This initiative is part of the government's action plan, implementing Resolution 71 of the Politburo on breakthroughs in education and training development.

The government has tasked the Ministry of Education and Training with reviewing and completing the general education program, increasing the allocated time for science, technology, computer science, and arts subjects. The Ministry will also ensure the provision of a unified set of textbooks for nationwide use from the 2026-2027 academic year, and implement a plan to provide free textbooks for all students by 2030.

Current grade 9 history and geography, and grade 11 geography textbooks. Photo: Thanh Hang

In late August, the Politburo issued Resolution 71, directing a review of the implementation of the general education program and ensuring the provision of a unified set of textbooks nationwide.

Previously, the National Assembly's Resolution 88 of 2014 on innovating the general education program and textbooks advocated for one program with multiple textbook sets, promoting the socialization of textbook compilation and ending the publishing monopoly. The Ministry of Education and Training was assigned to compile one set of textbooks with 16 million USD in funding from a World Bank loan.

However, due to various reasons, the Ministry was unable to complete this task. The National Assembly later agreed that if each subject had at least one textbook set that was appraised and approved, the state budget would no longer be used to compile textbooks for that subject.

Since then, the proposal to assign the Ministry of Education and Training to compile a unified set of textbooks has been frequently discussed in meetings of Party and State leaders, as well as in National Assembly discussions.

Currently, there are three sets of textbooks on the market, along with some individual books. All general education students have been using new textbooks. Schools have been able to select textbooks for teaching based on their specific circumstances and needs. With approximately 20 million students, 12 grade levels, hundreds of millions of textbooks have been published.

Thanh Hang