Worry about the "words" of the distant past

(Baonghean) - Visiting remote villages of the mountainous district of Tuong Duong, meeting teachers who live in remote villages and teach in the middle of the wilderness, we understand that the career of "sowing letters" here is still full of hardships.

Take students across the stream.

The school in the remote area of ​​Cham Puong village, Luong Minh commune, Tuong Duong district, is a row of wooden houses, roofed with corrugated iron, consisting of 5 old classrooms. In class 4H, where teacher Lang Thi Hong, 50 years old, is the head teacher, tables and chairs are arranged in clusters, with 5-6 students sitting around them. The classroom has no teacher's desk, no chairs, the teacher stands and walks. The class ratio is 25 but counting over and over again, there are only 20 students sitting in class... Ms. Hong explained: In the highlands, life is difficult, parents are in the fields all day, not paying much attention to their children's education. Many children often skip school to follow their parents to the fields, the class never has enough students. In the class, there are only 10 students who diligently attend class, the other 15 students take turns to miss class, and Moong Van Sy has not been to class since the beginning of the year, and we have not been able to find him at home.

Class 3H, headed by Ms. Lang Thi Hai, was no better. Lacking desks and chairs, the students sat close together; 4-5 students shared one textbook and one ruler. Class 3H had 26 students, 2 teachers, and 2 blackboards at both ends of the classroom. Upon asking, we learned that they had to be divided like that because there were many weak students in the class and there were none in the classroom. At one end, Ms. Hai taught Math, while at the other end, another teacher was correcting the students' reading and pronunciation. Ms. Lang Thi Hai shared: “The children go to school irregularly, their learning is not guaranteed, so many of them have very poor academic performance. Their families are very poor, sometimes they don’t even have a decent piece of clothing. Many students come to class hungry. After the morning class, some students have to travel 5-7 km of mountain and stream roads to get to their family’s hut for lunch, so they don’t have time to return to class in the afternoon. Parents have to worry about food and clothing, so their children’s education is completely left to the teachers.”

Class time at Xop Chao Primary School (Luong Minh Commune, Tuong Duong).

Interval exercise.

Cham Puong village school is located in a difficult area, far from the district center, without electricity, clean water and no phone signal. The school was built in 2004, after 10 years of use, it is heavily damaged. Desks and chairs are lacking while there are many students with 116 students. Most of the students do not have textbooks, notebooks, pens and other learning tools when coming to school... Despite the many difficulties, none of the teachers assigned to work here "discouraged or faltered". Only 1 of the 7 teachers is local, the other 6 are boarding at the school. The older ones go home once a week, the younger ones with small children travel 50 km to Hoa Binh town every few days in the afternoon and make the opposite journey at 5 am the next morning. To encourage students to go to class, 7 teachers at Cham Puong school went to each house to persuade parents; Every month, I deduct my salary to buy books, pens, boards, chalk, and school supplies for the children.

Leaving Cham Puong, we went to the upstream boat dock at Ban Ve Hydroelectric Lake to catch a boat to Xop Chao. It took us 1 hour to get there. Xop Chao Village currently has 92 households divided into 4 residential clusters located around the lake. From these 4 clusters to the village school, students also have to go by boat, the boat is rowed by their parents. On this occasion last year, a boat carrying 3 students from Xop Chao school unfortunately capsized. Luckily, all 3 students were saved by teacher Lu Van Toan... The primary school in Xop Chao Village is a row of brick houses with tile roofs, quite spacious, built in 2012, from the hydroelectric compensation fund. The village's kindergarten is also located in this area. Currently, the primary school has 3 classes, 3 teachers and 41 students. Of which, there are 2 combined classes: Grades 2 and 3, Grades 4 and 5.

Meals of primary school students at Xop Chao village school.

Teacher Luong Van Thien (Xop Chao Primary School) bathes students.

The life of the Xop Chao people is still very difficult, mainly relying on slash-and-burn farming, hunting, and small-scale animal husbandry. The children's education is not given much attention. Teacher Luong Van Thien, one of the three teachers at Xop Chao, said: The children are lacking clothes, books, and school supplies. For example, Lu Van Sach, a fourth-grade student, did not have a pair of pants to wear all year. The teachers felt sorry for him and pooled money to buy pants for him. For notebooks, the teachers had to give them to the children to study. The Xop Chao primary school is lacking in many ways. The cement board with chalk is not clear, the three teachers made wooden boards themselves to teach. The school was built on a piece of land halfway up the mountain, so when it rains, water pours down from above and seeps into the walls, the classrooms are always damp and moldy...

This year, the parents' meeting agreed to send all the children from far away places to eat and stay at the houses of the locals around the school. The children's parents sent money and rice for the landlord to cook, and picked them up on the weekend. Following Mr. Thien to check the students' meals; it was a simple meal consisting of a small sticky rice bowl, a bowl of dipping sauce, a piece of boiled eggplant or boiled pumpkin. It is known that the SEQAP program has supported the children with 2 meals/week, 15,000 VND/day. To supplement the students' meals, the 3 teachers here contribute more money for the children's meals every month. After lunch, some children go to the stream to bathe and catch fish, some children take slingshots to the forest to shoot mice and birds to improve their meals.

Leaving the village, we could not help but feel uneasy. Teacher Vo Thi Tuyet Chinh, Deputy Head of the Education Department of Tuong Duong, said: In recent years, although the district has focused its efforts, especially prioritizing the budget for education; the sector has launched many campaigns to raise funds and support poor students; communes and schools have sought help from individuals and groups, Tuong Duong still has more than 50 schools located along 2 streams and lakes, which are still difficult...

Thanh Son