Parents struggle to "hunt" for each odd book
On September 4, reporters of Lao Dong Newspaper recorded at many bookstores in the central area of Da Nang City and Tam Ky (former Quang Nam province), the atmosphere of buying textbooks took place urgently. Many parents took advantage of the last day before the opening ceremony to find enough books for their children, but many people left in a worried mood because they lacked many books.
At a bookstore on Phan Chu Trinh street, Tam Ky ward (Da Nang city), many parents continuously asked to buy books according to the list requested by the school. However, textbook shelves only have some odd books left, not enough complete sets for each grade level.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa (resident of Tam Ky ward) said that her child is preparing to enter 10th grade, so the family took advantage of going to buy books many days in advance. However, after finding 4-5 bookstores, she still could not buy enough sets.
Some books are bought, some are out of stock. I have been to many places but still lack a few books. Tomorrow is the opening day, so I am very anxious, I just hope my child has enough books to study from the first week" - Ms. Hoa shared.
Similarly, Mr. Tran Van Truyen (resident of Da Nang) also spent a lot of time finding books for his children to prepare for the new school year.
The family has gone to many bookstores, asked many places but still cannot collect enough. Some places still have 6th grade books, while I need 10th grade books. It is very difficult to buy the right set" - Mr. Truyen said.
At the store of Da Nang Education Investment and Development Joint Stock Company (Le Loi street, Hai Chau ward), many parents lined up from early morning on September 4th to find and buy missing books. However, only 10 minutes after opening, the store had to announce that the books were sold out. Many people waited but had to return empty-handed.
According to records, some parents have to buy separate books, then continue to search in other locations to assemble them into sets. However, this takes a lot of time, while the new school year is approaching.
Highland school photocopies thousands of temporary books
Not only parents in the delta area are facing difficulties, at Nam Tra My High School, Nam Tra My commune (Da Nang city), the shortage of textbooks is also creating great pressure before the new school year.
In the 2026-2027 school year, the school has 1,106 students with 26 classes, of which more than 94% are ethnic minority students. Due to the source of textbooks according to the 2018 General Education Program not being fully supplemented, the school is short of more than 1,000 sets of books.
To avoid affecting learning, in the days leading up to the opening ceremony, school officials and staff have to take advantage of photocopying and packing each set of books to distribute temporarily (free) to students.
In the small room of the school, the sound of photocopiers operates continuously. Each set of documents after printing is classified by grade level, with the goal that all students have learning materials from the first day of school.
The volume of books to be photocopied is very large, 1,000 sets, so we have to take advantage of continuously working to complete them in time. The desire is that when students start school, everyone will have books to study" - Ms. Nguyen Thi Linh, an employee of Nam Tra My High School, shared.
Mr. Tran Thanh Quoc - Principal of Nam Tra My High School said that the school has also proactively implemented many solutions to limit the impact on teaching and learning.
About 30% of the books are mobilized by the school from libraries, old books, and the rest, every day, school officials and staff have to take advantage of every hour to copy and print, pack, to temporarily distribute to students while waiting for official book supplements.
We try to ensure that when entering the new school year, each student has a classroom and materials to study from the very first days" - Mr. Quoc said.
