Going up the mountain, building a 'wave-catching' hut to study online

"Special" study corner in the middle of the forest

With more than 20 points, Vu Y Hoa is the only student from Huoi Xai village, Tri Le commune to be admitted to grade 10 at Que Phong High School this school year. After the opening day, while her classmates had completed the procedures to receive classes, started to get acquainted and study online, Vu Y Hoa still did not know how to connect. 3 days after the opening day, Hoa was able to contact her teachers and enter her first online class.

Hoa’s study spot for the past two weeks has been a small hill, about an hour’s walk from home. There, Hoa sits on a pile of dry wood. Her desk is a few tree branches tied together just enough for Hoa to place her notebook.phone. If the weather is favorable and the signal is stable, Hoa will only lose the internet two or three times per lesson. But this time, Que Phong has entered the rainy season, the weather is erratic, many days Hoa walks from home to where there is signal, the sky is cloudy, it suddenly rains and no matter how hard she looks, there is no signal anywhere. Therefore, the online lesson is also interrupted...

Online class of a student at Que Phong High School. Photo: PV

Thinking about her lessons, Hoa also said that she did not learn much because one day she could study, the next day she did not. She is also worried that after starting direct classes, it will take her a while to catch up with her friends. Although her circumstances are very difficult and she does not know "what purpose her studies will achieve", Hoa has never wanted to drop out of school. Hoa's biggest dream now is that Tri Le commune will soon be lifted from lockdown, life will return to normal and she will be able to meet her teachers and friends instead of just seeing each other through the phone.

Xong Ba Mua - a house in Muong Long village, Tri Le commune, Que Phong district has just entered a very special school year. Among the more than 600 10th grade students of Que Phong High School this school year, Mua is the latest student to enroll, 1 week after the opening ceremony and nearly 1 month after the school "finalized" the list.

Xong Ba students study online in the middle of the forest. Photo: PV

Like many students in the disadvantaged areas of Que Phong district, Mua’s house is on a high mountain, without electricity and unstable signal. Therefore, while his friends have had information about enrollment and admission early, Mua is still “in the dark” and does not know the information clearly.

Too anxious for Mua, his brother called the commune, connected with the school and found the homeroom teacher's phone number when the new school year had already started for a week. Although he knew that Mua's enrollment was too late, because he loved his brother and knew about Mua's desire to go to school, he asked the teacher to give Mua a special case.

As the homeroom teacher of Mua in class 10A10, teacher Nguyen Thi Xoan had to directly ask the school board for opinions on this rare case because it seemed to be unprecedented... This is probably also a special memory for teacher Xoan in her first year as a homeroom teacher. Unexpected situations that occurred during the epidemic season made the young teacher who had just come to work in the highlands sometimes feel confused. However, overcoming all difficulties, she was happy because in the end, the class of 49 students was fully present.

Classrooms in the middle of the forest during the epidemic. Photo: PV

When he learned that he was admitted to school and could “enter class” with his friends, his family gave him their only phone to study online. For nearly a week, Mua has been getting to know his teachers and friends. To have a convenient place to study online, Mua’s brother and the villagers set up a temporary shack, nearly an hour’s walk from home. Every day, when it was time to go to school, Mua and some other students in the village would come here to “catch the signal” to go to class. Despite their best efforts, Mua’s lessons were often interrupted because of the unstable connection. Feeling sorry for her studious student, Ms. Xoan assigned a student with the best handwriting in the class to copy the entire lesson every day. At the end of the class, this student would send the writing back to the class group so that Mua and those who couldn’t keep up with the lesson could record the lecture…

Interaction can only be done when Mua is studying online. During the remaining time, although teachers really want to contact Mua directly to give more lessons, they are helpless because there is no phone signal where Mua lives.

Difficulty of studying during the epidemic

Up to this point, the districtQue Phongis still implementing social distancing according to Directive 16 of the Prime Minister. In the above context, online teaching may have to be extended in this locality. However, if online learning in the plains and central areas is one or two times more difficult, then here it must be five or ten times more difficult, especially in particularly difficult communes such as Tri Le, Nam Nhon, Quang Phong, Cam Muon, Thong Thu, Dong Van, it is still very difficult to learn online.

Teachers from Que Phong district go to each student's house to deliver homework. Photo: Chien Thang.

In recent days, teachers at the school have also shared many images of students studying online when all they see are hills, bamboo tables and makeshift huts. Due to the different class times, there are usually only one or two students in a hut. When it's sunny, they cover their heads with their shirts, and when it rains, they huddle in thin shirts. Student Xong Ba Ly - class 12A7, although he covers himself quite carefully, still has to complain to his teachers from time to time, "mosquitoes are biting my legs too much", "the internet is so bad, I can't hear the teacher and can't write anything down". Mua's parents took a picture of Mua sitting alone on a large rock, her feet propped up with her notebook and phone to study, and hoped that the teachers would "help Mua more because studying is so hard"...

After 2 weeks of online learning, although the rate of lessons reached over 98%, there are still many students at Que Phong High School who have not been able to study stably. To overcome this limitation, the school has also had its own solutions, such as allowing teachers to proactively choose a stable connection, increasing memory capacity so that teachers can upload more lessons online or combining online teaching and assigning lessons via gmail, but this is still a temporary solution. Currently, if Que Phong district returns to normal and students can return to school, the school will face the concern of insecurity in the boarding houses. Sharing about this, teacher Nguyen Hong Tu - Vice Principal of the school said: "Our school has nearly 1,800 students, but about 1,200 students live far away and are having to stay around the school in degraded and shabby living conditions. If we go back to school, epidemic prevention is not guaranteed, the risk of insecurity will be very high and there will be many potential risks of spreading the disease."

The Youth Union of Ky Son district went to each house to deliver homework to students. Photo: PV

At Ky Son High School, since the beginning of this week, the school has officially allowed students to return to school and switched to in-person teaching. This is also the time when teachers in the whole school must "speed up" and supplement knowledge for students, especially those in disadvantaged areas who have not had the opportunity to study online in the past.

Previously, through a survey, out of more than 1,400 students of the school, only 50% of students have enough teaching equipment. The whole district also has 78 villages with students of the school but no electricity. In this situation, the school had to sign a contract with 41 grassroots unions to send lessons to students every week. In places with signal and electricity, there is only a "rustling sound", mainly only sound but no image, the quality is difficult to ensure according to the requirements. Teacher Le Van Tao - Principal of the school also said: With an area like Ky Son district, online learning is really difficult because students do not have the means, do not have a stable connection. If the study is prolonged, it will be very disadvantageous for students.

Across the province, many localities have begun to organize learning again as normal. However, in the current context, the entire education sector is always ready to move toonline teachingif the epidemic breaks out again.

And in Nghe An, when the whole province still has 69,727 students at all levels lacking facilities and equipment (more than 42,000 students from poor, near-poor, and disadvantaged households) and 23,919 (3.77%) students whose residences do not have Internet access, online learning is still a difficult problem./.