Vietnam faces textbook shortages for the 2026-2027 school year

textbook shortage Vietnam education Vietnam Education Publishing House school supplies educational policy

Vietnam is experiencing localized shortages of textbooks for the 2026-2027 school year, prompting urgent government intervention. Deputy Prime Minister Le Tien Chau has chaired meetings to address supply chain disruptions, forecasting errors, and the need to treat textbooks as essential goods.

In Ho Chi Minh City, authorities are implementing flexible measures, such as encouraging the use of free digital PDF versions provided by the Vietnam Education Publishing House, to ensure learning is not interrupted. Meanwhile, in Hue, the city has temporarily suspended a large-scale program to provide free textbooks to students to avoid budget waste after a bidding process failed to attract contractors and actual demand dropped significantly.

The Vietnam Education Publishing House reported that while they have supplied over 236 million copies, sudden spikes in demand and changes in how schools order books have caused shortages. Some parents have reported facing high prices on social media markets for individual books. To mitigate the issue, the publisher is increasing printing capacity and offering free digital textbooks and digital workbooks for students to access online.

Entities

Ho Chi Minh City · Hue · Khánh Hòa · Lê Tiến Châu · Ministry of Education and Training · Vietnam Education Publishing House

Claims

What the coverage asserts, and how many sources carry each claim.

[○ 1 SOURCE] The Vietnam Education Publishing House supplied 26,931,865 textbooks to Ho Chi Minh City, representing 107% of the total demand. giaoducthoidai.vn
[○ 1 SOURCE] There will be five city-level competitions for students during the 2026-2027 school year. afamily.vn
[○ 1 SOURCE] Schools are prohibited from organizing school-level excellent student competitions unless they are selecting teams for city or national level exams. afamily.vn
[● 2 SOURCES] Parents and students can access free PDF versions of textbooks via the official website taphuan.nxbgd.vn. giaoducthoidai.vn
[○ 1 SOURCE] Some schools in Ho Chi Minh City are experiencing localized shortages of textbooks for the new school year. giaoducthoidai.vn
[○ 1 SOURCE] Ho Chi Minh City is implementing measures to reduce administrative paperwork, meetings, and intermediate reports in general education institutions. afamily.vn