MOET’s Minister Pham Vu Luan on October 20 presented a report on the program to the National Assembly on its first day of its session. The VND 800 million figure was reached after the ministry consulted with other agencies and groups, and listened to public opinion.

Previously, a deputy minister of MOET had said at a National Assembly’s Steering Committee working session that the estimated budget would be VND34 trillion, which was rejected as too high.

Of the estimated VND800 billion, VND462 billion would be spent on training textbook compilers, and assessing textbook quality and relevant works, while the remaining VND316.8 billion would be spent on new textbooks.

Luan said VND504.4 billion of the total amount would be sourced from the state budget, while the remaining VND274.4 billion would come from local budgets, adding that the estimates had been verified by the Ministry of Finance.

If everything goes as planned, the new textbooks would be put into use in the 2018-2019 academic year.

The most controversial announcement by MOET was not its spending figure but its decision to be one of the textbook compilers.

For many years, MOET has been acting as the only textbook compiler, and as such, those textbooks must be used as the official documents for teaching and learning at all general schools nationwide.

Under the textbook revision program, there would be many textbook compilers, which means different sets textbooks will be available for students and teachers.

The controversy centers on who the textbook compilers should be. MOET insists on being a compiler, but scholars believe that the compilers should not include MOET.

Luan said that different versions of textbooks would be compiled based on a single curriculum set by MOET. The compilers could be any individual and organization that can satisfy the requirements. MOET would be one of them.

Dao Trong Thi, chair of the National Assembly’s Committee of Culture, Education, the Youth and Children, said MOET should be one of the compilers to ensure quality and scheduling.

However, many educators disagree.

Duong Thanh Huyen from Nha Trang University said that compiling textbooks should not be the job of MOET, and that the ministry should not take on too much work, saying it would be better to assign the work to experienced educators.