The Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovachevski, announced that he will hold a meeting with the Ministers of Internal Affairs and Education and Science today to consider additional measures to deal with false bomb alerts in schools and said that we have not lost this cyber war yet. Kovachevski said that this cyber war and these hybrid attacks are part of the war being waged in Ukraine, and it is already clear to all of us because it is happening not only in our country, but also in many NATO member states. The Minister of Internal Affairs shared certain information yesterday about changing certain protocols implemented by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Today we will have a meeting with the leadership of the Ministries of Internal Affairs and Education to discuss additional measures and to fully neutralize this problem facing North Macedonia, but also other countries, in order to enable regular and uninterrupted teaching for students, said Kovachevski after visiting a construction site in the Prolet settlement, Centar municipality.
The sole goal of these hybrid attacks, as he said, is to introduce unrest in a NATO member country, and he added that it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to ensure and provide security for citizens. According to the procedures, regulations, and protocols for combating terrorism, as it deals with bomb threats, they must implement procedures prescribed by law, as in all other countries. In order to prevent the abandonment of schools, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Science work daily to find ways to implement procedures that will provide security that it is a false bomb alert, and that children can attend classes. I am also a parent and face the same problems in terms of educating children. It is not something that I do not know what is happening, but you must believe that both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Science are working to solve this problem, the Prime Minister said.
Regarding textbooks, he said there was a delay, but they have been delivered, and withdrawn textbooks were poorly written and poorly reviewed. The Ministry of Education and Science immediately started withdrawing these textbooks, correcting them, and to re-correct a textbook, the procedure must be repeated – the author must make changes, the commission must approve them… That process is ongoing and I believe that the next school year will be in the best order. I call on all professors, academic citizens who are part of book writing, to apply in large numbers for writing books for primary and secondary education, because the number and quality of book writers, experts, also improve and speed up the process of writing, approval, and publication of books, Kovachevski added.
