Education and society: Federal list of textbooks for 2010/2010

The new list of textbooks which has been enlarged compared to the previous year includes 1451 textbooks provided by 30 publishing houses.

The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation has published draft order on approval of the Federal list of textbooks, recommended for using in the educational establishments, which implement educational programs of the comprehensive education and possess accreditation for 2010/2011 school year. The enclosure to the order contains textbooks, included into the new Federal list. According to this document, for the next year the Ministry is planning to approve 1451 textbooks for using at school. Their number has increased compared to previous year (1303).

The correlation of forces of publishing houses which specialize on educational literature has not changed dramatically. Among the leaders represented in the list of textbooks remain the publishing houses “Prosveshchenie” (476) and “Drofa” (275). “Ventana-Graph” (130) together with “Mnemozina” (103) lag behind. The publishing house “AST” has been gradually consolidating its positions. This year it represents 52 textbooks (vs. 46 the previous year).

The books of three leaders of the list – the publishing houses “Prosveshchenie”, “Drofa” and “Ventana-Graph” are represented in all types of school and at all states of school education. Other publishing houses can’t boast with the same scale, therefore each of them focuses mainly on books for the elementary, secondary and senior schools.

The draft order and the full list of textbooks are available on the website of the Ministry of Education and Science.