Textbook choice rights will be 'returned' to schools

According to the draft, the textbook selection council is established by the principal of a general education institution or the director of a vocational education or continuing education center, to assist the head of the institution (generally referred to as the school) in organizing the selection of textbooks.

Dự kiến trả quyền chọn sách giáo khoa cho các trường - Ảnh 1. — Textbook selection is expected to be returned to schools instead of provincial People's Committees as it is now.

Thus, the establishment of the textbook selection council returns to the beginning of 2020, the first year textbooks under the new general education program are put into use, the right to choose textbooks belongs to educational institutions.

However, from the 2021-2022 school year up to now, the selection of textbooks is implemented according to the Law on Education, the right to decide which textbooks to choose to teach in general education institutions is the People's Committee at the provincial level. The book selection council is established by the People's Committee of the province and each subject at each level is a council, schools are only allowed to contribute opinions.

Since the implementation of a program and many sets of textbooks, the selection of textbooks has always been a controversial issue, causing concern for public opinion. Many violations and concerns about the lack of transparency in textbook selection have been pointed out.

Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training drafted a revision to the textbook selection regulations in the direction that each school establishes a textbook selection council. For general schools with many levels, each level establishes a council.

The Council includes: the head, deputy head; representatives of the heads of professional groups, professional teams, professional departments (collectively referred to as professional groups), teacher representatives, and representatives of the parents' association.

The number of council members is an odd number, with a minimum of 11 people. For general education institutions with less than 10 classes, the minimum number of council members is 5 people.

The council's task is to organize the appraisal of minutes of meetings of professional groups; comments and evaluations of textbooks by teachers; and the list of textbooks selected by professional groups.

From there, synthesize and propose to the head of the school the list of textbooks selected by professional groups after being assessed to meet requirements.

The Chairman of the Council is responsible for the operation, planning and implementation of the Council's work plan.

In addition, the council chairman is responsible for explaining the selection of textbooks of the institution.

Regarding the textbook selection process, the council develops a selection organization plan for the facility; assigns tasks to members.

Based on the council's plan and textbook selection criteria, the head of the professional group develops a plan to organize textbook selection for each subject structured in the professional group and reports to the head of the school before implementation.

The subject group leader also organizes all subject teachers of the school to participate in choosing textbooks for that subject.

At least 15 days before the first meeting of the professional group, the head of the professional group shall organize for subject teachers to study the subject's textbooks; write comments and evaluate the subject's textbooks.

The head of the subject group organizes a meeting with subject teachers to discuss and vote to choose a textbook for that subject.

After the council recommends to the school head the list of textbooks selected by the professional groups, the school will prepare a book selection file and send it to the Department of Education and Training (for primary and secondary schools) and the Department of Education and Training (for high schools).

The Department of Education and Training appraises textbook selection records of schools; reports to the Department of Education and Training on the appraisal results and selection list.

The Department of Education and Training organizes the appraisal of textbook selection dossiers of schools; reviews reports of the Department of Education and Training on appraisal results and textbook selection lists of schools; synthesizes the results, makes a list of textbook selections of schools and submits it to the Provincial People's Committee for consideration and approval.

Based on the results of textbook selection of schools submitted by the Department of Education and Training, the Provincial People's Committee decides to approve this selection list locally.

During the use, based on the recommendations of teachers, students, and parents (if any), the school can report and propose to the Department of Education and Training (for primary and secondary schools), the Department of Education and Training (for high schools) to adjust and supplement the textbook list.

Regarding the selection of textbooks, the National Assembly Standing Committee's monitoring delegation on curriculum and textbook innovation once proposed to the Government: "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 be proactive in choosing textbooks, aiming to make the right to choose textbooks belong to students, teachers, and parents".

In the report to the monitoring team, 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 to have high pedagogical skills, students to study independently and not have 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 and supplement Circular No. 25/2020/TT-BGDDT on textbook selection in the direction of strengthening the school's autonomy in choosing textbooks".

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