Choosing new textbooks in Nghe An: Still waiting for common criteria!

A textbook discussion session at Dong Vinh Primary School. Photo: My Ha

Many options

Taking advantage of the days off school to prevent and fight the Covid-19 acute respiratory infection, Quan Hanh Town Primary School (Nghi Loc) organized for all teachers in the school to evaluate 3 new textbooks: "Learning together to develop capacity", "Connecting knowledge with life" and "Kite". The school has also conducted the research and comments quite systematically in each group and each different subject. Based on the comments, the school will synthesize and send them to the Department of Education and Training to propose a selection plan.

Through the research process, teacher Tran Thi Thu - a teacher with many years of experience teaching grade 1, was quite cautious when commenting on the new book series. However, teacher Thu said: "I am temporarily satisfied because overall, the book series in the new program is beautifully presented, eye-catching with many vivid images. In addition, each lesson has a coherent and quite clear arrangement, ensuring standard knowledge and skills, and this will be convenient for both teachers and students in the process of approaching the lesson. In addition, the content of the 3 book series is quite similar."

Teachers of Quan Hanh Town Primary School discuss and comment on the new first grade textbooks. Photo: My Ha

At Dong Vinh Primary School (Vinh city), the school has also completed the assessment and evaluation work.

Commenting on the new book series, teacher Nguyen Van Anh - Grade 1 teacher said: "The book series has connections, lesson structure and topics for each lesson so that teachers can be flexible in teaching. The lessons are designed with exploration, activities, games and practical applications. In Math, interdisciplinary content is integrated, such as bringing the stories of "The Tortoise and the Hare" and "The Adventures of Men the Cricket" into the lessons. The book series also has inheritance, the exercises include many questions and are arranged from easy to difficult, aiming at exploration, discovery, practice, and application to solve problems. In addition, the new program has also increased practical activities, experiences, and fostered the ability to be independent and self-study."

The new textbooks are considered quite eye-catching in form. Photo: My Ha

The fact that teachers have been quite optimistic about the new set of books is also a positive sign up to this point. Previously, the Ministry of Education and Training also affirmed that the selected sets of books were all elaborately built on the basis of complying with the innovation orientation of the general education program. In which, the main focus is to shift the educational goal from focusing on imparting knowledge to helping students form and comprehensively develop their qualities and abilities.

In addition, the selected books must ensure "openness" and flexibility, creating conditions for teachers and students to promote initiative and creativity according to the orientation and regulations of the 2018 General Education Program. This is also the fundamental and biggest difference between the new textbooks and current textbooks.

Need specific criteria

Regarding the implementation of textbooks according to the new curriculum, one of the issues that needs to be considered now is which set of textbooks to choose and which unit will make the decision. Currently, according to the guidance of the Ministry of Education and Training, which was just issued in early February, the principal of the general school will be able to choose the textbooks.

Also according to this Circular, the head of the general education institution (principal) establishes a textbook selection council. The council is responsible for selecting textbooks according to the provisions of this Circular and specifies the criteria for selecting textbooks of the People's Committee of the province or centrally-run city. The textbook selection process must be by secret ballot and the selected textbook must be approved by more than half of the members of the Council.

A textbook discussion session at Dong Vinh Primary School (2). Photo: My Ha

In Nghe An, after nearly 2 weeks of the Department of Education and Training sending textbooks to schools, most schools have chosen their own sets of books. However, this is only the first round of consultation, and the selection is still "waiting" for the Provincial People's Committee to issue specific criteria as a basis. Moreover, some schools are still hesitant when the right to "choose" books is given to the school council.

Regarding this, Mr. Nguyen Huu Nam - Vice Principal of Quan Hanh Town Primary School said: "At this time, I think that schools' access to books is still slow, while teachers have officially started teaching by August. Besides, choosing which books is quite difficult because although they have been trained and have been exposed, not many teachers have a thorough understanding of the new general education program, and that can lead to incomplete assessments of the books. We also think that if a school chooses a set of textbooks, it will face many difficulties in management and operation because it is also related to professional guidance. Therefore, after the schools have commented and evaluated, the Department of Education should gather all opinions and establish a council to choose a common set of books for the whole locality."

Students of Huoi Tu 2 Primary School. Photo: Duc Anh

At Hung Dung 2 Primary School (Vinh city), before establishing the textbook appraisal council, the school organized 3 seminars for teachers with contents such as learning about the new general education program, learning about the teaching framework, specific number of teaching periods for each subject and building a hypothetical timetable for grade 1... Therefore, teacher Hoang Thi Thuy - Principal of the school and also one of the key teachers of Vinh city in appraising new textbooks expressed optimism if the new program is implemented at the school.

She herself also said: “The autonomy given to schools to choose books is a big responsibility. However, I believe that if the textbooks have been approved by the State Council, there is no need to worry too much about the content and if users are properly trained, the implementation will not be too difficult. However, in the case that a unit chooses a different set of books, the industry must also consider directing the setting of questions, testing, and evaluating students.”

According to the plan, from the time the textbooks are available until the final set of books is announced, schools will have 2 months to research and by March 31, schools will "finalize" the results. By the end of April, the province will also count the number of textbooks needed for the next school year to send to publishers.

Mr. Nguyen Hong Hoa - Head of Primary Education Department - Department of Education and Training said: "Currently, the sector is advising the province to build common criteria for textbooks for schools. In which, no matter which set of books is chosen, it must be based on the socio-economic conditions of the localities, must be suitable to the actual conditions of the schools and suitable for the teachers and students".