A textbook series needs to avoid 'the beaten path'

TP - Resolution 71 of the Politburo on breakthroughs in education and training development and Resolution 281 of the Government have just been issued requiring that by 2026, the whole country will have one set of textbooks for common use. This requirement poses many challenges for the Ministry of Education and Training when the 2018 education program has just completed the book replacement cycle with 3 sets of textbooks.

Early formation of a set of textbooks

The Government has just issued a Resolution on the Action Program to implement Resolution 71 of the Politburo on breakthroughs in education and training development. One of the notable contents is the implementation of orientations on textbooks: Review and complete the general education program, increase the duration of science, technology, and information technology subjects. Ensure the provision of a unified set of textbooks nationwide for use from the 2026-2027 school year; implement the roadmap to 2030 to provide free textbooks to all students.

Before 2020, Vietnam used a common set of textbooks. At the end of 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training issued the 2018 General Education Program, one program, many sets of textbooks. From the 2020-2021 school year, new textbooks were put into use for grade 1. At this time, the whole country had 5 sets of books approved and circulated on the market including: Creative Horizon, Connecting Knowledge with Life, Learning Together to Develop Capacity, For Equality and Democracy in Education, Canh Dieu. After 1 year of implementation, from 5 sets of books, the whole country has 3 sets: Canh Dieu, Connecting Knowledge with Life and Creative Horizon.

The 2024-2025 school year ends a new textbook replacement cycle (5 years), there are many controversies surrounding the compilation of many sets of textbooks or just one set of textbooks like the 2006 program. Resolution 71 of the Politburo was issued, stating the need to review and evaluate the implementation of the general education program; ensuring the provision of a unified set of textbooks nationwide, officially ending the long-standing controversy.

Some teachers' feedback shows that, although there are many textbooks, the differences between the sets of books are not much. The biggest difference is the content of knowledge taught during which period of the school year. A high school Geography teacher in Ninh Binh gave an example, in the 10th grade Geography textbook, in the Canh Dieu book set, chapter II is Thach Thousand, but in the Creative Horizon textbook set, this content is in Chapter III. The lack of differences between the sets of textbooks is explained by teachers as due to the common backbone program, all sets of books must be based on this framework.

Consider three directions

approach

Having a unified set of textbooks can solve problems such as saving costs, not causing difficulties for parents when buying textbooks for their children, and making it easier for students to transfer schools... According to Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Manh Hung, Chief Coordinator, General Education Program Development Board in 2018, from "one program, many textbooks" to "one program, one unified set of textbooks" there can be 3 options: option 1, organize the compilation of a completely new set of textbooks; option 2, choose one of the three existing textbook sets as a common set of textbooks; option 3, choose a number of textbooks in each set of books to combine into a common set of textbooks.

Students are studying textbooks according to the 2018 general education program. Photo: Nhu Y

Regarding option 1, Associate Professor Hung said that it would take about 4-5 years to compile a new set of textbooks for 12 grades. Regarding the authors, among the current team of teachers and scientists, there are quite a few talented people who have not participated in compiling textbooks. However, the number of people who meet the requirements for a textbook author is not much. It is possible to solve the source of authors by mobilizing some people who have participated in compiling the 3 current textbook sets. However, this could lead to a conflict of interest because when they are authors of current textbooks but participate in writing a new set of textbooks, more or less, they will use the creative efforts of the old group of authors to contribute to the new group of authors. This could cause many controversies and consequences in terms of intellectual property.

“Option 1 has the advantage of having a completely new set of textbooks,” Associate Professor Hung said. However, he said it requires time to implement and a team of authors to implement, the entire education sector must strive to race against time. Because it was compiled later, the new set of textbooks must be of higher quality than the current sets of textbooks. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain why hundreds of billions of dong had to be spent to compile another set of books.

Some teachers commented that although there are many textbooks, the differences between the sets of books are not much. The biggest difference is the content of knowledge taught during which time of the school year.

Option 2, Mr. Hung believes, not only ensures progress but also helps reduce waste of resources, significantly inherits tried and tested teaching materials and does not cause disruption to teaching activities in schools. However, this is a difficult choice. All three sets of textbooks have been assessed and approved by the Ministry of Education and Training and have been widely used. If a set of textbooks must be selected, scientific, objective and transparent criteria must be put forward so that the selection results can convince the leaders of the Party, the State and the public in general.

Option 3 can be considered a variation of option 2. This option also has certain advantages. It both meets the requirements of progress and ensures relative fairness between sets of books because every set of textbooks has textbooks for a number of selected subjects. However, this option has a limitation that a unified set of textbooks may not ensure systematicity and consistency between subjects and between levels. Moreover, the selection of books for each subject in each set of books also needs to have scientific and objective criteria as with option 2, not divided equally mechanically. And the selection process is also difficult, and may even be more complicated than option 2 because it has to handle many subjects and many levels.

Associate Professor Bui Manh Hung affirmed that, regardless of the plan, the existing textbooks (in case they are not selected, in full sets or individual books) should continue to be circulated (not compulsory textbooks) to ensure diversity in teaching materials, an important condition for developing an "open, flexible education system", "textbooks and teaching and learning support materials suitable for each learner" as Resolution 29 (fundamental and comprehensive innovation of education and training) affirmed.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/mot-bo-sach-giao-khoa-can-tranh-loi-mon-post1779074.tpo