Education Ministry: One program, many textbooks

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) plans to finish the curriculum for first, sixth and tenth grades in 2015, which will allow authors to compile textbooks for the grades.  Meanwhile, the process of replacing textbooks at general schools will start from 2018. Hien told the local press on February 15 that there would be one program for one grade, but there will be more than one set of textbooks.  Textbooks must be designed in a way to be sure that the required knowledge is provided to students. MOET will set detailed requirements on textbook quality and will be in charge of examining the textbooks before the textbooks are licensed to hit the market. On November 28, 2015, the National Assembly approved the Resolution on general education renovation which says that MOET will compile one set of textbooks for every grade itself, while all institutions and individuals will also be allowed to compile textbooks based on MOET-designed programs if they can meet the requirements. MOET will build up a master program first, and then plans for every learning subject.

After that, it will figure out the outlines for textbooks and textbooks for every subject. There will be one chief editor for the whole program and editors for every subject. Also according to MOET, there will be two stages for the new program. The first one, for primary and secondary school students, will be the basic educational stage, when students will be helped to create the capability for self-study and will receive basic knowledge so they can go to vocational schools or earn money after finishing the ninth grade. Subjects will be programmed on the basis of integration. Primary school students will have two learning shifts a day. The second stage will comprise three years at high school. Students will have some compulsory learning subjects and optional ones. Students will prepare themselves for higher education. The government plans to implement the renovation program with a budget of VND778 billion. Nguyen Minh Thuyet, former deputy chair of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, the Youth and Children, thinks that it would be better to ‘practice thrift when renovating education’. He suggested re-using the content in old books which remain useful to the new teaching method, while step by step replacing textbooks and referring to foreign textbooks. Thuyet thinks MOET should allow translation of some foreign textbooks in natural sciences, foreign languages and social sciences for reference.

Zing