Primary school students from grades 1 to 5 have been studying new textbooks since the 2020 school year – Photo: VINH HA
This is the content stipulated in Resolution 88/2014 of the National Assembly, in the Law on Education. And it must be affirmed that this is a step forward in the country's education in recent years.
Starting from the 2020-2021 school year, along with the "rolling" implementation of the 2018 General Education Program, the compilation of new textbooks has also been deployed. Up to now, there have been enough new textbooks from grades 1 to 12, each year only changing books in some grades.
Many advantages
The application of socialized textbooks , replacing the previous mechanism of a state-owned enterprise monopolizing compilation and distribution, has advantages such as diverse learning materials and improved textbook quality.
And most fundamentally, the implementation of teaching management is based on a unified educational program with many textbooks and documents designed to suit modern educational trends and the purpose of developing learners' abilities and qualities, replacing teaching that focuses on providing pure knowledge.
But after 5 years of implementation, the issue of whether or not there should be many textbooks is still being raised. And recently, in his response to voters, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son caused a "storm" when he defended his view of implementing a program with many textbooks .
Voters suggested returning to the use of a unified set of textbooks nationwide at all levels as before to facilitate people's use, prevent waste and constant change. One of the reasons voters gave to prove the difficulty and waste in deploying many textbooks was the recent flood, many places lacked textbooks but had difficulty using old textbooks due to incompatibility.
With the purpose of education aimed at developing learners' capacity and qualities, the curriculum and methods of organizing teaching and assessing students are decisive. Textbooks are only one of many teaching materials and diversifying theoretical sources will promote autonomy, flexibility and creativity in teaching and learning.
And when textbooks are socialized, competition in improving the quality of textbooks and textbook supply services will form.
Weak in implementation
There are things that people do not understand correctly about socialized textbooks . Firstly, there is no such thing as "changing books every year". Changing books according to the 2018 General Education Program is part of a 5-year rolling cycle. Each year, only a few classes change books until the end of the cycle from grade 1 to grade 12, then it will be stable for a long time.
Second, the 2018 General Education Program is one and only, unified throughout the country. Teaching, learning, testing, evaluation, and exams are all based on the program. However, many people are equating textbooks with the program and are panicking because each school and region implements a different “program”. These misunderstandings have not been clarified and communicated well, leading to many inaccurate opinions.
However, the misunderstanding and lack of trust in "one program, many textbooks " also need to be mentioned as a weakness in the implementation stage in recent years.
In schools, the teaching, testing and evaluation perspective that depends on textbooks has not been completely removed. Although the innovation from teaching and learning that purely imparts knowledge to teaching and learning that develops learners’ abilities and qualities is considered the core of educational innovation, many schools, managers and teachers are still vague about this.
In fact, in many schools, the organization of teaching and learning has not changed much compared to before, simply applying different programs and textbooks . When the fundamental issues that need to change are not done properly and thoroughly, having many textbooks does not bring about the expected results.
While people do not see the advantages of “many textbooks ”, they only see the disadvantages: difficulty in buying books, difficulty in reusing old books, and difficulty when students transfer schools and have to exchange for other books. Every year, the selection of textbooks is still delayed, causing many students to be late in getting books to prepare for the new school year.
Although socialized textbooks have improved in form and quality, they still have many "errors", errors still occur, and are more expensive than before.
These are issues that the state management agency, the Ministry of Education and Training, needs to seriously consider and find solutions to, especially in the professional management stage. This should have been done immediately in parallel with the innovation roadmap and necessary adjustments should have been made when the textbook replacement process had completed a full cycle.
Breakthrough policy
Before the 8th session of the National Assembly, voters of Hung Yen province proposed to consider unifying a common set of textbooks for students of the same grade level nationwide, and at the same time not to change textbooks frequently, because it would cause waste, because the books cannot be reused, making it difficult for sellers as well as people to find books for their children.
Responding to this content, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son said that Resolution 88/2014 of the National Assembly has stipulated the implementation of socialization of textbook compilation, with a number of textbooks for each subject.
The Minister assessed that the policy of socializing textbooks is a breakthrough policy, changing the monopoly mechanism of textbook publishing, while socializing textbooks , creating conditions for many individuals and organizations with the ability and conditions to participate in compiling and publishing textbooks . From there, it creates competition, motivating groups of book authors and publishers to have good quality books.
Minister Nguyen Kim Son also affirmed that the socialization of textbooks has achieved good results, with 3-9 sets of textbooks for each subject and educational activity.
Need to stick to reality
In an innovation, we cannot stop and return to the starting point when faced with difficulties. However, we also need to stick to reality to ensure effective implementation. Only when people clearly see the advantages will they accept to overcome current obstacles to move towards a larger goal.
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