Lesson 2: From studious to... illiterate

(Baonghean) -Worried about the fact that dozens of primary and preschool students in Toan Thang block, also known as Van Ha village, Quang Son commune, Do Luong district, have not gone to school after nearly 3 months since the new school year started, we continued to return to Van Ha village to better understand the source of the incident...

Through the conversation with the local people, we were quite surprised to know that Van Ha village is a rural area with a rich tradition of studiousness, with people who are PhDs, doctors, engineers, and currently there are 25 teachers in the village. In contrast to that studious tradition, when Quang Son commune merged the satellite school in Van Ha village into the main school at the beginning of this school year to create conditions for Van Ha students to study in a comprehensive educational environment to improve the quality of teaching and learning. However, some parents protested by letting their children drop out of school. With this way of thinking and doing, can the parents of Van Ha village maintain the tradition from their ancestors as they expressed when talking to us?! And those who deprive their children of the right to education also push their children into the path of illiteracy?!

A shabby classroom at a remote school. * Children play in the sand at home instead of going to school (small photo).

Up to this point, out of a total of 64 students in grades 1, 2, and 3 at the satellite school, only 11 have gone to school, including 8 children of teachers and local officials. In fact, among the remaining 53 children who have not been to school, some have been sent back to school by their parents, but for many reasons they are forced to let their children continue to drop out. In the case of Mr. Nguyen Ham Hai - Hamlet 9, he was threatened that "if he still lets his children go to school, he will not be able to continue working in the construction team". This means that he has lost his main source of income to support his family. Not only that, some people also gather, curse, and insult when they know someone intends to let their children go to school...

Their purpose is to attract the crowd to put pressure on the government. For example, the incident that happened on September 5, 2013, a group of 4 people including: Nguyen Qui Dan (born in 1974, in hamlet 8, no children in grades 1, 2, 3), Nguyen Thi Huong (hamlet 8) and Nguyen Ham Ngoc, Nguyen Thi Hoa (hamlet 10) hung a banner with the content "Opening ceremony of the new school year 2013-2014, grandparents, fathers, mothers and all the people of Van Ha village hold the opening ceremony of the new school year for the children in grades 1, 2, 3 of the village, while there are no teachers at the school".

Quang Son Commune Police made a record, confiscated the banner and called the subjects to the Commune People's Committee three times to work, but they still did not comply. The case was transferred to Do Luong District Police for consideration and handling. At the time we returned to Van Ha village, there were people who did not have children studying at the satellite school but were still enthusiastically inciting parents with primary school-age children to oppose the school enrollment policy. For example, a woman who called herself Nguyen Thi Van in Hamlet 9 declared that she "represented the whole village" to express her "desire to study here" - a place that they deliberately justified as "a village school from their grandfathers and fathers' generation". In fact, this was just a row of 4 seriously degraded classrooms built more than 30 years ago. Behind the old doors were cramped rooms with no windows. The front yard of the school was empty, except for a few newly planted banyan trees that had just taken root; The makeshift toilet was located right in the corner of the school yard opposite the classrooms.

(To be continued)

PV Group