While the Ministry of Education and Training has been speaking highly of the idea about having more than one textbook for every subject, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee says it is now not the right time to do that.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien, a representative of the law’s compilation committee, said that the scheme of one curriculum with many textbooks proves to be a general trend, because there is not one single set of textbooks that can meet all requirements. Therefore, it is understandable if a textbook is criticised for errors. Hien said that the only thing that can be done is to try to minimise errors. Foreign languages could be the first subjects to have more than one textbook, he said, after which natural sciences and then social sciences could have more than one each.

Meanwhile, a representative of Tien Giang Education and Training Department, said that though in the future, Vietnam will apply the scheme of many textbooks, it should still anoint official textbooks, while others should be used for reference only.

Le Minh Hong, Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, said that the time is still not ripe for the implementation of the scheme of one curriculum with many textbooks.

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee raised five questions for the law compilation committee, but has not received answers so far.

The first question was, where will the expenses for the textbook compilation come from? It cost 8-10 billion dong alone to set up a compilation team.

What would happen if the textbook compilation was assigned to individuals but the textbooks then were not approved by the Ministry of Education and Training, which means that the textbooks could not be used in general schools? In addition, if there are several tens of textbooks, this would overload the national committee for textbook examination.

Other questions raised were: What does Vietnam need to do to avoid wrongdoings in publishing textbooks and how will the national exams have to be changed to come in line with the new scheme of one curriculum and many textbooks?

Hien corrected the misunderstanding about the role of the Ministry of Education and Training in the new scheme. Hien said that the ministry will only set regulations about how the process of compilation will be organised, while it will not participate in the compilation. Similarly, Hien said, the ministry will not compile curriculums, it will only approve curriculums. Hien stressed that if there were no frame curriculum, educational quality could not be ensured.

VietNamNet/DT