according to which, in addition to practicing teachers, representatives of academic circles, psychologists, philologists, and legal specialists, the most interested representative of society in this process – the parent – will be able to participate.
How the Procedure Itself Will Be Implemented
The Ministry informs schools about the opportunities for parental involvement. The school, in turn, must inform parents about this opportunity. In the event parents express a desire to participate, schools will discuss and agree upon a single parent candidate. When making the decision, the school must be guided by the principles of professionalism and objectivity. To this end, it may involve the Board of Trustees (in schools where one exists) in the selection process and submit the agreed-upon candidate to the Ministry.
The Ministry, specifically the Education Management Information System, will provide the parent with a corresponding username and password, through which the parent will have access to a special electronic system and to any textbook.
In parallel with the reviewing process, within a 2-week period, the parent will have the opportunity to select any subject and grade textbook set (anonymous copies) and begin reviewing them.
The parent will have the opportunity to record their comments/recommendations in several directions. These directions are:
- Content-related comments/recommendations;
- Linguistic flaws;
- Non-compliance with legal and ethical norms;
- Technical defects.
After the parent finishes reviewing the selected set, they can move on to the textbook set of another subject.
The comments/recommendations expressed by parents are automatically sent to the reviewers of the corresponding subject group, who have the opportunity to review the expressed opinions according to these directions.
Reviewers will make a decision by a majority vote regarding the full or partial acceptance of the recommendation. In case of partial acceptance or non-acceptance, the subject group's reviewer justifies the decision made. The parent will be notified of the decision.
All general education institutions have already been informed by the Ministry about this opportunity, instructions have been sent, and the school must submit the parent candidate from March 11 to March 17 inclusive;
