Minister of Education and Training: Prescribe a unified set of textbooks

The Ministry of Education and Training will ensure the provision of a uniform set of textbooks for nationwide use, and the Government will regulate free textbooks for students.

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son presents the report. (Source: National Assembly )

This morning, the National Assembly listened to Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son present reports on three projects: Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Education ; Law on Higher Education (amended); Law on Vocational Education (amended).

The state provides a unified set of textbooks.

Regarding the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Education, Minister Nguyen Kim Son said that the draft institutionalizes a number of important contents of the Party, especially Resolution 71 such as stipulating that lower secondary education is compulsory education, universalizing preschool education for children from 3-5 years old; stipulating a unified set of textbooks nationwide; not organizing school councils in public educational institutions...

Specifically, the State provides a set of textbooks for uniform use nationwide. The Government regulates free textbooks for students; implements appropriate socialized solutions for textbooks, ensuring sustainability and meeting the requirements of improving the quality of education, ensuring compliance with the Party and State's policies and current practices.

The draft law has removed the provision of granting junior high school graduation certificates, replacing it with the principal confirming the completion of the study program. According to the Ministry of Education and Training, this provision is consistent with the context of universalizing education to junior high school, simplifying administrative procedures, reducing exam pressure for students, and is consistent with international practice - when many developed countries do not grant junior high school graduation certificates but only confirm the completion of the program to stream or consider continuing study.

Another new point is to transfer the authority to grant high school graduation certificates from the Director of the Department of Education and Training to the Principal; remove the regulation that the head of the specialized education agency under the People's Committee at the district level grants junior high school graduation certificates and assign the head of the institution implementing the junior high school education program to confirm the transcript of the completion of the junior high school program.

Presenting the review report on the draft law, Mr. Nguyen Dac Vinh, Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Society, said that the Committee agreed to remove the regulation on granting junior high school graduation certificates, and only stipulate that the confirmation of transcripts for completing junior high school programs be carried out by the junior high school principal.

The Committee proposed to clarify the standards and methods for granting vocational secondary school diplomas to confirm the basis for determining equivalence with high school diplomas. The Committee also proposed to supplement and clarify the principles and mechanisms for managing, sharing and securing data; and to study regulations on the assessment and recognition of other certificates used in the national education system.

Mr. Nguyen Dac Vinh stated that the Committee agrees with the regulation that the State provides a set of textbooks for unified use nationwide, in order to institutionalize the Party's policy on general education textbooks.

Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Social Affairs Nguyen Dac Vinh presented the inspection report. (Source: National Assembly)

Breakthroughs of the draft

Regarding the Law on Vocational Education (amended), Minister Nguyen Kim Son said that the draft adds a type of vocational secondary school at the same level as high school to promote effective career guidance and orientation, contributing to the universalization of high school education and providing young human resources with vocational skills; at the same time, there is no regulation on school councils in public vocational education institutions.

Regarding linkage, the draft completes the cooperation mechanism between schools and enterprises through the formation of a diverse network of institutions participating in vocational education, encouraging enterprises to directly participate in program development, teaching, internship and assessment, along with regulations on the mechanism for establishing a fund for training human resources for enterprises.

The Minister of Education and Training said that the draft expands the types of establishments participating in vocational education, allowing schools, centers, businesses, cooperatives and other organizations to participate in training, creating a wider and more flexible vocational education network, especially giving autonomy to establishments. The draft stipulates the recognition of learning outcomes and accumulated professional competencies, creating opportunities for learners to be flexible and convenient when transferring or connecting.

Regarding the Law on Higher Education (amended), Minister Nguyen Kim Son emphasized that the focus of the draft affirms the State's role in creating, ensuring resources and fairness in higher education, while confirming the autonomy of training institutions regardless of the level of financial autonomy, linking autonomy with the mechanism of self-responsibility and accountability.

The breakthroughs of the draft law focus on perfecting the system, improving management capacity, increasing synchronous and unified command in the system; investing with focus and key points, developing a modern interconnected system, attracting excellent scientists; strengthening policies to directly support learners; and eliminating formal accreditation.

Notably, abolishing school boards in public institutions (except for public universities established under agreements between governments), and defining the Board of Directors, School Board, and investors in private educational institutions.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/bo-truong-gddt-quy-dinh-mot-bo-sach-giao-khoa-thong-nhat-331807.html