The highlight of the 2018 general education program is the policy of socializing textbooks. Many sets of textbooks are compiled, reviewed and put into teaching in general education institutions instead of having only one set of textbooks used uniformly throughout the country.
The 2024-2025 school year marks 5 years of implementing the new general education program, deployed at all levels.
Compared to the old program, according to Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Van Tung - Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Vietnam Education Publishing House, the work of publishers with textbooks according to the 2018 program is somewhat more difficult and complicated.
"Publishers must carry out all stages from building a team of authors, organizing compilation and editing; organizing experiments, publishing, printing, distributing... and must bear all costs related to this whole process. Publishers must organize to introduce books to teachers and educational institutions nationwide by many different methods.
Supplying books is also more complicated because localities and schools do not choose textbooks according to sets but choose them according to subjects and from many different sets," Mr. Tung shared.
However, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Tung said that the participation of many publishers, organizations and enterprises publishing textbooks is a decisive factor in the success of the policy of socializing education. Learning materials become rich, have good quality in content and form, effectively contributing to promoting educational development.
Current textbooks are built and published in the spirit of improving quality, innovating approaches, being attractive, helping teachers to be proactive and creative in teaching methods, meeting the requirements of developing students' qualities and abilities.
In addition, Mr. Tung affirmed that the price of textbooks under the new program will be higher than before, although the publisher has made efforts to review, balance and adjust. He explained that the price of books is made up of many factors, many related costs: costs of organizing the manuscript; royalties; production costs such as printing paper, printing costs; distribution costs...
"Recently, public opinion has said that publishers make big profits from textbooks, but in reality, there is profit from textbooks but it is small.
The entire capital for production and business of NXBGDVN currently comes mostly from bank loans. The publisher's profits mainly come from other types of books (such as supplementary books, reference books), which are the types of books that any publishing unit can participate in making," Mr. Tung shared.
Speaking more about the policy of one program - many sets of books, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Tung assessed that this is a progressive viewpoint. This breakthrough changes the quality and appearance of Vietnamese education, but requires determination, perseverance and overcoming difficulties to implement.
"The curriculum is a static factor, while textbooks are understood as dynamic factors. Teachers need to choose textbooks that are suitable for the conditions and teaching methods to impart knowledge to students," Mr. Tung recommended.
