Minister of Education and Training: There are no group interests in compiling textbooks.

During the National Assembly's discussion in the Hall on the Project to innovate textbook programs, Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan reported to the National Assembly to clarify the concerns of National Assembly deputies on this issue.

Towards the establishment of the Institute for Curriculum and Textbook Research

Minister Pham Vu Luan emphasized: Compiling textbook programs is a scientific task, related to many fields of science, technology and educational science. In countries with developed education, this work is undertaken by Institutes for Research on Textbook Program Development. In Vietnam, up to now, there has not been a team of professional experts in this field and there is no organization for in-depth research on textbook programs. Our approach is to mobilize teachers, scientists and experts to participate in compiling textbook programs. The Ministry of Education and Training has sent experts and staff to study textbook development programs so that when qualified, they will report to the Government to establish an Institute for Research on Programs and Textbooks.

Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan

According to Minister Pham Vu Luan, the Ministry of Education and Training is assigned to compile a set of textbooks and at the same time encourages organizations and individuals to compile other types of textbooks because this is a very difficult and meticulous task. Through the practice of previous book-making, the number of people participating in compiling textbook programs is not large due to the very high scientific requirements. In addition, the time to focus on writing books is long, many people do not have the conditions to participate. Along with that, the issue of treatment for those participating in writing textbooks is not satisfactory.

Minister Pham Vu Luan said that it is predicted that this time the number of textbook writers will be smaller because of the new approach, the capacity approach, not like the previous times of knowledge transfer. The Minister also gave two possible scenarios: First, with the socialization mechanism, the production capacity of society will be liberated, many collective groups will compile, the compiled books will be of good quality, diverse, helping educational institutions choose good books to use; Second: not many people are willing to participate in writing books; the books written do not meet the requirements and are not on time, there may be areas of books that no one participates in writing.

Based on experience from previous book writings, the Ministry of Education and Training has found that the second possibility is very likely to happen. Therefore, the Government's plan to assign the Ministry of Education and Training to proactively compile a set of books and at the same time encourage the compilation of other sets of books is for the Government to proactively respond to any situation that may arise. This is a cautious and necessary calculation, while the new model has not yet appeared and is only in the calculation.

There are no group interests or personal interests in the Project.

The Minister of Education and Training also affirmed: there is absolutely no localism, personal interests or group interests when implementing the Project. The socialization plan for writing textbooks was proposed by the Ministry of Education and Training itself, the Government discussed and decided to submit it to the National Assembly.

Regarding concerns about whether the Ministry of Education and Training's organization of book compilation and book appraisal can easily lead to a situation of "playing football and blowing the whistle at the same time", Minister Pham Vu Luan stated: In history, the Ministry of Education and Training has never directly written textbooks and will not directly write textbooks. Writing textbooks and compiling programs is done by teachers, scientists and experts. The Ministry of Education and Training only organizes the operating apparatus, discovers and selects personnel and provides additional training on necessary information when writing books; issues legal documents to serve the process of compilation, appraisal, and provides technical expertise to the book writing group...

Minister Pham Vu Luan also said that the book appraisal is done by an Appraisal Council consisting of teachers, scientists, and experts who are knowledgeable in this field but do not participate in writing the books. These people are introduced by many relevant agencies such as the Ministry of Education and Training, the Central Propaganda Department, the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations, etc. The list of this Appraisal Council will be approved by the National Council for Education and Human Resources Development. This is an independent council, not including officials of the Ministry of Education and Training, to appraise the book series written by the Ministry. The Council operates under its own regulations to ensure objectivity and independence. The Ministry of Education and Training is responsible for drafting legal documents, including documents stipulating standards, criteria for participating in the Council, and regulations on the operation of this Council. The Ministry of Education and Training also bases on the conclusions of this National Appraisal Council to decide to allow the circulation of book series that meet the required standards.

Can the issue of equity between book writing groups be addressed?

The Minister of Education and Training also emphasized: the number the Ministry reported to the National Assembly is the budget to write a set of textbooks, not the budget allocated to the Ministry of Education and Training to compile textbooks.

Some opinions say that the Ministry of Education and Training should not organize the compilation of a set of textbooks because it is unfair, this group uses State money, other groups do not have it, the Minister said that this issue should be considered but calculated in the direction that all textbook compilation groups have the same favorable conditions in professional activities and have the same responsibilities including legal responsibilities and ethical responsibilities when using people's money and budget money.

According to the Ministry's approach, there are many ways to ensure this fairness with technical solutions. Deciding on an important issue of education is not only based on the economic equality of the groups participating in the implementation.

Regarding concerns about the feasibility of the project in the current practical conditions, Minister Pham Vu Luan stated that this is an issue that has been considered by many in both the Ministry and the Government, and the Party Central Committee. In fact, over the past time, the facilities and teaching staff have been supplemented and improved significantly, but there are still shortcomings, especially in remote areas, ethnic minority areas, and border and island areas. In order to comprehensively and fundamentally innovate education, the Government not only has a project to innovate the textbook program but also has 18 projects related to different fields to implement comprehensive and fundamental innovation in education that have been approved by the Government, including projects on facilities, equipment; teaching staff; innovation of pedagogical schools.

Right from the time of developing the project to submit to the central government on the contents of textbook program innovation, the Ministry of Education and Training has thoroughly grasped the spirit of innovation in both content and teaching and learning methods; testing and evaluation according to two requirements: updating and systematically and selectively absorbing the achievements of educational science in developed countries; and being suitable for the current conditions of most educational institutions in Vietnam.

The Ministry has also experimented with innovation solutions since 2011 in schools, including many schools in disadvantaged areas in all three regions. Specifically, the new primary school model has been implemented in 2,500 schools with 750,000 students in 63 provinces and cities, including many schools in remote areas. Similarly, the new Vietnamese language program in primary schools has been implemented with 380,000 students, about 4,000 schools in 42 provinces. The "hand kneading dough" method has been implemented in primary and secondary schools nationwide since the 2014-2015 school year. With the current team of teachers, facilities, and textbooks, we have innovated and achieved results.

According to VOV