Vietnamese students in urban areas don't reuse old textbooks

The new 2018-2019 school year began with bad news about the shortage of textbooks in Hanoi, HCMC and many other cities and provinces. 

Parents complained that they could not buy textbooks, and that their children were going to school without textbooks. 

Vietnamese students don’t have the habit of re-using old textbooks. Old bookshops existed in the past, but they shut down because no one uses old textbooks now. 

The 2017 report of the Education Publishing House to the Ministry of Education and Training showed that it published 107.8 million copies in 2017 and planned to put out 104 million copies in 2018. The figures were 108.8 million in 2016 and 101 million in 2015.

Amid the complaints about the shortage of textbooks, Nguyen Van Hieu, deputy director of the HCMC Education & Training Department, has persuaded students to re-use old books. Students are encouraged to give their textbooks to schools after the academic year ends, so that schools can give to needy students.

Pham Thuy Ha, headmaster of Nguyen Van Troi Primary School, affirmed that textbooks can be re-used for the next academic years. Many schools in HCMC, including Nguyen Van Troi, collect textbooks after use to donate to students in remote and mountainous areas.

Nguyen Thanh Long, whose daughter goes to Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School, noted that as living standards have improved, parents want their children to use new textbooks.

“Textbooks are not expensive,” he explained.

A set of six textbooks for primary school students is priced at VND45,300-78,300, while a set of 12-13 textbooks for secondary school students is VND97,700-144,500. High school students have to pay VND141-153,000 for 14 textbooks.

According to Dao Trong Thi, former chair of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, the Youth and Children, re-using textbooks is feasible because there are nearly no changes in the content of textbooks. Students can reuse textbooks even if there are minor changes in reprinted copies.

Former Deputy Minister of Education & Training Tran Xuan Nhi applauds the idea of reusing textbooks, saying that parents who want their children to use new textbooks mostly live in large cities and have high income, while the majority of students are in rural areas and would be happy to use old donated textbooks.

According to Picodi, Vietnam is among the countries where parents spend big money on their children’s textbooks and learning aids. They spent 32.7 percent of monthly income on these in 2018.

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Thanh Mai