A set of textbooks: Not starting from zero

Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai, Principal of Nguyen Hung Son High School, An Giang, said that the school is using the book series Connecting knowledge with life, published by Vietnam Education Publishing House. Ms. Mai affirmed that the 2018 general education program has made progress compared to the 2006 general education program, such as having an orientation to develop students' capacity according to the integration trend. The current age of students wants to express their personal capacity, the new textbook series has advantages and advantages to meet this need of students. When choosing the textbook series Connecting knowledge with life, most teachers highly appreciate this book series. And after 3 years of study, the book series has proven to be the right choice for students and teachers.

Textbooks of Vietnam Education Publishing House are widely distributed in bookstores nationwide.

According to Ms. Mai, with the general policy that textbooks are reference materials, one or many sets of books is not too difficult for schools to organize teaching. However, if in the 2026-2027 school year all grades use the same set of textbooks, many problems will arise. In the process of writing textbooks according to the 2018 general education program, the publishers themselves also encountered many difficulties and problems, having to work and edit at the same time, gradually overcoming limitations and errors. For teachers, who are used to innovation and using the current set of textbooks, if they have to change again, it will be very difficult. Ms. Mai suggested that we should evaluate the current sets of textbooks, overcome the limitations and then choose a suitable book for students. Teachers must improve themselves year after year to get used to new methods and materials.

Ms. Nguyen Tuyet Thanh, a teacher at Hai Hau A High School ( Ninh Binh ), shared that after 3 years of implementing the textbook replacement according to the 2018 general education program, her school chose to study the Connecting Knowledge with Life book series of the Vietnam Education Publishing House. However, teachers encountered some difficulties when in a locality, each school chose a different set of textbooks, but the general test and assessment questions, especially the national high school graduation exam, were different. Each set of textbooks had a different presentation, lesson structure and question system. Teachers had to study many sets of books to ensure consistent teaching content, avoiding missing or duplicated knowledge. The assessment and testing were not consistent because each set of textbooks had a different focus on knowledge, leading to difficulties in creating common test and exam questions. It was difficult for teachers to exchange and share teaching experiences if they did not use the same set of books. Ms. Thanh supported the whole country to use a common set of textbooks to overcome the above difficulties.

Put the interests of students and teachers first

Sharing with reporters, National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga affirmed that the most feasible solution currently in compiling textbooks is not to start from zero, but to base on synthesizing, selecting, and adjusting from current textbooks. Currently, we have at least 3 sets of books that have been compiled and are being widely taught nationwide. This is a significant source of documents for compiling new sets of books, because each set of books has gone through the appraisal process, through practical implementation, and has been evaluated by teachers, students, and parents. If we know how to exploit them, we can shorten the compilation time while ensuring quality. However, compiling and inheriting current sets of books is not simply "assembling" and "copying" the content of current books into the new set of books, but must be selected, evaluated, and adjusted to achieve the best results.

“The foundation for compiling new textbooks to meet the requirements of educational innovation has been carefully built over a long period of time. So at present, I think that if we do not recompile all textbooks but proceed on the basis of inheritance and selection, this is completely feasible,” said Ms. Nguyen Thi Viet Nga.

She believes that the optimal solution is to establish a National Council on Unified Textbooks, with the participation of authors from the three current textbooks, education experts, managers, and at the same time, widely soliciting opinions from the teaching staff nationwide. In this way, we will have a unified set of textbooks formed on the basis of inheritance, refinement, and supplementation — instead of re-creating from scratch. This will save time and avoid wasting social resources.

For students and schools, this change will certainly create an adaptation period. However, it should be noted that the 2018 general education program has stabilized, the change at this time is not to change the entire program but to adjust the way books are deployed. For students, the main impact will be on accessing learning materials according to a common standard, avoiding too large a gap between regions. For teachers and schools, this is also an opportunity to reduce the burden of choice, while having a clear professional support.

The important thing is to have a careful roadmap, not causing too much disruption too quickly; at the same time, we must ensure the quality of the standard textbooks - it must be a carefully compiled product, reflecting the spirit of innovation, with the wide participation of scientists, education experts, and practical teachers.

In short, this adjustment does not necessarily go against the direction of “one program, many textbooks”, but can be a step to perfect the policy. The issue is that the implementation must be scientific, public, transparent and put the interests of students, teachers and schools first.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/mot-bo-sgk-khong-bat-dau-tu-con-so-0-post1787255.tpo