School students in rural Hòa Vang commune of Đà Nẵng City receive free textbooks at a school library. All 7,000 school students in the commune will be getting full free textbooks in 2026-27 academy year from donations. — Photo courtesy of Đà Nẵng Portal

ĐÀ NẴNG — All school students in the rural commune of Hòa Vang in the central city of Đà Nẵng will be provided with free textbooks in the 2026-27 academic year as local authorities have raised more than VNĐ2 billion (nearly US$76,000) from donors to supply 91,000 books for 7,000 students in the commune.

Chairman of the communal People’s Committee Nguyễn Phú Nguyện said a donation of VNĐ551 million from businesses and organisations was used to cover printing and purchase 6,000 textbooks for more than 1,200 students in rural mountainous villages in the first stage of the free textbook plan in 2025-26.

The commune then called for a further VNĐ1.5 billion in donations to provide an additional 74,000 textbooks for a total of 7,000 students at six schools and educational centres in the commune, Nguyện said.

He said Hòa Vang Commune would be the first locality in Việt Nam to launch a free textbook plan in 2026-27 as the Ministry of Education and Training has released a draft decree proposing free textbooks for students nationwide in the 2029-30 academic year.

Earlier, a shared library initiative was launched in 2025 to provide free textbook borrowing through voluntary donations from residents, businesses and organisations, Nguyện said.

A primary school student gets book to read at an open library of a school in Đà Nẵng City. Hòa Vang commune in the city has called for donations from community in providing free textbooks programme to students in 2026-27. Photo courtesy of Phương Chi

In the 2024-25 school year, the city also allocated a fund of VNĐ108 billion ($4 million) to offer free schooling for students from kindergarten to high school in both state-owned and private schools, easing difficulties for families during the post-COVID-19 recovery period.

Hòa Vang Commune, 20km from downtown Đà Nẵng, has been designated as an eco-urban centre with well-invested infrastructure and smooth transport connections.

The only agriculture-intensive commune, which covers 58,000ha of forest including 38,000ha of primary forest, expects to attract investment of VNĐ100 trillion (US$4 billion) in forest canopy eco-tour services, a rehabilitation and healthcare centre, a high-tech industrial complex for the development of an urbanised industrial town and a favoured destination for fast and sustainable investment in 2030-50. — VNS