According to Nguyen Van Thuan, chairman of the assembly’s Law Committee and Tran Dinh Dan, head of the National Assembly Office, the amendments do not address the fact that the current system wastes resources while students are still “overloaded” with work.

Dao Trong Thi, chairman of the National Assembly Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, said the public was looking for changes in the textbook system and that the writing, editing, printing and publishing of textbooks were still “quite a monopoly.”

Several legislators also voiced opposition to a stipulation in the draft suggesting that the authority to approve newly established universities be shifted to the ministry instead of the central government.

Doing so would make it easier for low-quality education institutions to be established, they said, arguing that this was a risk that could not be taken as universities were crucial to the country’s human resources strategies and development.

The draft also suggested enrolling students studying to become teachers in a low-interest credit loan program instead of waiving their tuition and fees. The move aimed to encourage students to work in the education sector after graduation, proponents said.

But Ha Van Hien, chairman of the National Assembly Economic Committee, said that before making all these changes, the ministry should conduct a survey to find out the percentage of students not working in the sector after graduating from teacher-training programs.

Reported by Xuan Toan