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WB project to blame for errors in school textbooks, human rights defender says

Human rights activist Anara Dautalieva believes that the Department for Implementation of the World Bank project is to blame for the publication of school textbooks with errors. She stated this at a press conference.

Anara Dautalieva noted that mistakes were made initially in the technical requirements for the development of the textbooks, in particular, in terms of bookbinding. In addition, the technical tasks were not coordinated with the Ministry of Education.

«I was a member of the tender commission. After seeing the technical specifications, I appealed to the head office of the World Bank with a request to suspend the project for three months in order to correct it,» the human rights activist told.

Anara Dautalieva added that the head office agreed with her arguments and the technical specifications were changed, after which publication of textbooks began.

She added that law enforcement agencies opened a criminal case against the publication of textbooks with errors.

«Textbooks printed in India have not yet been delivered to the country. A whole academic year has passed. The content of a standard textbook can be used only for five years, after it becomes obsolete and it needs to be reworked,» Anara Dautalieva noted.

She asked law enforcement agencies to give a correct legal assessment and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The World Bank, within the framework of the project «Support for Reforms in the Education Sector,» provided $ 16.5 million in loans and grants, $ 4.1 million of which were spent on development and replication of new textbooks for students of 5-6th grades of schools.

About 30 percent of the total circulation of educational-methodical complexes (921,130 copies) were printed by local companies. Journalists found hundreds of errors in the textbooks «Natural Science» and «Geography». The Ministry of Education noted that the publishing house would republish them after correction of errors.

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