Education official: Start of new academic year will not be disrupted due to lack of textbooks

14:28

The start of the 2010/2011 academic year at secondary schools in Ukraine will not be disrupted, since all schools will be fully provided with textbooks by the end of October 2010, Director of the Institute of Innovative Technology and Education Content Oleksandr Udod has said.

"The textbook publication program for 2010 will be implemented. About 80% of textbooks will definitely be at schools in late September and October. We'll manage to fulfill in full the order for book printing by the end of October," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Udod said that the delay in the textbook printing schedule had been caused by budgetary problems.

"The budget for 2010 was adopted only on April 27... A total of UAH 141.2 million envisaged for the printing of textbooks has currently been allocated and paid in advance. At the same time, UAH 28.3 million was allocated to clear the debt to publishers for 2009," he said.