Vietnam PM Approves $36M Textbook, Curricula Reforms

Vietnam’s prime minister has approved a national project to reform textbooks and curricula for schools that costs about $36 million, far lower than a $1.7 billion proposal made last year, with a view to equipping students with practical learning skills and increasing interaction between teachers and students, the state-run Vietnam News newspaper reported. Under the project, a complete set of new textbooks will be step by step introduced to schools starting from the 2018-2019 academic year and the entire educational system from the first to 12th grades would be changed. The project would be developed into three stages with the first to be implemented from this month to June next year with the focus on forming a steering committee and training textbook writers, the second phase to be carried out from July 2016 to June 2018 with the target of compiling at least one set of textbooks for the first grade, grades 6 to 10 as well as training teachers, and the third period slated for July 2018-October 2023 with an aim of rolling out next textbooks for various grades and applying them gradually, the paper said. The Ministry of Education and Training would oversee the compiling and publishing of one complete set of textbooks from grades one to 12 and encourage other publishing houses, individuals and organizations to write their own versions, which would be approved by government agencies. The government would use state funds for the project. Meanwhile, educational experts raised their concerns over the project’s feasibility to equip local students with skills for self-learning, communicating and logical thinking as well as preparations by the teaching staff. (Vietnam News April 13 p1+5)