Worried that the life of a textbook is too short

The vice principal of a primary school in a district of Nghe An province shared that the flow of concerns also raised among the parents themselves. Because in the past, there was only one set of textbooks, so they could buy it for older siblings and later can still use it again. But the new textbooks with many sets, the choice of which books to use may change from year to year, and the stability of each series itself from year to year is not guaranteed to make people worry about waste when they can use it. 1 year and then disappeared.

In fact, in order to implement the new General Education Program, in 2020, the Minister of Education and Training approved and allowed the use of 46 books belonging to 5 sets of 1st grade textbooks (including Learning Together to develop students’ competences). ; For equality and democracy in education; Connecting knowledge to life; Creative horizon; Kite)) of 3 publishers for localities and educational institutions to choose and put into teaching .

In these 5 sets, Vietnam Education Publishing House released 4 sets of 1st grade textbooks, including: Learning together to develop capacity; For equality and democracy in education; Connecting knowledge with life; Creative horizon.

However, by grade 2, this publishing house only made 2 sets of information (Connecting knowledge with life; Creative horizon). The remaining 2 sets that are not allowed to continue to be released are Learning Together for Capacity Development; For equality and democracy in education.

It is known that in the context that these two sets of books are no longer named in the second grade textbooks, many localities and schools have re-selected the first grade textbooks to avoid the case that the first graders study this textbook but have to switch to the second grade. books from another series. This means that a series of textbooks parents buy hundreds of thousands of dong but can only be used for 1 year, hardly having the opportunity to reuse in the following courses.

Not to mention, there is still the situation that because the quality of textbooks is not guaranteed, there are too many “hotels”, so some localities and schools next year have to choose another textbook. This also makes parents almost give up hope of using old books of previous generations for later generations, wasting the set of books that are only used for 1 year.

At the time when it was reported that, unlike grade 1, from grade 2 and above will only release 2 sets of books, a representative of Vietnam Education Publishing House also said that this merger will not affect the work of the students. teaching and learning of teachers and students as well as the selection of textbooks.

“Because each textbook closely follows and concretizes the requirements to be met and the teaching content is specified in the 2018 General Education Program. Therefore, no matter which textbook you study, at the end of grade 1, All students must meet the minimum standard for grade 1. On the other hand, the 4 sets of grade 1 textbooks of the Vietnam Education Publishing House, although there are differences, show the unit’s cross-cutting point of view in compiling. Textbook. Therefore, there is a close connection between 4 sets of 1st grade textbooks and 2 sets of 2nd grade textbooks of publishers. Accordingly, in grade 1, regardless of which textbooks teachers and students use, up to grade 2, they can choose the textbook Connecting Knowledge to Life or Creative Horizon”, representative of Vietnam Education Publishing House. Nam explained.

Share with VietNamNet, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training in a northern province said that before each school year, the province allows teachers and schools to research new sets of textbooks. This person admitted that if he finds a new book of better quality, more suitable, regardless of the series, he is allowed to choose again.

“With the textbooks selected from the previous year, if schools find it inappropriate, the next year can be re-selected to suit the situation, as long as they follow the regulations,” he said.

This person said, for objective reasons, when the publisher no longer continued to issue textbooks of the higher grades of the two sets of books, the schools changed, choosing to use the first grade textbooks of another series. It is also understandable, to ensure the continuity in teaching.

The vice principal of an elementary school in Nghe An said that the school’s re-selecting of grade 1 textbooks to seamlessly blend with grades 2, 3, etc. (when the same book series continues to be released) also understandable, to avoid confusion. However, this led to a series of textbooks that bought hundreds of thousands of dong even if they wanted to give them to students after school. That almost gave up the whole book.

“But if every year, studying this book, jumping to another book also makes parents wonder about the quality, feel uncomfortable. Not to mention, not being able to agree on textbooks also makes teachers miserable with training schedules and takes time to train many sets of books, “said the female vice principal.

According to him, if the change of this book takes place continuously, it will certainly be costly for parents, because reuse is difficult. If you agree, then maybe children learn from siblings, even parents can easily ask/borrow books from friends’ children.

“For students in the city, often families with more conditions, it is not a big deal to buy both brother and sister a set of textbooks every year. But for students in rural areas, this is very expensive for them, especially for families with many children going to school. Not to mention textbooks are much more expensive now than textbooks used to be.”

Hai Nguyen