A Serbian professor from the USA achieved his goal: FREE TEXTBOOKS for all pupils
Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Aleksandar Kavcic, has realized the idea of providing free textbooks for pupils in Serbia.
The project within the „Alek Kavcic“ Foundation came into light, securing free textbooks for the third and seventh grade of primary school.
The textbooks are available at https://www.besplatnabiblioteka.com/ and can be downloaded and used free of charge, without any access codes.
Professor Aleksandar Kavcic stated with Prva TV station that the entire project was not a big expense in financial terms, but it did took a lot of work.
„I arrived to Serbia from the USA countless times in the past six months and everything is possible, the first textbooks are on the Internet for the third and seventh grade. The website is free, there are textbooks for 3rd and 7th grade on it, you can download them, very simply, without any code, without payment“, said Kavcic.
He announced that textbooks for the fourth and eighth grade are in the approval stage as well, and the deadline for approval is March 1st. Once approved, these textbooks will also be available on the website.
Kavcic explained that these are textbooks that have the quality seal of the Ministry of Education, which approved them for use, and in that sense, they are equal to all other approved textbooks for teaching purposes. With one important difference, they are free.
“The authors are professors, teachers, faculty professors. For some of the textbooks, we bought the rights from the Institute for Textbooks, in order to publish them for free. One of the authors is Srdjan Ognjanovic, an excellent professor and a long-term director of the Mathematical Grammar School. He is the author of the book of mathematics for the 3rd grade“, stated Kavcic.
When asked what needs to be done now in order for these textbooks to be applicable in the classroom, Professor Kavcic answered:
„We appeal to educators to opt for these free textbooks, as they are approved for use in teaching. It is now up to the teachers, they must be the ones to choose these textbooks for teaching, they have the power.
If they want a reputation in the society that belongs to their profession, they should take into account their pupils’ budget. I also appeal to parents to put a little pressure.“
The next step of the foundation, he states, is to make the printing of those books as favourable as possible.
„If you go to the print shop with a USB memory, printing will cost RSD 1.5 per page in black and white. We are looking for partners among printing houses to secure a price of RSD 2 per page in colour. We made the price so that there is no profit,“ stated Kavcic.
Izvor: BIZLife/Prva TV
Foto: YT/Screenshot
