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Publishers try to reduce prices
Implementing the direction of the Ministry of Education and Training on strictly controlling production costs, reducing costs to reduce textbook prices, supporting consumers, ensuring social security; recommendations in Resolution 686/NQ-UBTVQH15-2023 dated September 18, 2023 of the National Assembly Standing Committee, in the 2024 - 2025 school year, Vietnam Education Publishing House has made efforts to adjust and reduce textbook prices, with the goal of supporting students and schools.
Accordingly, the Vietnam Education Publishing House has adjusted down the selling price of reprinted textbooks for grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11; at the same time, it has built the selling price of textbooks for grades 5, 9 and 12 (published in the first year) according to the reduced price structure of reprinted textbooks. Specifically, the new cover price of the textbook series "Connecting knowledge with life" has decreased by 9.6%; the cover price of the textbook series "Creative horizon" has decreased by 11.2%.
The new price list is fully and publicly posted at textbook sales points nationwide and on the general electronic information website of the Vietnam Education Publishing House, as well as on mass media according to regulations. For textbooks in storage, printed with old prices different from the new prices, the Vietnam Education Publishing House will put new price stickers on the 4th cover of the book so that students and teachers can easily recognize and avoid confusion.
Mr. Nguyen Van Tung, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Vietnam Education Publishing House, said: Among the costs that Vietnam Education Publishing House has reviewed and reduced to reduce prices, there are two most important items, including costs for organizing manuscripts and costs for circulation.
Regarding the cost of organizing the manuscript, Vietnam Education Publishing House has updated the actual publication output. This output is larger than the expected output, so the cost of organizing the manuscript allocated to each book copy has decreased. Regarding the cost of circulation, the reduction in distribution and sales costs has helped reduce the cover price by 2.5%.
In addition to the textbooks of the Vietnam Education Publishing House, the textbook set "Canh Dieu" of the Vietnam Education Publishing and Equipment Investment Joint Stock Company (VEPIC) has also been announced to reduce the cover price by 20% for the Departments of Education and Training when purchasing books to equip school libraries. The above price is also applied to individuals and units that buy books to donate to libraries for students to use together. In addition, the Company has a policy of reducing the price of textbooks from grades 1 to 12 for students in difficult circumstances when purchasing at school (buying the whole set or buying separately). The list of students registering to buy is confirmed by the principal and the books are sent to the school.
Along with adjusting the cover price, Vietnam Education Equipment and Publishing Investment Joint Stock Company also announced the “Canh Dieu” book ecosystem including e-books and e-learning materials posted on the website. The ecosystem is free to use and was developed to support teachers, parents and students in accessing it. Specifically, the website posts more than 400 textbooks, teacher’s books, and exercise books; more than 2,000 lesson plans for teachers to refer to; a question bank with more than 4,000 questions designed according to the curriculum...
In addition, the book publisher also digitized tens of thousands of images, more than 4 thousand audio documents and more than 1 thousand videos illustrating its lessons. The book ecosystem also sets up many types of interactions such as: Drag and drop, connect, fill in words, color, crosswords, multiple choice... so that teachers and students can directly do exercises on e-books.
On the eve of the new school year, Vietnam Education Publishing House and Vietnam Education Publishing and Equipment Investment Joint Stock Company will organize book donation campaigns for poor students, students in disadvantaged areas, ethnic minority areas and libraries of some schools across the country.
Reduce burden, ensure social security
The 5th session of the 15th National Assembly passed the revised Law on Prices, which determined that textbooks were added to the list of prices determined by the State, effective from July 1. According to the provisions of the Law on Prices, textbooks are priced by the State, the Ministry of Finance issues a method for maximum pricing, and publishers decide on specific prices within the general ceiling.
This is a policy that is supported by many opinions because adjusting and regulating textbook prices will have a wide-ranging impact. Changing the price of a textbook, although not much, but currently, with more than 17.6 million high school students nationwide, the total cost to society will be a very large number.
Mr. Hoang Van Cuong, Member of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly, said: The method of pricing textbooks needs to be based on three common principles: accuracy, sufficiency and ensuring the harmony of interests of learners, the education sector and manufacturers. The pricing of textbooks needs to be based on three bases: Factors constituting product prices; supply-demand relationship; prices of similar products on the market. In addition, it is necessary to avoid the situation where some stages are not well controlled, causing prices to increase...
However, it is also necessary to set a suitable price so that businesses can provide the best quality products, implementing the policy of diversifying one program but many textbooks.
Schools, teachers, and parents also expressed their joy at the reduction in textbook prices. This is an important factor for general education institutions to choose textbooks for use in schools, especially in disadvantaged areas.
Mr. Nguyen Van Chinh, Vice Principal of Mo De Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities (Mu Cang Chai District, Yen Bai) shared: “Textbooks are very valuable to students and teachers in mountainous areas. When we heard that textbook prices would be reduced in the coming school year, the teachers and I were all happy. We hope that the school will have enough textbooks to equip the library.”
On the parent side, as a mother of three children studying in general education under the new curriculum (grades 11, 5 and 1), Ms. Hoang Chi Mai (Thanh Xuan - Hanoi) confided: Every time I prepare to enter a new school year, I have to worry about many expenses from textbooks, learning tools, uniforms, insurance, funds... The fact that the price of new textbooks in recent years has been higher has also increased the burden on the family. Therefore, when I heard that publishers reduced the price of textbooks, I was very happy, no matter how little or how much, any reduction in expenses is a relief.
According to Viet Ha (Vietnam News Agency)
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