Fake textbooks pose huge challenge to Vietnam’s management: insiders

Counterfeit textbooks that directly and seriously affect students remain a significant challenge for Vietnam’s management efforts in the future, said Nguyen Van Tung, deputy editor-in-chief of Vietnam Education Publishing House.

The key question is how managers can clean up the textbook market and ensure that parents can purchase authentic textbooks, he said, adding this concern is causing headaches for many parents, and various agencies are working hard to ensure a high-quality textbook market.

Tung stressed that since the beginning of this year, authorities have discovered and seized large quantities of counterfeit textbooks. Notably, nearly 80,000 textbooks for grades 1-11 bearing counterfeit labels of Vietnam Education Publishing House were seized in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang.

Another 34,000 fake textbooks were confiscated in the southern province of Dong Nai, and 5,500 others were discovered in Tay Ninh province, also in the south.

Earlier, Danang police busted a large-scale ring producing and selling fake textbooks in the central city. They seized 1 million counterfeit stamps, 600,000 fake textbooks (both finished and semi-finished), valued at around VND12 billion ($473,100), as well as many machines and equipment used to produce the counterfeit books.

In Soc Trang, another province in the Mekong Delta, market management forces seized over 40,000 textbooks counterfeiting those from Vietnam Education Publishing House.

According to Tung, the production, trade, and sale of fake textbooks, reference books, and comic books, and school supplies are becoming more sophisticated and complex.

"At first glance, it’s hard to distinguish between real and fake books. However, if we look closely at the label, we’ll see it’s fake or real. Genuine books have a silver coating and a QR code. When we scratch off the silver coating and scan the QR code, it will lead us to the official website of Vietnam Education Publishing House, where we can access online exercises for students. Fake books don’t have this feature," explained the expert.

How to eliminate fake textbook problem?

With the advancement of technology, publishers and businesses are coming up with new ways to combat counterfeiters. Authorities must also implement more measures to stop it.

"I have two young children in primary and secondary schools, and I can’t tell the difference between fake and real textbooks or their quality. I have to rely on the school or the parents’ board to access quality books," said Pham Van Thanh from Hanoi’s Hoai Duc district.

Tung also mentioned that fake products with incorrect colors and print quality lead to misunderstandings among students. These counterfeit textbooks also have poor quality paper and printing, which can directly affect students' eyesight and health.

Buying fake textbooks, consumers unknowingly harm their own rights. These counterfeit products often contain errors in color, symbols, and text, or show missing information and outdated content, impacting students’ knowledge acquisition.

According to Nguyen Duc Le from the Market Surveillance Agency (MSA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in the coming period, more independent units will be set up in provinces and cities to monitor trading activities on online platforms.

"We also have coordinated with publishers, especially educational publishers, to detect individuals or organizations that are not authorized to distribute publishers' products on e-commerce platforms," he said.

Fake books and pirated copies harm publishers' profits, causing significant economic losses and reducing government tax revenues, and may tarnish Vietnam's reputation internationally, he noted.

Producing and selling counterfeit textbooks is considered a low-cost, high-profit business because it does not involve management fees, taxes, copyrights, or authors’ payments, Le stated, noting in reality, only few book counterfeiting cases are prosecuted, making the problem persistent for many years.

The issue of counterfeit textbooks and pirated copies remains a complex problem. Counterfeiters divide the process into smaller stages, from printing to production, packaging, and distribution, he added.

Nguyen Nguyen, director of the Authority of Publishing, Printing, and Distribution under the Ministry of Information and Communications, mentioned that some publishers still face pirated copies of certain books, particularly textbooks, English books, art books, and exercise books. Others also see pirated versions of popular books or bestsellers. “This severely impacts the development of publishers and indirectly affects the supply of books to readers," he stressed.

In reality, textbooks are counterfeited the most. Counterfeit textbooks are often sold at heavily discounted prices, which is why parents and students need to be cautious when they are offered discounts of 20%, 30%, or even 50% off the publisher’s listed price, he noted.

Lieutenant Colonel Hoan Anh from the Investigation Police Department for Corruption, Economic Crimes, and Smuggling (C03) under the Ministry of Public Security, emphasized that the production of textbooks should be a fair competition among publishers and printing companies to ensure textbooks are sold at market prices.

"Facing strict criminal liability, counterfeiters will no longer have the motive or purpose to produce fake textbooks. This could even help eliminate pirated printing and fake textbooks altogether," he stressed.

Fake textbooks are usually printed and released quickly at the end of the school year or just before the new academic year. Fake books and pirated copies are seriously damaging the reading culture, public trust in books, and publishers, along with wide-ranging cultural, economic, and social consequences.