VietNamNet Bridge – Serious mistakes have been found recently in a lot of
reference books for students, especially the ones for pre-school children, which
has raised the indignation from the public. How can teachers teach their
students if they themselves don’t have good basic knowledge?
Market of reference books for pre-school children in chaos
Prof. Nguyen Minh Thuyet, former Deputy Chair of the National Assembly’s
Committee for Culture, Education, the Youth and Children, said the reference
book market is now so chaotic. Serious mistakes have been existing in a lot of
publications, including spelling mistakes.
Meanwhile, the discoverers of the mistakes were not the watchdog agencies, which
simply say the current situation goes beyond their control capability. It was
the Vietnamese parents, who fear that their children would receive wrong
knowledge, have discovered the mistakes.
The Dan Tri Publishing House marketed a book with the image of Chinese flag. The
University of Education’s Publishing House tried to familiarize children with
the Chinese flag. And most recently, the HCM City General Publishing House
released the books “Chinese for children” which contained the map with the
“nine-dashed line”, or the “cow tongue” line.
Most recently, a student read on her book that Ly Thuong Kiet commanded the army
and defeated the Han army on the Bach Dang River in 938 and then Ly Thuong Kiet
became the King. Meanwhile, the commander of the army was Ngo Quyen, not Ly
Thuong Kiet, while Ly Thuong Kiet was not a King.
An educator commented–while even the authors of the history books, who can be
the teachers of the students and lack basic history knowledge–cannot expect
Vietnamese students have deep knowledge about the Vietnamese history. This
explains why hundreds of zero marks in history were given to the examinees
attending the university entrance exams every year.
“The authors and the publishing houses were too careless. They just run after
profits. They have to be told that the wrong knowledge they provide may spoil
the next Vietnamese generations,” the educator said.
“It is the watchdog agency, not parents, students or newspapers, which must take
the responsibility to discover the mistakes,” he added.
Who to blame?
Just within several days, serious mistakes were found in five books designed for
children. The noteworthy thing is that none of the involved parties, authors,
editors, publishing houses, partners and the Publication Department discovered
the mistakes.
Under the current regulations, the Ministry of Education and Training compile
textbooks which are officially used by teachers and students at general schools.
As for reference books, headmasters of general schools assign their staff to
consider the contents of the books used at their schools. If they discover
problems in the books, they need to warn students against the problems, or
inform the watchdog agencies if they discover serious mistakes.
Education management agencies and general schools must not force students to buy
reference books.
However, in fact, reference books still have been penetrating easily into
general schools without any inspection.
Professor Thuyet believes that as a state management agency, MOET has to take
responsibility for the reference books used at schools. All kinds of reference
books must go through an MOET’s examination board before entering general
schools.
“Any education products must be examined by the MOET before they are provided to
students. If students read unverified books, this is just like having the
medicine which is not allowed to be put into circulation,” Thuyet said.
Dat Viet