On December 4, continuing the 52nd session, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on explaining, accepting, and revising the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Education.
Authorized by the Government, presenting reports on receiving, explaining and revising the draft Law, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son said that regarding improving feasibility, implementing immediately, accepting draft opinions is revised in the direction of not creating constraints when practical conditions are not yet ripe such as removing the regulation that the Government decides to socialize textbooks.
"The regulation is in the open direction that the Ministry of Education and Training decides on a set of shared textbooks that are unified nationwide. Thus, it is possible to be flexible between new compilation plans or selecting and editing existing sets of books" - the Minister said.
Regarding this content, the Government's report also stated that after the plan to deploy a national unified set of textbooks is decided by competent authorities, the Government will direct the Ministry of Education and Training to review, revise and fully issue regulations related to the compilation, appraisal, inspection and selection of textbooks.
These regulations will clarify the role of the State and the participation of society in compiling, publishing, distributing and managing textbook prices; ensuring publicity, transparency, objectivity; preventing monopoly; at the same time creating conditions for textbooks to be suitable for regional characteristics and educational development requirements.
In addition, the Government's report No. 1131 also clarified a number of opinions related to textbooks such as: Many opinions agreed on providing free textbooks from the 2026-2027 school year to demonstrate the Party and State's concern for education; some opinions suggested studying the option of printing textbooks to provide to schools for students to borrow (if damaged, lost, students must compensate) to ensure sustainability and savings.
In response to the opinions of National Assembly deputies, in the Government's decree specifically regulating the exemption of textbooks for students, the Government will study and regulate the implementation plan to ensure efficiency, economy and sustainability, including reviewing the mechanism for managing, using and reusing textbooks in accordance with practical conditions, contributing to the effective implementation of the policy of exempting textbooks for students.
There are opinions suggesting that the Ministry of Education and Training publicize the process and criteria for selecting and approving textbooks, while strengthening supervision of the organization of compiling local educational materials, ensuring correct orientation, avoiding commercialization, and accepting the opinions of National Assembly deputies. The Government has directed the Ministry of Education and Training to review regulations related to selecting, compiling, appraising and approving textbooks, ensuring public disclosure of criteria, enhancing accountability and being consistent with the plan to deploy a nationwide unified set of textbooks from the 2026-2027 school year.
For local educational documents, the Government has requested the Ministry of Education and Training to strictly regulate standards, compilation, editing and appraisal processes, and strengthen the monitoring mechanism to ensure correct orientation and avoid commercialization.
In addition, there are concerns about changing from many sets of books to one set of textbooks and believing that the regulation on one set of textbooks can lead to uniformity in thinking, hindering creativity and innovation.
The regulation that the Ministry of Education and Training decides on a set of textbooks for unified use nationwide is to carry out the tasks assigned in Resolution No. 71-NQ/TW.
The Government will also direct the education sector to promote teacher training and fostering, innovate teaching methods and testing and evaluation to promote the proactiveness, flexibility and creativity of teachers and students in the teaching and learning process.
Speaking at the meeting, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man recalled the speech of National Assembly deputies at the discussion session in the hall this morning about the heavy pressure when taking the 10th grade entrance exam.
From there, the National Assembly Chairman suggested that in the future, the exam issue must be strictly calculated and managed at the input or output?
In practice, there have been many cases of discipline, including criminal handling related to violations of textbooks, this is also an issue of concern to parents, people, and voters, the National Assembly Chairman also noted that amending the law must overcome this situation.
