Impatient with the sight of thousands of students in remote areas having to fend for themselves in shabby rented rooms to attend high school, at the Conference to contribute ideas to the Draft "Notice on the activities of the Vietnam Fatherland Front in the province participating in government building in 2023; opinions and recommendations of voters and people in the province; proposals and recommendations to the Provincial People's Council and People's Committee on necessary issues", I proposed that the Provincial Fatherland Front give opinions to the competent authority to consider the removal of boarding policies in high schools in mountainous districts. Also attending the conference was National Assembly delegate, Permanent Vice President of the Provincial Women's Union, Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Hien. The female National Assembly delegate expressed her concern about this issue, and mentioned a phenomenon in mountainous districts that, according to her, is not normal.
Specifically, through many field trips to the highland districts of the province, Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Hien noticed that at the beginning of summer, there are often buses carrying children of high school age to the South. These are the buses that take the children to their parents until the end of the summer months. From this reality, the female National Assembly delegate learned that in many villages in the highland districts, where ethnic minorities live, there is always a shortage of people of working age, with most of them being the elderly and children.
It is worth mentioning that when working-age couples leave their hometowns to earn a living, they often equip their children with smartphones for convenient communication. Meanwhile, smartphones are full of bad and toxic information. Children living with grandparents, lacking parental control, are easily infected and affected by negative influences. “In the mountainous areas of ethnic minorities, the situation of law violations by minors is increasing. Although there are no specific statistics, it is true. Therefore, we think it is necessary to consider the unusual trips of buses carrying young children to the South during the summer days to get attention…” – National Assembly delegate, Permanent Vice President of the Provincial Women's Union Hoang Thi Thu Hien emphasized.
The truth is that although I often go up to the mountainous districts of the province, I have not known about the buses carrying children to the South. But I believe that there are such buses, and also think that it is unusual.
We believe and think so because we have witnessed many images reflecting the same thing in September 2023, through long trips to 5 mountainous districts of the province including: Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, Ky Son, Quy Chau and Que Phong. In these districts, most of our time was spent on learning about the living conditions and study routine of students from remote areas who came to the district center to rent houses to attend high school. We saw there were children lacking family management. Many had messy hair, red eyes, sleepy faces, next to smartphones. Along with seeing, we also heard many complaints, concerns, and worries about the lack of security and order, about the decline in the quality of students' studies, about social evils invading rented rooms. An example heard from those working in education is that in Quy Chau district, there were 4 students who broke the law when they fell into drug addiction. Among them, 3 students were sentenced to 5-7 years in prison, one student was given a non-custodial reform sentence of 10 months.
Believing and thinking so is also because knowing that in the draft proposal to build a Resolution on support policies for schools with ethnic minority boarding students in the province, the Department of Education and Training has acknowledged: “The quality of education between regions in the province still has a big difference; facilities and equipment are still difficult, especially in remote areas, areas with especially difficult socio-economic conditions with many ethnic minorities. Schools and classrooms are not guaranteed, requirements for care, nurturing, education; accommodation and meals for students in schools with ethnic minority boarding students are still lacking; the regime for students, teachers and staff still has some shortcomings; inequality in access to educational services is growing. Inequality in education erodes the motivation of young people to strive, reduces the dynamism of social mobility, and is the source of social instability”.
And as the Secretary of Tuong Duong District Party Committee, Mr. Nguyen Van Hai said: “Currently, we are implementing Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW of the Politburo on comprehensive education reform; and implementing the 2018 Education Program. But to be honest, we have not yet ensured synchronization for implementation. Especially when issuing and implementing the implementation plan, there has not been a synchronous investment…”.
Believing and thinking so, we hope that the quality of education in the mountainous districts of the province will be improved. Because Resolution No. 39-NQ/TW dated July 18, 2023 of the Politburo "on building and developing Nghe An to 2030, with a vision to 2045" has pointed out that although Western Nghe An has had many improvements, there are still many difficulties, security and order still have many potential complications; and there is a need to promote sustainable development in Western Nghe An.
But to help Western Nghe An develop sustainably, among the things needed, we need to focus on people. Here, it is the work of educating the young generation. Because if the situation of children staying at school, lacking the management of families and schools, will continue to happen, the abnormal things that will cause us to worry!
