Centre for Civic Education (CCE) welcomes decision of majority of Montenegrin municipalities to provide free textbooks for first year pupils and at the same time appeals to those who have not yet done so to make this decision, and to extend it to other years as well.
CCE deems it important that local community, in addition to the national level, is particularly supportive for improvement of conditions for education of all categories of the population, especially those who are just starting their educational process.
Provision of free textbooks for all primary school pupils (for all nine grades), as decided to do by municipality of Berane this year, should become common practice in all municipalities and not the exception. The decision of municipality of Berane should be an incentive for other municipalities as well, and CCE expresses hope that this decision will apply not only for this school year, namely, that is not a part of the usual conditions for Montenegrin manner of scoring political points in the election year.
CCE will continue to advocate for earlier filed initiative to the Ministry of Education for primary education in Montenegro to truly be free as prescribed by the Constitution, as the highest legal act which constitutes a state and which basis is education.
Mira Popović, Programme associate