Voters disagree with the attitude of accepting criticism about textbooks.

Expressing concern about the issue of innovation in the General Education Textbook Program, National Assembly delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy (Da Nang) acknowledged the great efforts of the Ministry of Education and Training in developing the 2018 General Education Program and directing the compilation, publication and distribution of new textbooks in accordance with the schedule set forth in the National Assembly's resolutions.

The chairmen and secretaries at the morning meeting on June 1.

The human resources and financial problems that the Ministry of Education and Training and the education sector in general find difficult to solve alone, doing something that the whole country has high expectations for, which is educational innovation, but the two most important factors - people and money - are not proactive, it is difficult to do well. Delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy also said that if the Ministry of Education and Training closely inspects, detects difficulties, problems, and violations, promptly discusses with local leaders, reports to the Prime Minister for measures to remove and handle, then those difficulties, problems, and violations are not without solutions.

According to delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy, regarding errors in some textbooks and the possibility of textbook shortages in the upcoming school year, the attitude of the Ministry of Education and Training and publishers in accepting criticism is what worries voters and makes public opinion disagree. Most of the criticisms and suggestions were not responded to by publishers and the Ministry of Education and Training. In some cases, the responses were not in accordance with reality.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy gave an example: in the written response to the delegate's question, the Minister of Education and Training affirmed that the Vietnam Education Publishing House had recalled and corrected 110,000 books, and destroyed and reprinted 38,000 Grade 6 Natural Science books of the Connecting Knowledge with Life book series.

National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy spoke about many issues about textbooks.

However, according to the feedback of teachers at many schools, the books have not been replaced with new ones. “To know which information is correct and which is incorrect, just check the book appraisal records. If the books are corrected, when will the corrections take place?”, delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy asked.

In a recent letter of response to questions, the Minister of Education and Training reaffirmed the opinion of the representative of the Vietnam Education Publishing House during a working session with the Deputy Prime Minister on the afternoon of May 10, 2023. Accordingly, as of April 30, 2023, the rate of printing textbooks by the Vietnam Education Publishing House according to the 2018 general education program for grades 4, 8, and 11 reached 79%, while in fact, on May 5, 2023, this Publishing House only issued an official dispatch inviting bids to print textbooks for grades 4, 8, and 11 to import to book warehouses in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, and Da Nang. The bid opening time is 9:00 a.m. on May 21, 2023. Thus, it means that the quantity of 79% of textbooks reported by the Publishing House to the Deputy Prime Minister was printed before the bidding, delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy analyzed.

Lack of transparency in textbook selection

Delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy said that the lack of transparency, objectivity, and disrespect for the opinions of teachers, schools, and parents in choosing textbooks as reported by the press originated from Circular No. 25 dated August 26, 2020 of the Ministry of Education and Training on guidelines for choosing textbooks.

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son at the meeting on the morning of June 1.

Although the Circular sets out the process of selecting textbooks from the grassroots level up, it gives the right to vote on the selection of textbooks for each subject to a council of 15 people without any regulations that when a textbook is selected by educational institutions with a certain percentage, the council is responsible for selecting that book.

“I have received feedback from many teachers and educational administrators that in the selection of textbooks, the opinions of teachers and schools are not respected. Many professional groups and schools even have to redo the book selection records to match the opinions of superiors. I have the specific addresses of these teachers and administrators,” said delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy.

Also according to delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy, the most worrying thing is that the selection of books lacks transparency and objectivity, which not only does not encourage competition between organizations and individuals who compile, publish, and distribute textbooks to continuously improve the quality of textbooks, which is beneficial to teachers and learners, but also has the potential to encourage unhealthy competition, gradually distorting the policy of socialization, even eliminating socialization in this field, returning to the old monopoly situation.

View of Dien Hong Hall on the morning of June 1.

On that basis, delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy requested the Government to direct the organization of inspections, checks, timely detection and handling of violations; the Ministry of Education and Training to urgently review and immediately amend the unreasonable regulations of Circular 25.

The delegates also proposed that the National Assembly and the Government consider amending the Law on Education to continue implementing the policy of diversifying learning materials as stated in Resolution 29 of the Central Committee and socializing the compilation of textbooks as stipulated in Resolution 88 of the National Assembly.

MAI DUONG LAM