VietNamNet Bridge - HCM City’s students will follow the lessons in textbooks to be published by the HCM City education and training department, instead of those compiled by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) for all schools in Vietnam.

According to Do Minh Hoang, chief secretariat of HCM City Education and Training Department, the city’s textbook compilation council set to work immediately after the new academic year opening ceremony held on September 5.

“We have started the process, while we cannot wait for the frame curriculum to be released by the ministry. It is expected that HCM City’s students will have textbooks to use,” Hoang said.

In fact, HCM City has been preparing for the compilation of the textbooks for a long time. The city’s education department’s director Le Hong Son said at the 2014-2015 academic year review conference that he wants the textbooks with information suitable to the city’s students.

The plan to compile textbooks specifically for HCM City students based on the national common frame curricula has been approved by the ministry.

Prior to that, HCM City-compiled physics textbooks for sixth, seventh and eighth graders were put into use on a trial basis at general schools. 

Textbook compilers are designing more practical lessons to help students better apply knowledge in their lives. 

Tran Duc Huyen, a teacher of the Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted, one of the compilers of math textbooks, said he most important factors the new textbooks must have are applicability and integrated subjects. 

For example, when learning about measurement, students will also learn about geography, such as the measurement of sea water level.

A physics teacher in district 3 praised the physics textbooks compiled by the HCM City’s experts. 

He pointed out some basic differences in the textbooks compiled by MOET and the city. MOET’s textbook, for example, tells students to measure length with reasonable meters. Meanwhile, the city’s textbook not only shows how to measure with specific instruments, but also shows how to measure with other things.

“The city’s textbooks look thick with many words and pictures, but the lessons are simple and easy to understand,” he commented.

The representatives of some general schools in HCM City admitted that though MOET’s textbooks are the national textbooks for all students in Vietnam, they prefer the textbooks compiled by the city’s education department.

Regarding the budget for the textbook compilation, Hoang said in the immediate time, the city will fund the compilation, but in the future, the education department will call for funds from different sources.

NLD