Border district chairman finds school to help young people learn vocational skills

(Baonghean.vn) - Chairman of the People's Committee of Ky Son district Nguyen Thanh Hoang said he has worked with two vocational schools in Vinh city to cooperate in recruiting and training vocational students for the district's youth.

Comrade Cao Thi Hien - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Council directly surveyed poor households in Huu Kiem commune, Ky Son district. Photo: Thanh Duy

On the afternoon of April 13, explaining to the Provincial People's Council's monitoring delegation about vocational training, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Ky Son district said that every year, this locality has about 1,000 students who graduate from high school and middle school but do not continue their studies and need to find jobs.

Sharing the heartbreaking story of a young man from the district who went to dig for gold in Quang Nam and had a work accident that led to his death in 2016, Mr. Hoang raised the urgency of career guidance and vocational training for local youth to reduce poverty sustainably.

Based on that reality, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Ky Son district said that he had directly worked with the Central College of Transport and Vocational College No. 4, Ministry of National Defense in Vinh City to recruit and train local youth. These schools had come to survey the district.

However, the most difficult problem in poverty reduction, including vocational training, is to change people's thinking and awareness so that they no longer have to wait and rely on others. Ky Son is implementing propaganda work to the villages, expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2017 on vocational training and orientation content so that the training is truly effective and students do not drop out of school halfway.

The district leaders also assigned the Department of Education and Training to assign homeroom teachers to advise students on vocational training. "The most important thing is to make them go to school on their own, voluntarily to develop the economy. If an administrative decision is made to "force" them, it will not be sustainable," Mr. Hoang said, adding that the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee and the leaders of the District People's Committee determined that propaganda and consultation to change awareness is the core issue to promote internal strength to effectively carry out sustainable poverty reduction work.

Because previously, according to the report of Ky Son district, the total budget mobilized to implement the poverty reduction program in the period of 2012 - 2015 was more than 641 billion VND; of which the central budget was more than 532 billion VND, the local budget was more than 86 billion VND.

Comrade Cao Thi Hien - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council chaired the meeting with leaders of Ky Son district.

Currently, Ky Son is implementing poverty reduction policies under Decision No. 1722/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister approving the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the period 2016 - 2020.

This resource has helped infrastructure, especially schools, classrooms, roads, irrigation works, domestic water, etc. to be gradually invested in and built. Up to now, all communes of the district have had national grid electricity reaching the center, of which 85/193 villages have had electricity, people's lives have been gradually improved.

However, Ky Son is still one of the poorest districts in the country, and poverty reduction results are not yet stable. This locality still has 20 communes and 172 villages with special difficulties. By the end of 2016, the district had 9,322 poor households, accounting for 60.24%; 2,040 near-poor households, accounting for 13.18%.

There are objective and subjective reasons pointed out such as: The management level and capacity of some district and grassroots sectors are still limited; there is a lack of qualified professional staff; the management boards are part-time so their responsibilities are not high.

Poor households' access to agricultural production services, such as agricultural, forestry and fishery extension, is still limited. Effective economic models have not been invested in for replication or commercial development...

“The mentality of waiting and relying on others still exists in a large number of officials and people, leading to not wanting to get off the list of poor households. The emulation movement to do good economic activities is not yet widespread among the masses,” Vice Chairwoman of the People’s Committee of Ky Son district, Vi Thi Quyen, frankly said.

At the meeting, opinions focused on discussing and analyzing the implementation of poverty reduction policies such as: building and replicating economic models, vocational training, and production loans in Ky Son district.

Head of the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council Le Hong Vinh said that Ky Son needs to re-evaluate the potential and advantages of the district, from which to build a model for sustainable poverty reduction.

Concluding the meeting, Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Council Cao Thi Hien shared the difficulties in natural and geographical conditions of Ky Son district, but the district has achieved many clear results in many fields, especially changes in infrastructure such as electricity, roads, schools, stations, and eliminating dilapidated houses... thereby improving income and life for the people.

Comrade Le Hong Vinh speaks at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

On the other hand, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council also requested Ky Son district to absorb the opinions of the members of the monitoring delegation to complete the report to the Provincial People's Council. In particular, the district needs to review and fully evaluate the effectiveness of poverty reduction policies implemented in the area such as: vocational training, loans from social policy banks, the role of State management in building and replicating economic models, infrastructure investment; identify key points in economic development investment.

On the same morning, the monitoring delegation of the Provincial People's Council Standing Committee divided into two groups to monitor poverty reduction work in Huu Lap and Huu Kiem communes of Ky Son district. Huu Lap commune still has 309 poor households, accounting for 49.7%. Huu Kiem commune still has 399 poor households, accounting for 39.12%.

The monitoring delegation visited and learned about some households that had fallen back into poverty, households that had escaped poverty, and worked with commune leaders on implementing poverty reduction policies.

Ky Son aims to reduce the poverty rate to below 55% by the end of 2017, with an average income per capita of 18 million VND/year, and by the end of 2020, the poverty rate to below 40%, with an average income per capita of 20 million VND/year.

Thanh Duy