VietNamNet Bridge - HCMC’s leaders have asked for a special education policy under which educators will compile sets of textbooks to be used by city students.

Le Hong Son, director of the HCMC Education and Training Department, said in a local newspaper that HCMC wants to create curricula and textbooks for city’s schools which are in line with the development of the city.

Explaining the proposal, the HCMC Party Committee’s Secretary Dinh La Thang at the working session with the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) on June 7 said curricula should show the character of Saigonese and the south. 
  
Tran Xuan Nhi, former Deputy Minister of MOET, said the ‘one curriculum, many sets of textbooks’ principle has been approved by the National Assembly and the government. 

Meanwhile, MOET has encouraged institutions and individuals to compile textbooks on the basis of the curriculum set by MOET. Therefore, HCMC has its reason to propose its own textbooks.

However, Nhi said it is still necessary to clarify the matter on the textbook quality.

HCMC’s leaders have asked for a special education policy under which educators will compile sets of textbooks to be used by city students.

“MOET needs to set up standard curriculum and set the requirements on the knowledge students must have. All the textbooks must satisfy the requirements and standards,” Nhi said.

The education expert said that there was no need to worry about the ‘local voice’ in textbooks.

In the past, there were many special sets of textbooks specifically designed for mountainous areas and the students in the north. Other countries also design many different sets of textbooks for different areas.

“Textbooks are just the instrument for educators to implement the common curriculum,” Nhi explained.

“HCMC with more than 10 million people and many scientists, is quite capable to compile textbooks for general education,” he commented.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Minh Thuyet, a leading education expert, does not think compiling textbooks specifically for HCMC’s students is a good idea.

“MOET should not come forward and compile textbooks, and it should not allow local education departments to compile textbooks,” Thuyet commented on Nguoi Dua Tin.

“I am sure that if MOET’s Minister gives the nod on the proposal, other cities and provinces will follow the move,” Thuyet said. If so, 63 different sets of textbooks would be applied in Vietnam.

He warned that if the HCMC proposal gets approval, Vietnam would return to the ‘one curriculum, single set of textbooks’ era.

“If the HCMC Education Department compiles textbooks, no one would dare to use textbooks compiled by other institutions and individuals,” he said.


CV