Can students choose their own textbooks?

However, after 3 years of this regulation being put into practice, the selection of textbooks is still not really for and by the learners.

"Textbooks change from central monopoly to local monopoly?"

At a recent meeting between the National Assembly Standing Committee's monitoring delegation on curriculum and textbook innovation with the Government, delegate Tran Van Lam, a member of the monitoring delegation, raised the issue related to the operation of many textbooks today: "We say that the new curriculum is a decree, textbooks are just reference materials. So has the spirit of innovation been thoroughly implemented when there are many textbooks? Can students go to class and study any textbook among the textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education and Training or do they still have to depend on the textbooks chosen by the school and teaching and learning still adhere to those textbooks?"

According to delegate Lam, the question is how determined the Ministry of Education and Training is to innovate or whether it still needs to unify a set of textbooks for each class and each school. And if it continues like that, many problems will arise in the textbook selection stage, and there will still be "lobbying" to choose textbooks.

Associate Professor Vu Trong Ry, Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Psychology and Education, said that textbook selection is a very difficult issue when it is left to the provincial People's Committee to decide on textbook selection. "This regulation causes textbooks to be transferred from the Central Government (according to the old program - PV) to the local level," said Mr. Ry, adding: "Teachers and learners have not really been able to choose textbooks. We only pay attention to the difficulty in management without paying attention to users."

Students looking to buy textbooks to prepare for the new school year

Ms. Dao Thi Thuy, Principal of Doan Thi Diem Primary School (Hanoi), said that if each class and school has many different types of students but only one set of books, people will misunderstand that the curriculum and textbooks are one. If people misunderstand that the curriculum and textbooks are like a law, they will sometimes not dare to teach the wrong books.

Many opinions also pointed out that, ideally, innovation would be such that any textbook students bring to class would be accepted because teachers would not teach according to any fixed textbook and would not depend on textbooks to build lessons.

The Ministry of Education and Training also recognized that there are still some limitations in the selection of textbooks. Among them, the change in the concept of the school's autonomous role in developing and implementing educational plans; the concept of the role of textbooks from using textbooks as standards for teaching, testing and evaluation to teaching, testing and evaluation according to the content and requirements of the program (textbooks only play the role of the main teaching materials) of teachers, managers, parents and society has not kept up with the new requirements.

5% OF PROVINCES ONLY CHOOSE ONE SET OF TEXTBOOKS

Since the decision to select textbooks has been made by the provincial People's Committee, every year there have been complaints about local authorities imposing textbook selection. The process is the basis for submitting proposals, but whether or not the proposals are actually considered is another matter.

A teacher in Quang Ngai said that the locality only chose one set of textbooks. The provincial textbook selection council said it chose based on the majority. "However, we are moving towards differentiated teaching and paying attention to each student, so the textbooks that a few choose should also be considered important because they find them suitable for their teaching conditions and students, so they choose them," he said.

In Hanoi, since the implementation of the regulation that the provincial People's Committee decides on the selection of textbooks, the city has applied the most convenient method for schools, which is that all textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education and Training can be used by schools in Hanoi for teaching. However, currently, no school allows students or parents to choose textbooks, but will set a list of textbooks that the school has chosen for parents to buy themselves or register for the school to buy for them. Textbooks are also used in a unified set at the school level, not by grade unit.

There is a proposal to consider giving teachers, students and parents the right to choose textbooks instead of letting the provincial People's Committee decide on textbooks as it is now.

According to the report of the Ministry of Education and Training, to prepare for the new school year, about 41% of provinces have all subjects choosing more than one set of textbooks for each subject; the number of provinces with some subjects choosing more than one set of textbooks for each subject accounts for 54%; the number of provinces choosing one set of textbooks for each subject accounts for 5%...

Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha, a member of the 15th National Assembly, said that textbook selection should be carried out in a spirit of ensuring suitability to the characteristics of regions, teachers, and students in educational institutions. Therefore, instructions from competent authorities in the direction of respecting the right to choose textbooks of groups and individuals directly using the books are very necessary. However, Ms. Ha also said: "There should be measures to manage the selection of textbooks to avoid spreading and negativity. In particular, it is necessary to strictly direct the selection of members of the textbook selection council according to standards of professional competence, professional qualifications, and ethical qualities. At the same time, negative phenomena related to textbooks must be strictly handled. In addition, schools can socialize and add to the library a list of books for lending, including textbooks, so that students with difficult economic circumstances and conditions are not burdened by the cost of buying books."

Will amend regulations on textbook selection

Regarding the selection of textbooks, the National Assembly Standing Committee's monitoring delegation on curriculum and textbook innovation requested the Government to: "Evaluate the implementation of the policy of one program, many textbooks; is it possible to apply multiple sets of textbooks for each subject at the same time in the same educational institution? The need to amend regulations to unify the selection of textbooks and give educational institutions the right to take the initiative in selecting textbooks, aiming to make the right to choose textbooks belong to students, teachers, and parents".

In a recent report to the monitoring delegation, the Minister of Education and Training stated that for each subject, teachers and students can use multiple sets of textbooks at the same time. However, for the same requirement, it is necessary to meet the regulations in the 2018 General Education Program. Textbooks have different approaches, use different learning materials, and to guide students to study at the same time with content from many different learning materials is very difficult, requiring teachers with high pedagogical skills, students to study independently and not too many students in the class. "In the current situation, many general education institutions have not met this condition," the head of the education and training sector commented.

Regarding the consideration of giving teachers, students and parents the right to choose textbooks, the Government believes that this is the way to "implement the democratic principle best and most suitable for the conditions of organizing teaching and learning at general education institutions. The Government is directing the Ministry of Education and Training to study and amend Circular No. 25/2020/TT-BGDDT on textbook selection in the direction of strengthening the school's autonomy in choosing textbooks", the document reported to the monitoring delegation.

Opinion

At primary school age, students are too young to choose textbooks, but the role of parents is also very important. Schools need to listen to parents' opinions, because every day they are the ones who coordinate with teachers in class to tutor and guide their children to study at home.

Ms. Nguyen Phuong Hoa (Principal of Vinh Tuy Primary School, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi)

Users should be the ones to choose because they know what is needed and what is lacking. In fact, textbooks today are no longer laws like before, they are only reference documents, so teachers and students can agree, there is no need to get opinions from the higher council like now... Otherwise, there will still be cases where people directly use books but have to use books that they did not choose.

Mr. Nguyen Tung Lam (Chairman of the Board of Dinh Tien Hoang High School, Hanoi)

A class with many different textbooks according to each student's choice can only be applied when teaching is completely free from textbooks. However, currently, students are still required to have textbooks. Many textbook sets have different knowledge structures for each book, so it is not possible to imagine how teaching will be if students are still required to have textbooks and students choose different textbooks in the same class.

A teacher at Ngo Si Lien Secondary School (Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi)

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