The Chairman of the City People's Committee has just agreed to implement the policy of exempting general education textbooks for students in the city from the 2027-2028 school year. At the same time, assigning the Department of Education and Training to preside over and coordinate with the Department of Finance and relevant agencies and units to develop plans and implementation plans; advise on allocating funds and organizing implementation in accordance with regulations, ensuring efficiency, thrift, and avoiding waste; and report to the City People's Committee according to regulations.
According to a report by the Department of Education and Training, in the 2026 - 2027 school year, the whole city has 1,002 general and continuing education institutions (including 437 primary schools, 426 secondary schools, 129 high schools... ) with a total expected number of 22,043 classes, 810,681 students.
The whole city currently has 40,288 management officials, teachers, and staff working in private and public educational institutions from primary to high school, and continuing education. Among them, there are 35,038 teachers directly teaching.
According to the proposal of the Department of Education and Training, each student is allowed to borrow 1 set of textbooks full of subjects corresponding to the teaching program in the class. Specifically for the high school level, the need for textbooks is only a forecast because it also depends on the student's need to register for elective subjects. Each teacher directly teaching is allowed to borrow 1 set of textbooks including all classes in the entire grade level of their subject.
The Department of Education and Training estimates the initial equipment cost to meet the demand for free textbooks for 100% of students and teachers in the city is more than 241 billion VND.
To fully equip students with initial textbooks at the beginning of the 2026 - 2027 school year according to the centralized procurement method, the development of plans and organization of procurement must be carried out from June, July 2026. However, by July, August 2026, 10th grade students will submit applications for admission and register for elective subjects. If books are purchased in July 2026, it will easily cause the risk of wasting public assets when purchased books are not used.
In addition, the funding for education career expenses and the city's medium-term public investment plan for 2026 has been approved. Therefore, the Department of Education and Training proposed that the city implement free textbooks for students throughout the city from the 2027-2028 school year, 2 years earlier than the general direction of the whole country.
