On November 4, at the discussion session on the socio-economic situation at the 8th session of the National Assembly, when mentioning the issue of limitations and group interests in printing and distributing textbooks, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son made a very figurative statement.
Minister Nguyen Kim Son said that in the past few years, the education sector has made many changes, and a few people involved in organizing illegal bidding for printing paper and publishing books have all been "arrested and taken away".
Minister Son added that he hopes delegates will point out which groups are pursuing illegal interests so that the Ministry can coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security and the Procuracy to "arrest and take them away".
“Being caught and taken away” and “being caught and taken away again” are the natural outcomes of those who violate the law in business and management.
Not only was he "taken away" but he was also prosecuted by the Supreme People's Procuracy with a penalty of 20 years in prison, life imprisonment, and death penalty, as in the case of Mr. Nguyen Duc Thai - former Chairman of the Vietnam Education Publishing House, accused of receiving a bribe of 24.9 billion VND to support the winning enterprise.
However, “taking away”, prosecuting, and imprisoning… are only deterrent sanctions at the surface level. The root of the problem is still how to plug the loopholes that create vested interests and other limitations and negative aspects in the printing and distribution of textbooks.
In particular, "one program, many textbooks" - a revolutionary innovation policy in general education to avoid textbook monopoly when implemented in practice is showing many shortcomings that need to be resolved soon.
That is the unfair competition of publishers with many sophisticated tricks such as: Investing in local education and training departments to benefit the publishing of their books; competing on publishing discount rates; mobilizing some localities and education management officials in designating textbook purchases; directing local textbook publishing companies not to publish textbooks of other publishers...
Not to mention the current situation of textbooks being priced too high, creating a breeding ground for pirated books at cheaper prices to explode. Pirated textbooks are so numerous that, as recently, Da Nang City police only cracked down on one pirated printing case, resulting in the production of more than 4 million copies, printed in 2023 and 2024.
Preventing group interests in publishing and printing textbooks, if we only "arrest", prosecute, and imprison those who commit violations without having an effective solution to handle the root cause of group interests, it will be difficult to completely eliminate them!
