In contact with National Assembly deputies and People's Council deputies at all levels, we hear about the problem of textbooks everywhere, because voters and people face this problem every day. Mr. Dinh Van Be (residing in Tan Phu commune, Chau Thanh district) expressed: "We often say that education is the top national policy, this is completely true. But currently, buying textbooks for children at the beginning of the school year is already difficult enough, not to mention the inappropriate curriculum. I suggest that the Central Government review this issue, creating the most favorable conditions for students to access knowledge."
Mr. Nguyen Van Tung (residing in Vinh Binh town, Chau Thanh district) affirmed that the process of converting textbooks is of great interest to the people. Researchers and scientists "racking their brains" to write books to convey the essence of knowledge to the younger generation is something to be recognized and welcomed. "However, textbooks are compiled into many different sets, the price is not cheap, creating a burden for parents and students. It is a problem for poor workers and farmers to send their children to school. With such a large amount of intelligence, textbooks should be stored and passed down from generation to generation. However, the family has 2 children studying 1 year apart, the younger child cannot study the older sibling's book, it is such a waste. I suggest that we compile a set of books for long-term use".
The whole country started implementing the new General Education Program from grade 1, school year 2020 - 2021. In the following years, grades 2, 3, 6, 7, and 10 will study according to the new program. The roadmap for changing textbooks "rolling" is implemented in parallel, following the policy of "one program, many sets of textbooks", eliminating the publishing monopoly. During the implementation process, problems arose, when localities and schools were confused, not knowing which publisher to choose books from, and had to think about the reactions of people and parents about the prices of each type of book.
The most controversial issue is when textbook prices are 2-3 times higher than old books. For example, a set of 3rd grade books costs nearly 200,000 VND, while the old set is less than 60,000 VND. Grade 7 books cost more than 200,000 VND, 80,000 VND higher. Grade 10 books can cost up to 300,000 VND (depending on the subject combination), 140,000 VND higher than the old set. In a special report on textbook supervision at the end of 2022 with the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, Director of the Department of Education and Training (GD&DT) Tran Thi Ngoc Diem affirmed: “Textbook prices are higher than before. However, through inspections of the implementation of the 2018 General Education Program at educational institutions, most parents have been able to equip their children with textbooks, only a few families in remote and mountainous areas complained about textbook prices. It is recommended to consider a price support policy for textbooks, especially primary school textbooks, to ensure that they are suitable for people's economic conditions.
On the other hand, the province encountered some difficulties. Typically, the announcement of the results of textbook selection is quite long, after selecting the list of investment equipment, it often enters the second quarter of the fiscal year (the time when the new fiscal year budget has been assigned), making it difficult to supplement the budget specifically for purchasing and supplementing equipment for the 2018 General Education Program.
On the other hand, each unit chooses different textbooks, leading to different illustrations and equipment. The equipment according to the instructions is rarely used by teachers, such as: Pictures, videos... because there are alternative devices (TVs connected to the Internet), if purchased it would be a waste. For grade 10 textbooks for the 2022-2023 school year, a school has many subject combinations, students must buy books according to the chosen subject combination. Bookstores cannot package all textbooks to sell as a set as before; parents are not used to buying books according to the list announced by the school.
The issue of textbooks continued to "heat up" after the opinion of National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy (National Assembly Delegation of Da Nang City) at the discussion on some contents of the draft Law on Prices (amended) at the 5th session of the 15th National Assembly. In previous sessions, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy discussed that buying textbooks has become a burden for parents. The main reason is that book publishers (through schools) always sell textbooks with a large number of reference books. The Ministry of Education and Training accepted the above opinion and issued a directive requiring an end to the situation of packaging textbooks and reference books together; there will be no more situation of forcing students to buy reference books in any form.
“At the 4th session, during the discussion, I proposed that the Law on Prices (amended) should regulate textbook prices in the form of a price frame (including maximum and minimum prices) like other items priced by the state. Minister of Finance, Head of the drafting committee of the Law on Prices (amended) Ho Duc Phoc spoke before the National Assembly accepting this opinion. However, the draft law submitted to the National Assembly this time for consideration and approval does not reflect the above accepted opinion; nor does it explain it” - National Assembly member Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy raised the issue.
At the end of 2022, the Government Inspectorate pointed out a series of violations related to the state management of textbooks in the period 2014 - 2018. The Ministry of Education and Training designed a number of blank data tables, so that students could write in textbooks. Although it required general education institutions and teachers to instruct students to be conscious of preserving and not to write or draw in books; the reuse of textbooks was only about 35%. During this period, 73/193 textbooks (that students could write in) were printed, distributed, and sold more than 303 million copies. If 65% of textbooks have pages that students can write in but cannot be reused, the wasted value for students' families and society is nearly 2,400 billion VND.
When many questions arise regarding the effectiveness and longevity of textbooks, the National Assembly, the Government and relevant ministries and branches need to pay attention and find solutions soon, so that parents can rest assured that their children will go to school, and no longer have to "worry while studying" like this.
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