On October 11, the Committee for Culture and Society held a third plenary session to give opinions on draft laws related to education that will be submitted to the National Assembly at the upcoming 10th Session.
Regarding textbooks, the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Education clearly states that the State provides a set of textbooks for national unified use to ensure fairness in access to education, quality, modernity, and in line with educational goals.
The Government stipulates the exemption of textbooks for students; implements appropriate socialization solutions for textbooks, ensuring sustainability and meeting the requirements of improving the quality of education.
The National Council for textbook appraisal is prescribed and established by the Minister of Education and Training for each subject, educational activities at each level of education, and classroom to appraise textbooks.
The Council and its members are responsible for the content and quality of the appraisal.
The Minister of Education and Training approves textbooks for use in general education institutions after being assessed and classified by the National Council for the assessment of textbooks to meet the requirements of...
Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh pointed out that a program with many textbooks has made a lot of progress but in practice there are many difficulties, especially in remote areas...
According to Mr. Nguyen Dac Vinh, the policy of having a shared textbook set is reflected in the bill. However, the drafting agency has not completely revised when there is still a provision assigning the provincial People's Committee to choose textbooks.
"So what choice? If shared, this responsibility must be brought to the Ministry. The Ministry not only appraises but also regulates what a textbook is for general use" - said the Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Society.
Mr. Nguyen Dac Vinh also suggested that there should be a plan for the textbooks currently in use because they have been painstakingly prepared.
This leader proposed that in addition to the content for shared use, the remaining documents are also intellectual products, with great reference value for teachers and students.
Therefore, it should not be banned, but should be used as a reference to help parents, teachers, and students have access and encourage the development of educational materials.
Delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga (Hai Phong City National Assembly Delegation) suggested that when implementing the policy of a shared textbook set, it is necessary to propagate so that people clearly see the adjustment in each stage to suit the reality.
According to the Vietnamese delegate, the progress of implementing a shared textbook set is very urgent and requires carefulness, responsibility, and quality assurance of the set of textbooks.
The Vietnamese-Russian delegate suggested that in the process of compiling shared textbooks, it is necessary to pay attention to the content of reducing the program load.
Because there are still feedback from the people, many teachers and experts about the program do not reduce the burden but even, in some new textbooks, it is even heavier.
Teachers reflected that if they only teach according to the program, the time allocated in class cannot be taught thoroughly and the content is exhausted. Therefore, there is a need for extra teaching and learning, not to mention forcing students to take extra classes.
This female delegate also pointed out the need to limit waste with existing textbooks. Because these are compilation books that have been prepared quite carefully, when there is a new set of books for common use, there needs to be a reasonable solution.
Explaining later, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Van Phuc stated that the draft law will institutionalize the use of a unified set of textbooks. At the same time, the Ministry will review the contents related to the compilation of books in documents under the law.
