Politics out of education, says minister

Politics out of education, says minister

Minister of Education and Science Renata Deskoska says politics should leave the education sector while investing efforts into the Skopje university's autonomy.

"The main objective of the ministry is to remove politics from the education. Being part of the education system prior to assuming this post, I know about the political pressure on the University. The squashing of the University's autonomy was a process that was politically motivated. I have fought and protested against this and it would be inappropriate to do the same thing now," Minister Deskoska told Radio Free Europe.

She says efforts are invested into promoting the University's autonomy, freedom of thought and de-politicization of education.

Asked if geography and history instruction books would be revised, taking into account Macedonia's friendship treaties, Deskoska says such processes have not started nor has anyone asked them to do this.

"We are currently focusing on the science and civil education instruction books, where errors are easily identified," says Deskoska.

According to her, expert groups are also carrying out analyses on the instruction books in physics and chemistry.

"Our goal is for experts to check and correct the errors identified by teachers in elementary and secondary schools. This is not erasing or changing history, but correcting absurd mistakes. We want to give pupils a chance to learn from error-free instruction books," stresses Minister Deskoska.