Vietnam Urged to Solve Problems in Textbook Reform to Improve Edu Quality

Vietnam should soon solve the big problems in compiling textbooks to further improve the national education quality, said senior Professor Hoang Tuy. Although the country has spent trillions of dong on textbook reforms for years, the quality of the textbooks remain poor and become one of the big unsolved problems in the education sector, together with the quality of the teaching staff, material facilities and curriculum, said Prof. Tuy. Mr. Tuy and many other educators and scientists said that the textbooks are too academic and theoretical and do not yet fit in well with the curriculums from primary to secondary and high school education. “I believe that monopoly and collectivized thought in the organization, policies and mechanism of the textbook compilation are the main reasons for the poor quality,” said Mr. Tuy. The country should now consider having more than one set of textbooks for every grade. Educators, citing the models applied in other countries, have suggested that the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) should only set up the standard programs, while encouraging teachers and educators to write textbooks to create a competitiveness to have best textbooks for generations. The textbooks should cover wider contents of knowledge so that they can be used for 10-15 years instead of 2-3 years as currently to reduce financial burdens on parents while it can be used by excellent students as a reference, Prof. Tuy suggested. Prof. Tuy also proposed the country build a flexible education model which does not force teachers to strictly follow lessons in the textbooks, thus encouraging the creativeness of students. He also added that organizing training courses for teachers to improve their skills is also important. In an interview on Nov 24, Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan also admitted the big problems in the textbooks and agreed that Vietnam needs such a revolution, but said that the country needs some more time to think of it. Vietnam recently adopted a resolution on the comprehensive reform of education and training, targeting to improve the training quality to meet the demand of socio-economic development. (Tuoi Tre - Youth Nov 28, http://www.gdtd.vn Nov 25)