Sad lullaby of students who dropped out of school to get married in Nghe An

(Baonghean.vn) - The number of more than 500 students dropping out of school to get married or go to sea that Nghe An Newspaper recently reported is an alarming reality. Learning about some cases of students dropping out of school in the highlands to get married, get married early or migrate to Laos with their families, which is happening commonly, especially in areas where the Mong people live, we witnessed many sad stories...

Nam Can (Ky Son) has a 25 km border with Laos, so migration to Laos is common. According to data provided to us by Mr. Va Ba Denh, Chief of Nam Can Commune Police, in 2014 alone, the entire commune had 21 households with 128 people migrating to Laos, especially in Nam Khien village. Of the 21 households going to Laos, 17 migrated illegally, while 4 went by passport.

Meeting Lau Ba Xong (Nam Khien village), a student who just dropped out of school and migrated to Laos with his family, now that he has returned, we can fully understand the hardships that the adults have brought to him. A year ago, he followed his family to Laos, thinking that the "luxurious" life over there was a paradise, but it was not like that.

Over there, the curriculum was different, the language was different, and the writing was different, so I had to start all over again. I couldn’t keep up, so I had to drop out of school for the second time. Besides, I was only studying “illegally” there because my family had migrated there illegally. I had to return to my hometown and rely on my neighbors and dropped out of school from then on.

A family migrated back from Laos and their children also dropped out of school.

At Nam Khien village, we met Lau Y Mai, who was in 8th grade but had to drop out of school. Y Mai looked like a grown-up, only 14 years old. When we asked why she dropped out of school, Y Mai calmly replied: "If she doesn't want to study anymore, then she'll quit." Y Mai's parents work hard day and night on the farm, so they don't care whether she goes to school or not. They are just happy to see her stay home every day to help the family. When they heard that she had dropped out of school, her parents concluded in a concise sentence: "If she doesn't want to study anymore, then that's it."

Many female Mong students often drop out of school because they are "forced into marriage".

We continued to Tham Hin village following the instructions of the locals, where Va Ba Tru had just finished his wedding. We met Tru and his wife preparing tools for the field. Before Tet, Tru was a 10th grade student at Ky Son District High School, the future was wide open for him. However, after meeting Xong Y Nhia in Na Cang village (Na Ngoi commune), the impulsive feelings of school age overcame his dreams on the path of studying.

The two became husband and wife at the age of 15, amid the worries of both families and the curiosity of their peers. Perhaps now, newly married and living with their parents, this young couple cannot possibly understand the immediate worries of family life.

I asked Tru: “Why don’t you continue studying and come back home to get married at such a young age? Doesn’t anyone say anything?” She answered me innocently: “We’ll get married anyway, if we don’t take her home to be our wife, someone else will take her away. Everyone tells me not to get married now, but it’s okay. I’m still normal after getting married.”

Born in 1990, this Mong woman already has 3 children.

Just recently, Va Y Mai, an 8th grade student at Nam Can Ethnic Minority Secondary School, was teased and tricked by some young men outside to go out to Hoa Binh Town. When she returned to school, partly because of pride and partly because she was ashamed of her friends, she dropped out. No matter how much her teachers and friends tried to persuade her, she refused to go to class.

Surely the statistics of the authorities cannot fully count the number of students dropping out of school in the highlands for reasons like this.

The problem now is the propaganda work and implementation of preferential treatment for students in mountainous areas so that they can truly see that going to school at their age is the most important thing.

Dao Tho