Government regulates the exemption of textbooks for students

The National Assembly has passed the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Education, which takes effect from the beginning of January 2026.

One of the notable new points of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Education Law is that from 2026, no lower secondary school (THCS) degrees will be issued and there will be a national unified set of textbooks.

Accordingly, the new law stipulates that diplomas of the national education system are documents expressed in the form of paper or numbers issued to learners when graduating from high school (THPT);

The learner completes the education program, training program and meets the output standards of the corresponding level in vocational education and higher education.

Diplomas of the national education system, according to the provisions of this law, include high school diplomas, vocational secondary school diplomas, intermediate diplomas, college diplomas, bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, doctoral degrees, diplomas of specialized training programs of some specialized industries and fields.

Thus, compared to the old regulations, the amended law has removed the issuance of secondary school diplomas. Instead, students who complete the primary education program and the secondary education program, and meet the conditions according to the regulations of the Minister of Education and Training, are certified by the school principal in their transcripts for completing the program.

Regarding regulations on textbooks, the law clearly states "The Government stipulates the exemption of textbooks for students".

The Minister of Education and Training decides on a set of general education textbooks for uniform use nationwide.

The National Council for Textbook Appraisal is regulated and established by the Minister of Education and Training for each subject and educational activity to appraise textbooks. The Council and council members are responsible for the content and quality of the appraisal.

The Minister of Education and Training approves textbooks for use in general education institutions after being appraised and rated as achieving standards by the National Council for Textbook Appraisal; regulations on standards and procedures for compiling and amending general education textbooks.

Textbooks implementing the general education program concretize the requirements of the general education program on goals, educational content, requirements on students' qualities and abilities; orientations on teaching methods and methods of testing and evaluating education quality;

The content and form of textbooks do not contain national, religious, professional, gender, age and social status prejudices; textbooks are presented in the form of printed books, Braille books, and electronic books.

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