39 criteria for evaluating general education textbooks

Implementing the policy of one program, many textbooks, the Ministry of Education and Training is building a set of criteria for evaluating general education textbooks. The set of criteria includes 39 criteria, divided into 5 groups.

The Ministry of Education and Training said that the set of criteria, once approved, will be the basis for the Textbook Appraisal Councils to appraise books, the Ministry of Education and Training to approve books, and guidance for publishers, organizations and individuals to refer to when compiling books to ensure quality according to the requirements of the general education program; teachers and schools to refer to when choosing books approved by the Ministry to teach in schools.

The set of criteria includes 39 criteria, divided into 5 groups as follows: Group I. Criteria on prerequisites (4 criteria); Group II. Criteria on objectives, principles, teaching and testing methods, and assessment (11 criteria); Group III. Criteria on knowledge content (14 criteria); Group IV. Criteria on book format and presentation (8 criteria); Group V. Criteria on teaching materials and equipment (2 criteria).

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Principles of using the criteria set

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the use of criteria to evaluate textbooks must be based on the subject program issued by the Ministry of Education and Training and must ensure the following two principles at the same time: 1- Principle of prerequisites: Books that are rated "Pass" in all criteria in group I can continue to be considered for evaluation in the next groups of criteria.

Minimum threshold principle:The criteria of Group II, III, IV, V are evaluated according to the following scores: 0; 1; 2.

A book is considered qualified if it simultaneously satisfies three conditions: (1) has a total score of at least 50 points, (2) no criteria are rated 0 points, and (3) the criteria groups receive the following minimum scores: Group II: 16 points; Group III: 21 points; Group IV: 10 points; Group V: 03 points. The detailed assessment of the score for each criterion is guided in the Appendix issued with the draft.

The Ministry of Education and Training said that the evaluation of criteria according to the scores of 0; 1; 2 is essentially the evaluation method of "Pass" - 1 point and "Fail" - 0 point, the level of 2 points is for books that "Pass well" the evaluation criteria.

For a book to be evaluated as “Passed”, all criteria must be evaluated as “Passed” – No criteria must be evaluated as 0 points; at the same time, the book must meet the minimum threshold for each group of evaluation criteria, meaning that the Criteria Set has weighted requirements of different levels of importance (High requirements for knowledge content; Objectives, principles, teaching methods and assessment. While lower requirements for book form, criteria for learning materials and teaching equipment); at the same time, the book as a whole must meet the quality level of “Fair” or higher (70%/total score).

The criteria encourage publishers, organizations and individuals to compile books of the highest quality because the evaluation results will influence the book selection of educational institutions, parents and students (books with a higher score will be selected more often).

The Ministry of Education and Training is soliciting comments on this draft on the Ministry's Electronic Information Portal.

According to Baochinhphu