What do teachers say about 'one program, many textbooks'?

Teachers are consulted and creative.

Ms. Tran Thi Hoai Nghi, a teacher at Kim Dong Primary School, Go Vap Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, who has been a 4th grade teacher for 11 years, is assigned to teach 2nd grade in the 2025-2026 school year. She said she supports one curriculum, many textbooks. Once the school has chosen the textbooks and made them public to the students, no matter which textbook set is used, she will read, consult, and research many textbooks. "This reference is for teachers to connect knowledge, then plan lessons, and make lessons suitable for the students, not for the school to choose whichever textbook set and teach it as is. "In order for the lessons to fully promote the spirit of innovation of the 2018 General Education Program, I think teachers need to be trained regularly, be proactive in their teaching, update, innovate, and not be mechanical," said Ms. Nghi.

PHOTO: NHAT THINH

At the same time, according to Ms. Nghi, the creativity of teachers in designing lessons is also discussed periodically every month through the professional group. As her experience in elementary school, the group will have 2 professional meetings each month, where teachers will give opinions such as how to implement the Creative Horizon textbook for the same lesson, how to write the Kite textbook... From there, teachers should agree on how to teach so that students can easily understand and apply.

From the students' perspective, according to Ms. Nghi, a program with many textbooks also creates conditions for students to refer to and expand their knowledge, materials, and language materials in many different sets of books. To do this effectively, it requires coordination from families and encouragement from teachers. For example, from the "Extensive Reading" section in primary school Vietnamese, students should be encouraged to refer to language materials in many sets of books, books, newspapers outside, and record their feelings...

Ms. Le Thi Thu Hang, Principal of Tran Khanh Du Primary School, Tan Dinh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, said that the 2018 General Education Program is open, requiring teachers to be creative and refer to many sets of textbooks in the teaching process with diverse sources of books in the school library and digital library. After 5 years of implementation, Ms. Hang has noticed that students are confident and bold in expressing their views and opinions, and have developed many positive qualities.

Building skills, students confidently step out of the books

From practice, Mr. Thai Hong Khang, a literature teacher at Hoang Dieu Secondary School, Tan Phu Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, said that all textbooks ensure the requirements and common goals of the 2018 General Education Program, which is a common advantage. From this common advantage, when the program is operated, many textbooks are used, the reading comprehension lessons, the development of language materials, the development of literature knowledge, and Vietnamese knowledge from the books are very diverse and rich. This has helped teachers a lot in preparing lessons.

When talking about the same knowledge, each set of textbooks has a different perspective and approach, which will help teachers go from the beginning of discovering and forming knowledge, then helping students understand, apply, and form skills. From there, when referring to the sets of textbooks, teachers can form many knowledge foundations for students so that they can take the most solid steps. That is the first advantage for teachers.

The second advantage is that when teaching, teachers can use the books as review materials, to consolidate and improve students' knowledge.

The third advantage is to avoid students' rote learning, learning by rote, and learning without skills.

"With the 2018 General Education Program, taking students as the center, the foundation is many sets of textbooks, teachers and students are free to find suitable language channels to equip themselves with knowledge, both teachers and students are not constrained or stereotyped, helping to equip students with a lot of knowledge and skills. This is also what parents aim for, which is education to form skills, students confidently step out of books, escape the rut of rote learning in a textbook, knowing nothing outside of the textbook", Mr. Thai Hong Khang expressed his perspective.

"Over the past few years, I have taught the 2018 General Education Program and have seen a clear change in students. At first, they may have been confused, but now they are very bold in sharing their perspectives, opinions, and critical thinking. With new materials that have never been taught in textbooks, students have no difficulty in accessing and performing required exercises. This is in line with the requirements of the 2018 General Education Program - promoting the qualities and abilities of learners," Mr. Khang added.

Photo: Dao Ngoc Thach

Difficulties in implementing "one program, many textbooks"

According to Ms. Tran Thi Hoai Nghi, the facilities are not yet synchronized, many places still lack teachers, the pressure on class size in many localities is still high, it is difficult to maintain the ideal level as stipulated by the Ministry of Education and Training, which is 35 students/class in primary school.

Besides, Ms. Nghi thinks that parents need to be informed and understand more about the 2018 General Education Program, about the good points of one program and many sets of textbooks.

A secondary school literature teacher in Tan Phu Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, said that the difficulty in implementing the 2018 General Education Program, one program, many sets of textbooks, is that the program is still heavy. A lesson sometimes only has 12 or 13 periods, forcing teachers and students to "race against the program". Second, the difficulty lies in the human factor. In reality, there are still situations where teachers are afraid of innovation, afraid of change, and students lack initiative.

"Many students are not proactive, not ready for innovation, still dependent on textbooks and still think why not study a set of textbooks so that students can relax," said this teacher. In addition, many teachers are afraid of change and innovation. "There are teachers who think that if they teach their students like that, what if they don't get high scores in exams and are judged as bad teachers? Therefore, I think that when applying the 2018 General Education Program to teaching, we must innovate, boldly innovate. At first, we will definitely encounter difficulties, but we must be proactive and ready to accept the bad things. Gradually, in the long run, when we have absorbed the textbooks and absorbed the innovation program, we will feel very good," said this male teacher.