LookAtVietnam – The Education and Training Ministry has a new set of guidelines for school textbooks.

The request was made after the ministry listened to participants at two recent workshops evaluating the three-year implementation of the textbook programme at secondary education level.

Changes will be made to text books where content is beyond the current ability of students. The new guidelines will help teachers impart the necessary knowledge as required by the ministry standards for each school grade. Repetition in content will be minimised.

Abstract, unsuitable and inconsistent technical terms used between textbooks and grades will be adjusted. Methodologies used in standard and advanced text books will be standardised.

Will problems that can be adjusted immediately be applied in the next academic year?

Apart from evaluating the textbook programme periodically, the ministry has also directed schools and teachers to follow the programme and add their opinions based on their experience. Adjustments will be made based on these suggestions.

There are many complaints that the existing text book programme remains too heavy, and that it should really run over 37 weeks. Will this be taken into account?

Secondary students in many foreign countries have classes throughout the whole day, yet in Viet Nam, only 5 per cent of secondary schools do so. For this reason, some participants said the courses remain too heavy when such a limited academic day is concerned.

Increasing time, and funds for teaching and learning is a rational solution. The ministry has instructed cities and provinces to implement a curriculum lasting 37 weeks.

Other measures are also needed to deal with shortcomings.

When you refer to other measures, do you mean the ministry’s guidelines about teaching methodology and standards for grades, because some people say that you are just shifting the responsibility onto teachers to solve the problem of students being overloaded with too much work?

I wouldn’t say so. The ministry doesn’t demand that teachers give all the lessons written in textbooks to their students, nor should they stick solely to the textbooks, but they should use their imagination and other sources as well.

Due a variety of reasons, including limited time, and teachers struggling with new teaching methods, some students are lagging behind, How will this problem be dealt with?

To address the problem, the ministry will issue documents for teachers, the idea is to provide guidelines and support, not making teaching workloads even heavier.

In addition, the ministry will direct education and training departments at cities and provinces to provide regular training for teachers in applying the new teaching methods.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News