Students in the remote Ky Son area wait for the day they can move into the most modern dormitory in Nghe An.

Living far from home is always a hardship for ethnic minority students in Ky Son district. However, at Ky Son High School, although there is a spacious and modern dormitory, for many months now, organizing boarding students to eat and stay at school is still facing many difficulties.

Struggling to study far from home

Before 8pm, the rows of boarding houses across the streetKy Son High Schoolwas plunged into darkness. The path to the rented room was winding like a maze and to get in, you had to use a flashlight to find your way or else you would go to the wrong room. Deep inside, there were about 20 rented rooms, roughly built, some of which were still made of corrugated iron.

In rooms less than 10m wide²The furniture of the boarding students is simple, consisting of a wooden bed, a few pots, and a small gas stove for simple cooking. The room is also a classroom, a kitchen, and a living room, but each room has 2-4 boarding students. If the room is too crowded, the students spread out an extra mat to lie in the middle of the house. Most of the boarding students come from remote villages of Ky Son district and are mainly poor and near-poor households.

Dormitories of Ky Son students. Photo: My Ha

Xong I Do, a 12A1 student, and his younger brother live in Na Ngoi commune, more than 50km from the school. Three years ago, after passing the 10th grade entrance exam, Do left his family to go to Muong Xen town to live far from home. A few years ago, Do lived with friends, but this year, his younger brother passed the 10th grade entrance exam, so the two siblings moved out to live together, spending nearly 500,000 VND per month on rent. Like many students from remote villages in the border district of Ky Son, Do's family situation is difficult, both parents are farmers.

To be able to stay and study, the two sisters carefully spend the government's support money, less than 1.5 million VND per month. That includes food, accommodation and money to buy school supplies. Every 2 weeks, the two sisters return home to receive supplies of vegetables and rice from their family. Due to difficult living conditions and lack of money, Do and her younger brother's dream is to live in a dormitory at school.

Difficult and deprived accommodation for students in Ky Son. Photo: My Ha

Not far from Do's room was the simple room of Xong I Ong (class 10C3) and his classmate. Here, like many other rooms, despite trying to arrange things, it was still messy, clothes and blankets hung all over the room. Apart from a wooden bed for sleeping and studying, the only furniture in the room was an old table used for cooking.

Xong I Ong shared: Previously, the rented room also had an older sister who was studying at the district's Continuing Education Center. But since this school year, the older sister just got married and had a child, so I rented a room to live separately. Every day, Ong goes to school, and in the afternoon he helps his sister take care of the baby, so even though I want to live in the dormitory, I find it inconvenient.

Living in run-down rented rooms, the lives of students who study far from home are fraught with potential risks of insecurity and fire. Photo: My Ha

Need a separate mechanism for boarding school model

For over a week now, every night the classrooms of Ky Son High School have been lit up until 10pm. This is the time for students who are boarding in the school to study independently and although they are new to the school, the students follow the school's schedule and regulations quite seriously. Accompanying the students are teachers from the self-management group and the school's board of directors who take turns managing and supervising.

Evening self-study hours of students at Ky Son High School. Photo: My Ha

Ky Son High School has about 1,200 students staying in boarding houses around the school. But at this time, the school has just piloted the arrangement for 300 students to stay and live at the school.

Teacher Le Van Tao - Principal of the school shared: Thanks to the sponsorship of Trung Nam Group, since the beginning of this school year, the school's facilities have been newly built to meet the learning needs and organize boarding for more than 1,000 students. However, after more than a semester of use, organizing boarding for students still faces many difficulties due to operating costs, no mechanism to organize boarding, and lack of human resources to support.

After 1 week, the students have started to get used to the boarding environment and the self-study sessions outside of class. Photo: My Ha

In order to help the model come into operation soon, after Tet, the Department of Education and Training directed Ky Son High School to develop a project on a new type of boarding school model to present to relevant departments and agencies. The Department advocated piloting boarding for 300 students and giving priority to students from poor and near-poor households, and those who lived far from school. During the initial implementation period, teachers and staff of the whole school volunteered to take turns supporting the care and management of students.

Students who live far away, are from poor households or have good academic achievements will be given priority to stay in the school dormitory. Photo: My Ha

For now, the school also plans not to collect any contributions from students for boarding purposes but will use the state support money. As for electricity and cooking fees, the school has held a meeting with parents and agreed to temporarily collect 20,000 VND/student per month. Students using electricity in the dormitory rooms will have their own electricity meter and parents will pay based on the amount of consumption.

After the first week of implementation, although there were still many difficulties in organizing, arranging teachers and staff, and some students were still not familiar with the new environment, the shape of the boarding school model has taken shape. In the near future, the school's boarding students will be able to participate in daily sports games such as soccer, volleyball, badminton, chess... watch TV, read library books during breaks, organize an art troupe to teach dance, sing folk songs and dances...

Spacious dormitory room of Ky Son High School. Photo: My Ha

Teacher Le Van Tao - Principal of the school also added: If all students are allowed to stay in boarding schools, we believe that their activities will be organized, students will stay away from social evils, they will be cared for and nurtured scientifically and the quality of teaching and learning will be improved. What we hope for now is that the province will soon have a specific policy to reduce difficulties for parents and help schools organize boarding schools on a larger scale and more effectively in the following years according to the set roadmap./.