Textbook worries return…

Last week, Ms. Tuyet Lan (residing in Binh Thanh District) took advantage of her lunch break between work to visit several bookstores to buy textbooks for her son, who is preparing to enter 7th grade. She recounted: "I went to three bookstores but only managed to buy textbooks for Math, Literature, Natural Science , and History-Geography. For the remaining subjects, I'll have to ask elsewhere because they belong to many different sets of textbooks."

Similarly, Mr. Nhan Trung, a parent whose child is entering 10th grade this year at Tran Huu Trang High School (District 5), shared that the school organizes the sale of textbooks for students in grades 10, 11, and 12 on different days. However, due to family commitments, his child could not attend school on the day the textbooks were sold for 10th-grade students. Therefore, the father and son had to go to many bookstores to gather enough textbooks for all subjects.

This has been a common situation for many families in recent days. Due to the high demand for textbooks, many bookstores have experienced shortages at certain times. Posing as parents looking for textbooks for their children, we were informed by staff at Hai An Bookstore (District 1) that textbooks from the "Creative Horizons" series (published by Vietnam Education Publishing House) are in fairly abundant supply; however, textbooks from the "Kite" series (published by Vietnam Investment Publishing and Educational Equipment Company in collaboration with the University of Pedagogy Publishing House) must be pre-ordered.

"Parents who wish to purchase textbooks for Math, Literature, and Natural Sciences from the 'Wings of the Kite' series can leave their phone numbers, and staff will contact them when the books are available. However, textbooks for Physical Education and Music are currently out of stock," a representative from Hai An Bookstore stated.

Similarly, at Thang Long Bookstore (Binh Thanh District), the two sets of textbooks, "Wings of the Kite" and "Connecting Knowledge with Life," are out of stock. The "Creative Horizon" set is only available as a complete set; individual subject books are not sold separately. Other systems such as Phuong Nam Bookstore and FAHASA have a fairly abundant supply of textbooks, but workbooks are out of stock at certain times. Parents are advised to order online instead of buying directly at the store to save travel time; books will be delivered to their homes when the system replenishes its stock.

Ensure you have enough textbooks before the start of the school year.

According to Nguyen Bao Quoc, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, for the 2024-2025 school year, textbooks for each grade level will be decided by the textbook selection council of each school. Schools can choose from multiple sets of textbooks within the same grade level to suit their actual teaching conditions. Before the start of the new school year, schools will publish a complete list of selected textbooks so that parents can proactively prepare them for their children. The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training requires schools to coordinate with publishers to support parents and students in purchasing textbooks for the new school year, especially for the three grade levels that will implement the 2018 General Education Program for the first time from the 2024-2025 school year: grades 5, 9, and 12.

In addition to the textbooks selected for teaching, school libraries must also stock sets of textbooks approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to facilitate research and reference for teachers and students, serving their learning and teaching needs. During the process of supplying textbooks to parents and students, schools must not combine the list of textbooks with reference materials and supplementary books, to avoid misleading parents and students into believing that reference books are mandatory purchases.

Ms. Bui Thu Giang, Deputy General Director of Phuong Nam Education Investment and Development Joint Stock Company - the official publisher of textbooks from Vietnam Education Publishing House, informed that during the peak period of textbook distribution, the supply of books is continuously replenished every week, ensuring a full and synchronized supply across all subjects, meeting the maximum needs of parents and students. In particular, for the 2024-2025 school year, the price of reprinted textbooks (applicable to grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11) will be adjusted down by 9.6%-11.2% compared to the previous school year; for grade 5, grade 9, and grade 12 textbooks, the price will be based on the reduced price structure of the reprinted textbooks. To avoid buying textbooks of unknown origin, parents should purchase books from large, reputable bookstores in their locality, the chain of stores of the Vietnam Education Publishing House, or order books through online sales channels with protected origins from the publisher such as phuongnamretail.vn, shopee.vn, etc.

THU TAM