A mother and her daughter browse at a local book store in the central province of Nghệ An.

Public attention has been sparked after the National Assembly Standing Committee recently proposed the National Assembly consider and assign the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) to compile a new set of textbooks.

Some agree with the proposal, others do not.

Currently, there are three sets of textbooks approved by the MoET for use in schools, including: Kết nối tri thức với cuộc sống (Connecting knowledge to life), Chân trời sáng tạo (Creative horizon) and Cánh Diều (Kite). However, the evaluating and editing of the textbooks showed shortcomings, leading to errors in 18 textbooks’ content.

Đặng Tự Ân, former director of MoET's Primary Education Department, said compiling a new set of textbooks by the ministry was necessary, and would fix shortcomings of the current textbooks.

He said having an additional set of textbooks from the ministry did not affect the implementation of the new general educational curriculum.

There were other sets of textbooks in the market. The choice of textbooks would be decided by the schools and teachers based on their own research and assessment, he said.

Phạm Văn Công, a teacher at Minh Khai Primary and Secondary School, Hưng Hà District in the northern province of Thái Bình, said he applauded the issue of a new set of textbooks compiled by the ministry.

The new set of textbooks was expected to fix shortcomings of current sets of textbooks, he added.

However, many people do not agree with the proposal.

On the sidelines of the 15th National Assembly’s ongoing session, National Assembly (NA) deputy Hồ Thị Minh of Quảng Trị Province said that currently the published sets of textbooks had been used stably in localities and schools, thus, we should continue to promote their use to avoid causing unnecessary disturbances.

She said if all localities only chose the textbooks compiled by the ministry, the socialisation policy of textbooks would be affected.

“Who can guarantee that the new set of textbooks compiled by the ministry will definitely be better than the current sets of textbooks,” she said.

Therefore, compiling an additional set of textbooks at this time was unnecessary, not to mention expensive and a waste of resources, she said.

NA deputy Nguyễn Thị Việt Nga of the northern province of Hải Dương said at this time, if the ministry compiled a new set of textbooks, it would lead to book monopoly and cause many other consequences.

Previously, speaking at the group meeting on October 24, NA deputy Nguyễn Thị Kim Thúy of Đà Nẵng City said that the socialisation policy of textbooks was clearly stated under the NA's Resolution 88/2014.

Implementing the NA Resolution, three publishers and many book companies compiled, published and fully distributed three sets of textbooks to schools and localities, she said.

There had not been a shortage of books so far. The amount of money that businesses spent on producing the textbooks was more than VNĐ1.2 trillion (US$48.8 million), she said.

“There are some things we need to consider,” she said, wondering whether or not it was necessary to spend around VNĐ400 billion ($16.3 million) from the State budget to make another set of textbooks and if the introduction of a new set of textbooks from the ministry would lead to book monopoly.

She also said the NA issued Resolution No 122/2020 stipulating that when compiling textbooks according to the socialisation policy, if each subject has at least one textbook that had been evaluated and approved according to the provisions of the 2019 Law on Education, the compilation of textbooks using State budget for that subject would not be implemented.

Moreover, the 2019 Law on Education do not stipulate that the MoET is responsible for organising and compiling a set of textbooks, she said.

If the NA requested the ministry to compile an additional set of textbooks, it would be both wasteful and inconsistent with current legal documents.

At this time, if the proposal to assign the education ministry to compile an additional set of textbooks was allowed, it was believed to be a huge mid-term policy change, she said.

Therefore, Đà Nẵng City's NA delegation submitted the NA to assign the Government to evaluate the impact if the education ministry compiled an additional set of textbooks before making the final decision, she said.

The new general educational curriculum, which aims to reduce pressure on students and allow them to choose subjects they enjoy, has been applied in schools nationwide since 2020.

The new curriculum that focuses on students’ activities to develop their competence is divided into two phases. The first phase of basic education is from grade one to grade nine, and the second phase of vocational orientation is from grade 10 to grade 12. — VNS