According to the plan to implement the free textbook policy of Ho Chi Minh City, textbooks are purchased by the state budget and organized for students to borrow and use during the school year. After the end of the school year, books are recovered to the school library for continued reuse. The policy is implemented for students at educational institutions according to the general education program.
On August 20, sharing with Lao Dong Newspaper, leaders of some schools in Ho Chi Minh City said that they are conducting a survey on the demand for borrowing textbooks from students, but the current borrowing demand is not high.
Mr. Pho Trong Huy - Principal of Binh An Secondary School said that the school has surveyed the demand for borrowing textbooks for parents and students. Initially, there were a few dozen parents registering, then the number continued to decrease. Through recent reviews, there are still about 20-30 parents who need to borrow textbooks.
According to Mr. Huy, with this number, the school can meet it. However, the demand for borrowing books may increase in the coming years as parents become more aware of policies.
In addition, according to Mr. Huy, before the State's policy of supporting textbooks, the school had a tradition of supporting students who are children of workers and laborers in difficult circumstances.
When discovering that workers' children do not have the conditions to buy books, teachers, schools and parents often mobilize and donate sets of books to give back to them.
Those who are in difficulty and do not have the conditions to buy books, the school will mobilize or some teachers who know their circumstances will prepare books to give," Mr. Huy said.
At Nguyen Huu Tho High School, Mr. Do Dinh Dao, Principal, said that the school had surveyed the need to borrow textbooks before. However, due to the psychology that books are supported for free, many students tend to register to borrow, so the initial survey results do not accurately reflect the actual needs.
Today, the school continues to survey again to determine which students have been equipped with books, which students do not have them, and among those who do not have them, which students really need to borrow. This will be the basis for the school to determine the number of books to be prepared," Mr. Dao said.
According to Mr. Ho Tan Minh - Chief of Office of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, educational institutions must proactively review the need to borrow textbooks. Schools need to summarize data, prepare estimates and send them to competent authorities to allocate funds and arrange books for students to borrow.
Mr. Minh emphasized that although the number of students in need is small, policies must still be implemented. "A small number must also be done," he said.
According to the guidance of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, educational institutions must survey the demand for textbooks borrowed by students; review the number of existing books and the number that can be reused to determine the actual demand.
At the beginning of each school year or semester, each student borrows a set of textbooks full of subjects and educational activities corresponding to the class program. Book borrowing is carried out at the school library.
The Principal is responsible for developing plans, issuing internal regulations and organizing the implementation of borrowing - returning, using, preserving, recalling and inventorying textbooks; and assigning specific responsibilities to relevant individuals and departments.
The school must also disseminate to management officials, teachers, staff, students and parents about their rights and responsibilities in using and preserving books.
Notably, schools are not allowed to collect fees that violate regulations related to the use of textbooks, including deposit fees, preservation fees or other library service fees.
Book borrowing and returning aims to reuse many times, ensure thrift, efficiency and implement according to regulations on libraries, management and use of public assets.
Within 15 working days from the end of the school year or when transferring or dropping out of school, students must return all borrowed textbooks. In case they need to continue using them for review, re-examination or completion of the study program, they can continue to borrow according to regulations.
If books are lost or damaged due to subjective reasons, students or parents, guardians must compensate according to regulations. In case books are lost or damaged due to natural disasters, fires or force majeure cases, students are not required to compensate.
