In the period from May 7 to May 21, the State Scientific Institution "Institute for Modernization of the Content of Education" of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine concluded direct contracts for printing textbooks for 8 class with a total value of more than UAH 1.06 billion. About it reports the resource "Our money" with reference to the public procurement system Prozorro.
The largest amounts went to three leading publishers:
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Morning Publishing House LLC - UAH 242.3 million;
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Genesis LLC - UAH 235.6 million;
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LLC "Publishing House of Aston" - UAH 103.1 million.
The most expensive of all orders was the textbook of the integrated course "Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and foreign literature" in two parts, published by the publishing house "Morning". Its cost amounted to 3 900 UAH per copy in the circulation of 481 copy. Of these, more than 2 thousand hryvnias are printing costs, the rest are copyrighted fees, editorial work and profitability. At the time of order, this textbook has not yet been published on the MES website.
A similar situation happened earlier: a similar edition for the 7th grade cost 3 976 UAH apiece with only 209 copies. In this case, the printing cost only 235 UAH.
The sharp price of printing may be associated with the loss of printing capacities due to the Russian rocket strike on the Kharkiv Printing House "Factor-Print" in May 2024. The Morning Publishing House reported the destruction of part of the product. In June, representatives of the industry stated that despite the shelling and problems with electricity supply, Kharkiv remains a key print center for educational literature.
Other small -scale publications include the Polish language textbook for schools with Polish language from SE "Svit", which was ordered for 2 503 UAH for a copy of only 220 specimens.
For comparison, large circulations were much cheaper. For example, "Civic Education" cost the state 58 UAH per copy with more than 217 thousand copies.
All agreements were concluded without competitive bidding. This is due to the fact that the relevant publishers have exclusive property rights to the textbooks recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science after competitive selection.
The owners of Kharkiv "Morning" are Viktor Kruglov and LLC "Basis Publishing Group", associated with Inna Grishina, Zaza Jedja and Dmitry Tomashk.
The Genesis Publishing House is controlled by Alexei Dubas, Viktor Yezlovetsky, Oleg Furman and Vladlen Matsenko. Manages Mykola Teaun company.
Ternopil "Aston" belongs to Ivan Bilakh, who is also the director of the publishing house.
