Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on August 26 had a meeting with the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) on textbook reform and options for the national high-school graduation exam.

Regarding textbook reform, members of the National Committee for Education Reform agreed that there might be many textbook packages for one standard programme.

The MoET proposed two options for the drafting of textbooks. One put the ministry in charge of drafting sample textbooks and then getting individuals and organisations to take part. The other was for the ministry to only evaluate the quality of textbooks drafted by individuals and organisations.

While discussing the new national high-school graduation exam, which is planned to replace the two separate high-school graduation and university entrance exams currently in place, Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam said this was “a huge change”.

Vietnamese 12th -graders are now required to pass four MoET tests at the end of their school year to graduate from high school in June and then sit for three MoET papers, depending on their majors, to gain admission to college in July.

The Prime Minister, who is also Chairman of the National Committee for Education Reform, asked MoET to quickly draft a standard textbook package while also studying other options for textbook reform.

Regarding new high-school examination, PM Dung asked the MoET to choose the best option for students and announce the reasons for its choice.-VNA