Professor Dr. Nguyen Minh Thuyet said that the idea of applying more than one set of textbooks was not approved in 2005.

Prof Nguyen Minh Thuyet

First, if more than one set of textbooks are applied, which publishing house will be allowed to print textbooks?

If publishing houses think they are capable to print textbooks, they can ask the Ministry of Information and Communication for the permission to print textbooks. However, it is not so easy to print textbooks. Will other publishing houses be able to compete with the Education Publishing House which has 50 years of experience in printing textbooks?

Second, where will the money for compiling textbooks come from? Currently, the money is being paid by the State. But will it be able to pay for many sets of textbooks in the future?

Third, who will have the right to choose textbooks to be used in general schools?

And fourth, how will the examination scheme need to be adjusted to fit the new circumstances, where more than one set of textbooks exist?

You may well know that in all sciences, it does not happen that scientists agree with each other in every view of points. Therefore, it is very likely that different authors will follow different ways in writing textbooks.

I’m afraid that if the MOET, once more this time, cannot give satisfactory answers to the four questions, the National Assembly will not ratify the article on textbooks in general schools when amending the Education Law.

But scholars all said that the application of many sets of textbooks is a normal thing in many other countries in the world. What would you say about this?

I know. But I have to remind you about the way of using different textbooks in other countries. In other countries, students can learn with many textbooks at the same time. Teachers have the right to choose textbooks in learning. For example, they use the textbooks compiled by A. publishing house when they teach lesson 1, but they will use the textbooks compiled by B. publishing house when they teach lesson 2.

A question has been raised that if Vietnamese teachers are capable to make such decisions. How will Vietnamese students be able to get enough textbooks if they have to deal with so many textbooks at the same time?

Meanwhile, foreign students can do that because in the foreign countries, the system of school libraries and public libraries have been well developed, which allow students to borrow for learning.

I know that many people want to have many textbooks. But there will be a lot of problems which will arise.

Before 2000, we once had two sets of textbooks for high schools, one compiled by the Hanoi Pedagogical University, and the other by individuals and institutions in HCM City. However, only one set of textbooks was used.

The problem was that the localities from Da Nang City toward the south used the textbooks compiled by the HCM City experts, while the localities from Hue city toward the north use Hanoi’s textbooks.

What do you prefer, one set of textbooks, or many sets of textbooks?

I think that we need a more thorough preparation for having many sets of textbooks. In the immediate time, we should organize a competition of compiling textbooks, which will allow us to choose the best set. I think that this would be better than having many sets of textbooks.

So, we will have one set of textbooks only?

I think that with the current conditions, it will be very difficult to apply many sets of textbooks.

VietNamNet/TP