The fact that leaders and officers of the HCM City Education and Training Department receive remuneration for compiling textbooks has caused a stir among the public.

Sixteen million dollars has been allocated to the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) to compile a set of textbooks for the new general education program. However, the allocation has not been done.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has published 32 textbooks for eight subjects and experience activities, but these do not include textbooks for English.

While parents fear that the teaching of probability and statistics may be a burden on second graders, education experts believe that the subjects will be useful.

Twenty-four out of 32 textbooks chosen by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) belong to the Education Publishing House.

Under the new general education program, the mathematics curriculum will focus on three major parts: arithmetic, algebra and analytical factors; geometry and measurement; and statistics and probability.

With the new general education program, all high schools will face a shortage of art and music teachers.

Many teachers and education experts have expressed surprise about the news that Vietnam will have textbooks for physical education at general schools.

The fate of textbooks for general education programs depends on the sense of justice and qualification of the members of the book appraisal council.

HCM City students will no longer have to take dozens of 45-minute tests a year if teachers assess students’ knowledge by other methods.

Many teachers are not trained to teach life skills, but still give the lessons at school.

The fact that three preschool children in Ha Nam province got severe burns during lessons about calling for help and escape in emergency situations has raised worries about the teaching of life skills at school.

Tran Kieu, chair of the Vietnam Psychology – Education Association, noted that the new general education program (Program 2018) is designed to develop learners’ personal capabilities.

HCM City wants to become the leading locality in the country and in order to achieve the goal, it has to upgrade education quality to meet international standards.

Studying at state-owned schools is the first choice for university or college bound students because they only have to pay a part of training fees.

Most of the 990 students attending the exams for the sixth grade at the Hanoi-Amsterdam School for the Gifted had a GPA of 10 for all five grades at primary school, which some say is a reflection of a dysfunctional school system.

Under the draft general education program, students would begin receiving sex education from the first grade.