Help consumers identify genuine textbooks and school supplies

On the occasion of students nationwide preparing to enter the new school year 2024-2025, the General Department of Market Management (Ministry of Industry and Trade) organized an Exhibition with the theme "Identifying Textbooks and School Supplies" taking place from August 20 to August 24 at 62 Trang Tien, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi.

This is the 13th time the General Department's Gallery has opened its doors to welcome visitors to view and learn about the products.

The exhibition “Identifying Textbooks and School Supplies” is divided into two main areas, with nearly 100 types of goods with over 400 products which are popular books and school supplies on the market. Most of the displayed violating products were discovered and confiscated by the Market Management force while performing their duties.

For the book display space, the main highlight is the types of textbooks, exercise books, reference books with distinguishing signs of real from fake in terms of color, image, book size, paper weight, content, anti-counterfeit stamps and scratch card codes. This helps visitors, consumers, students, parents equip themselves with knowledge and skills in correctly identifying books to ensure the rights of students. In addition, the Gallery also helps visitors identify many types of books on skills-psychology, business management books, and art books.

At the display space for school supplies, the Organizing Committee displayed pens, notebooks, handmade paper, chalkboards of brands such as Thien Long, Hong Ha, etc. with full identification and comparison marks.

Assessments by authorities show that in Vietnam today, the production, trading and sale of textbooks, reference books, comics, and other types of learning materials with counterfeit brands and poor quality are widespread, causing significant impacts on publishers, businesses, authors, publishing units, and affiliated partners; causing large losses to the State budget.

Counterfeit textbooks have a serious impact on the main users, students, because these products often have errors in color, symbols, handwriting, knowledge, or lack of data, and do not update information, leading to incorrect content (border lines, island issues), affecting students' knowledge acquisition.

In addition, counterfeit books and pirated books often have low quality paper, blurred printing that does not meet technical standards, which will affect students' physical health, especially their eyesight. Using counterfeit educational publications, students will not be able to access and use online values, materials, additional utilities, and support for students.

Since the beginning of 2024, the Market Management force across the country has inspected, detected and seized hundreds of thousands of publications with counterfeit packaging and product labels of the Vietnam Education Publishing House as well as a number of other publishers. Notably, nearly 80,000 textbooks with counterfeit packaging and product labels of the Vietnam Education Publishing House were discovered in Hau Giang; 34,000 textbooks with counterfeit product labels were seized in Dong Nai; and 5,500 textbooks in violation were discovered and seized in Tay Ninh.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Le, Deputy Director of the Department of Professional Affairs (General Department of Market Management) said that every year, before the opening of the school year, the General Department has a document directing local market management forces to develop specialized plans as well as conduct surprise inspections. If any locations are discovered that produce, store and trade pirated books, poor quality school supplies, violate intellectual property rights, or counterfeit goods, they will be strictly handled, thereby contributing to protecting consumers and legitimate businesses.

However, besides the strong involvement of the authorities, the decisive factor in this battle is the readers - those who spend money to buy books. Only when customers and readers are aware that buying and reading books is a cultural act and respects the law, protecting their legitimate interests and those of the community and society, can the problem of counterfeit and pirated books be completely resolved.