Your proposal might be conservative in the political sphere of your country where the people who want socialism back are the conservatives but in most of the Western world using socialist means of centralized planning is considered to be left-wing.
In particular this proposal centralizes power over how the textbooks that are used to educate the young into the hands of the national government and thus is likely to be both opposed by the teachers who want that power to be at a lower level and the companies who make money with selling services into the education market.
Taking on both the teachers unions and all the pro-corporate lobbyists is a political nonstarter. It’s the complete opposite of an uncontroversial proposal.
I meant “conservative” as in “actually changes very little”, not as in politics. Like, I am not suggesting to change what should be learned, when, or how; just to make the textbooks (also) digital, and free to use. Sorry for confusion.
Also, I had a situation in Slovakia in mind, where textbooks already are centralized, probably more than in most countries. (As far as I know, in most European countries you can have multiple competing textbooks certified as being “compatible with what the state wants you to learn”. In Slovakia, you can only have one. Like, two authors could write almost identical textbooks, only one would be allowed for use in schools, the other would not.) Making the approved book free would strictly improve things.
Then again, you could have multiple competing free textbooks. Plus an option to upload your own ones on the school tablet.
Okay, when you already have a system where there exists only one state approved nationwide textbook this would be easier politically as it is in states like the US or Germany where that isn’t the case.
Currently, textbooks are made by private corporations and not by the state. It seems to me like your proposal does change that and would make the state more responsible for the textbook.
If you make the textbook free you don’t have different vendors competing anymore into providing a superior product.
Your proposal might be conservative in the political sphere of your country where the people who want socialism back are the conservatives but in most of the Western world using socialist means of centralized planning is considered to be left-wing.
In particular this proposal centralizes power over how the textbooks that are used to educate the young into the hands of the national government and thus is likely to be both opposed by the teachers who want that power to be at a lower level and the companies who make money with selling services into the education market.
Taking on both the teachers unions and all the pro-corporate lobbyists is a political nonstarter. It’s the complete opposite of an uncontroversial proposal.
I meant “conservative” as in “actually changes very little”, not as in politics. Like, I am not suggesting to change what should be learned, when, or how; just to make the textbooks (also) digital, and free to use. Sorry for confusion.
Also, I had a situation in Slovakia in mind, where textbooks already are centralized, probably more than in most countries. (As far as I know, in most European countries you can have multiple competing textbooks certified as being “compatible with what the state wants you to learn”. In Slovakia, you can only have one. Like, two authors could write almost identical textbooks, only one would be allowed for use in schools, the other would not.) Making the approved book free would strictly improve things.
Then again, you could have multiple competing free textbooks. Plus an option to upload your own ones on the school tablet.
Okay, when you already have a system where there exists only one state approved nationwide textbook this would be easier politically as it is in states like the US or Germany where that isn’t the case.
Currently, textbooks are made by private corporations and not by the state. It seems to me like your proposal does change that and would make the state more responsible for the textbook.
If you make the textbook free you don’t have different vendors competing anymore into providing a superior product.