Localized book shortage
In the last days of August and early September, the story of the shortage of textbooks became a concern for many families in Da Nang.
Many parents have to go through 4-5 bookstores but still do not buy enough sets of books for their children. In some places, there are only retail books left, parents have to collect each book and continue searching at other selling points. Some bookstores quickly hang signs "out of books" after only 10 minutes of opening for sale.
In mountainous areas, the shortage of books also creates pressure for schools. Nam Tra My High School has to mobilize staff to photocopy thousands of textbooks so that students have materials to use temporarily while waiting for supplementation.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, a representative of a book printing and distribution business in Da Nang said that the current scarcity situation is localized, concentrated in some localities, some book titles and occurs during the time when demand is high before the opening ceremony.
According to this person, the problem is not that factories do not have enough production capacity, but mainly stems from the process of forecasting demand and ordering in the distribution chain.
In the 2025-2026 school year, general schools simultaneously use 3 sets of textbooks including Connecting Knowledge with Life, Creative Horizon and Golden Kite. The fact that many sets of books coexist forces publishing units to balance inventory to avoid surplus.
Agents and stores after a period of stockpiling many books. This year, they only used 1 set of common books, causing heavy losses. Since then, there has been a more cautious mentality when registering quantities. When each link in the distribution chain orders lower than the actual demand, the market will experience a local shortage" - a business representative analyzed.
According to this person, textbook distribution activities have many levels, from small agents, large agents to regional units and publishers. When units at the lower level do not dare to import much due to worries about inventory risks, the amount of books brought to localities may not meet the arising needs in time.
6 central factories accelerate printing to add millions of books
To solve the shortage of books in the short term, printing units are accelerating production, supplementing sources of goods for the market.
A representative of a book printing and distribution business in Da Nang said that in the Central region, there are currently 6 printing units in Binh Dinh (old), Quang Nam (old), Da Nang, Quang Binh (old), Gia Lai... deploying additional orders.
Each unit is printing about 800,000 more books to supply to the market. These books will be taken to the warehouse of the Education Publishing House in Da Nang, and then distributed to localities according to actual needs" - the printing house representative informed.
According to the plan, the additional book volume is expected to be released to the market from now until September 16. This is a larger-scale supplement than the previous year to meet the remaining shortages in localities.
Units are running at full capacity to shorten printing, rolling and transportation time. However, textbooks need to go through many quality check stages before reaching students" - the representative said.
Recommendation not to photocopy the entire set of books
While waiting for additional book sources, some parents and schools choose the solution of photocopying books for students to use temporarily.
However, representatives of the publishing enterprise recommend that parents should not photocopy all textbooks, because the cost is high but the quality is not guaranteed, especially for subjects with many images and charts.
If necessary, parents should only photocopy the first lessons for students to use in a short time. Supplementary books will be released to the market in the near future" - the business representative recommended.
According to Vietnam Education Publishing House, textbook prices from grades 1 to 12 have decreased by an average of 13.3% compared to the previous school year thanks to solutions to reduce production and circulation costs.
From the 2026-2027 school year, Vietnam unifiedly uses the "Connecting Knowledge with Life" textbook set nationwide, aiming for the goal of free textbooks for students by 2030.
