On September 15, 2025, the government issued Resolution No.281/NQ-CP on the action programme to implement Resolution No.71-NQ/TW of the Politburo. This is a decision that demonstrates a strategic and humane vision, contributing to the stable and sustainable development of Vietnamese education.
Education and training have always been identified by the Party and state as the top national policy, the key to opening the door to knowledge, building a solid foundation for industrialisation, modernisation, and international integration. In that panorama, textbooks play a very important role, creating a solid foundation of knowledge for future generations. Throughout the history of Vietnamese education, textbooks have always been associated with each stage of the country’s development.
Before 2020, the whole country used a common set of books according to the 2006 program, ensuring consistency and unity but also revealing limitations in encouraging creativity and diversifying learning materials. By 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training issued the new General Education Programme, with the spirit of “one programme, many sets of textbooks”.
From the 2020-2021 school year, the first sets of books according to the new program were put into use, starting from grade 1, accordingly, the whole country has 5 approved sets of books including: "Creative Horizon", "Connecting knowledge with life", "Learning together to develop capacity", "For equality and democracy in education" and "Canh Dieu".
At that time, the sets of books were expected to create healthy competition, promote the quality of compilation, and at the same time expand the choices for teachers and students, thereby improving the quality of teaching and learning. However, after a year of implementation, through natural selection, only 3 of the original 5 sets of books remained.
Notably, research, surveys and feedback from teachers show that the differences between the textbooks are not many, mainly in the arrangement of knowledge taught at what time during the school year, while the price of the textbooks is quite high, and they are difficult to reuse, causing financial pressure for many parents. The parallel existence of textbooks also makes the management and organisation of teaching and learning unsynchronised, causing difficulties in testing and evaluation.
After 5 years of implementing the textbook replacement cycle (until the end of the 2024-2025 school year), these shortcomings are more evident. The problem of effectiveness, uniformity in education and social equity has required appropriate adjustments.
Resolution No.281 of the government has demonstrated a spirit of openness, objectivity, and starting from practice to provide strategic directions: ensuring the provision of a unified set of textbooks nationwide for use from the 2026-2027 school year; implementing the roadmap to 2030 to provide free textbooks to all students.
This policy is not about “returning to the past” but about summarising and drawing lessons from practice, combining innovation and stability to find suitable solutions to ensure sustainable development of education in response to the requirements and demands of life.
Deploying a unified set of textbooks nationwide in the coming time not only solves the problem of synchronisation but also demonstrates profound humanity.
First of all, it is about creating fairness in access to knowledge because in many remote areas, ethnic minority areas, choosing and accessing many sets of books is difficult. If the whole country uses a common set of books, all students, regardless of region, will study the same content, thereby reducing disparities and creating equal development opportunities.
Unifying textbooks also contributes to saving social costs. In the context of many families’ lives still facing difficulties, having to buy new and constantly changing books at high prices puts great pressure on millions of parents. The policy of providing free textbooks to all students by 2030 further affirms humanity, in line with the spirit of building a learning society, not leaving any child behind due to economic conditions.
The Politburo issued Resolution No.71-NQ/TW on breakthroughs in education and training development, which emphasises the need for a unified set of textbooks nationwide and by 2030, textbooks will be provided free of charge to all students.
In addition, a common set of books helps the management, testing and evaluation in education to be convenient, transparent and objective. Exams, periodic tests, the construction of question banks, and the training and development of teachers all have a unified basis, thereby ensuring the quality of teaching and learning, avoiding dispersion and different styles in each place.
The new policy clearly affirms the commitment of the Party and state in caring for and investing in education. The government’s action program to implement Resolution No.71 is not only about compiling a set of books, but also includes modernising learning materials, building a digital ecosystem, and connecting with open learning resources. This will contribute to bringing Vietnamese education closer to advanced trends in the world, while still ensuring conformity with the cultural and social characteristics of the country.
In the context of a major policy being issued, it is inevitable that there will be different opinions. Along with the agreement and support of a large number of teachers, parents, and students, there are also opinions expressing disagreement. This is completely normal, showing the spirit of democracy in society. However, it is worrying that some reactionary and extremist individuals and organisations have taken advantage of this issue to accuse "this is a return to a monopoly mechanism", “imposition”, or even “a step back in reform”.
Among them, the terrorist organisation Viet Tan has emerged, trying to distort Viet Nam’s “knowledge monopoly”. Millions of students will learn the same tone, the same interpretation, the same framework, and then proclaim this as a “retrograde revolution”, showing the deadlock in Viet Nam’s education policy.
These arguments are completely untrue because the issuance of a unified set of textbooks does not negate the value of the previous policy of many sets of textbooks. It was a necessary testing phase that has helped to clearly identify the advantages and difficulties.
After 5 years of implementation, the results show that the model of multiple textbooks is not as effective as expected, even causing waste and lack of uniformity. Based on that practical basis, the decision to switch to a single set of textbooks is a flexible and reasonable adjustment step in line with the principle of “controlled innovation based on evidence and practice”.
Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, Member of the National Assembly’s Committee on Culture and Society, assessed that: “Using a single set of textbooks does not mean that we return to a stereotypical education. To ensure flexibility and creativity, it is necessary to continue to innovate teaching and assessment methods, focusing on learners. Teachers can still flexibly expand and supplement knowledge from other sources to suit each class. This is the core factor to maximise the creativity and critical thinking of students, each student in each region, avoiding the form of one-way knowledge provision.”
The fact that some extremist opinions seek to distort Viet Nam’s education policy in general, and the issue of textbooks in particular, shows the need for the press, educators and the whole society to promote communication work, provide objective and scientific information to protect the truth and protect the correct policies of the Party and state.
In addition, to advocate a set of textbooks that truly bring practical results, there needs to be synchronous participation of the entire system. First of all, the compilation and appraisal work must be conducted closely and scientifically, mobilising a team of prestigious experts, combined with opinions from teaching practice. Textbooks not only meet the requirements of imparting knowledge but also must nurture personality, foster skills, and arouse aspirations, beliefs, and creativity in the young generation.
At the same time, the organisation of training and fostering of teachers needs to be widely deployed, ensuring that all teachers have a firm grasp of the content and teaching methods according to the new set of textbooks. There needs to be a transparent mechanism to ensure that books reach students on time, with good quality and reasonable prices. At the same time, the development of e-textbooks and digital learning materials will help reduce costs and expand accessibility, especially in the context of digital transformation in education.
Listening to feedback from practice is very important because no matter how carefully compiled textbooks are, it is difficult to avoid shortcomings. A mechanism to receive feedback from teachers, parents, and students needs to be built towards prompt adjustments and improvements, ensuring that the set of books grows increasingly close to practical needs.
At the macro level, the policy of providing free textbooks from 2030 needs to go hand in hand with building a sustainable budget, with a roadmap, avoiding financial pressure on the state but still ensuring the practical interests of students. This is a big challenge but completely feasible if there is the cooperation of the whole society, the participation of organisations, businesses, and the community.
The decision of the Politburo on unifying a set of textbooks nationwide is a major turning point, demonstrating a strategic vision in fundamental and comprehensive innovation of education.
A common set of textbooks for the whole country is not only a technical solution for education, but also demonstrates profound political and social thinking, a strategic step not only towards fairness in access to knowledge but also creates a solid foundation for long-term educational reform.
The unification of textbooks nationwide is associated with the goal of building a fair and equal education system, in which all children have the opportunity to access common knowledge, regardless of being rich or poor, urban or rural. This is also a message of consensus, unity, community cohesion, ensuring socialist orientation in educational development.
By aiming for free textbooks by 2030, this policy also affirms the Party and state's concern for each student, considering knowledge as a common asset and not the responsibility of any individual, affirming the determination of the Party and State in developing education stably, sustainably, ensuring fairness and humanity.
This sends a strong message about the aspiration to build a learning society, in which all children have equal access to knowledge and education truly becomes the driving force for national development in the new era.
