At Que Phong High School, when requesting an assessment of the current situation of students in remote areas in boarding houses, the educational managers here submitted Report No. 21/BC-THPT "Situation and risk of violating social evils and school security and order" of the school established in 2018 to the Department of Education and Training, District Party Committee, District People's Committee, Que Phong District Police...; affirming that this is an issue that the school is very interested in, even has been interested in for many years.
Looking at Report No. 21/BC-THPT, one can clearly feel the school’s thoughts and feelings towards students in disadvantaged areas. Because here there are very detailed comments on the psychology and physiology of students. That “100% of boarding students are ethnic minorities residing in remote villages far from the center. At the age of puberty, they are hyperactive, like to show off, show off… Besides, due to limited social awareness, and living far from their families, they are easily infected, lured, and seduced by bad elements in society”. And there is a very specific forecast: “The boarding houses do not ensure hygiene, lighting, fire safety, explosion safety, as well as security and order. Most boarding houses let students eat and stay arbitrarily, lacking management. The students staying at boarding houses have limited communication and awareness, and lack family supervision. Through inspection and information gathering, the School Security Committee and the School Youth Union discovered a number of manifestations of social evils as follows: There is a phenomenon of bad elements from outside taking advantage of, luring, and enticing students to lend money at an interest rate of 10%/week to have fun, spend in the form of “picking up relatives”, “picking up money”…; There is a phenomenon of luring students to use and transport drugs (crystal meth, pink heroin); Luring and threatening some female students to ask them to participate in activities such as drinking for hire, even prostitution; playing online games for long periods of time outside of school hours…”.
Therefore, in the report, Que Phong High School informed about the measures it has taken such as coordinating with the police force, the Parents' Association, establishing a Security Committee, a Psychological Counseling Team... to strengthen student management; increasing school security; organizing inspection and propaganda activities; creating healthy playgrounds for students to participate in... The school frankly recommended: "In a day, students spend about 6 hours at school, the remaining 18 hours of the day are spent in their dormitory to manage themselves, so the management and supervision of students is very difficult without the consensus, help and coordination of parents and the involvement of all levels to create a healthy learning environment, security and order in the dormitories are guaranteed...".
Similarly, high schools in Quy Chau, Tuong Duong, Ky Son districts... also annually send reports on student management to the governing bodies; District Party Committee, District People's Committee. For example, Tuong Duong 1 High School, in its report in August 2023, showed that in the 2022-2023 school year, 689 students had to rent accommodation outside the school. Although the school received attention and direction from the Department of Education and Training, District Party Committee, People's Council, District People's Committee... and made efforts in student management, it still encountered many difficulties. Specifically: “The fact that many students have to rent a house poses a potential safety risk. Coordination between parents and schools is limited, because most parents work far away and pay little attention to their children's food and accommodation. Some houses are small and have poor and degraded facilities; some houses are loosely managed, so students rarely study, eat and live in disarray, stay up late, often organize parties, birthdays, drink alcohol, smoke, play online games... Many students drop out of school due to difficult economic conditions and poor academic performance...”.
According to Tuong Duong 1 High School, in the 2022-2023 school year, 96 students from remote areas will be accommodated in the school's old dormitory, managed by the Board of Directors and teachers in terms of living hours, life skills education, and support for night study...; outside of school hours, they can participate in cultural, artistic, physical education, and sports activities; at the same time, there is a canteen to serve their eating needs. However, the school's facilities in the dormitory have not met the living needs of students; equipment for teaching and learning is still lacking. Therefore, in order to improve the effectiveness of student management, Tuong Duong 1 High School has proposed to build a new dormitory to meet the accommodation needs of students.
Entering the 2023-2024 school year, Tuong Duong 1 High School has created profiles for 699 students from remote areas to enjoy support policies under Decree 116/ND-CP. This means that 699 students will need a place to stay to study. Among them, many students come from remote border villages in Nhon Mai and Mai Son communes. To get to school, many students have to travel through Ky Son district, a distance of several hundred kilometers. Although they feel sorry for their students, the Board of Directors of Tuong Duong 1 High School only tried to arrange an old dormitory with 20 rooms to accommodate 100 students. The remaining 600 students had to accept that they would have to rent a house to stay.
Vice Principal of Tuong Duong 1 High School, Mr. Nguyen Hong Tuan, acknowledged that despite the cooperation and help of the government and the police force, it is very difficult to manage 600 students staying at a boarding house. Therefore, the situation of students staying up late, getting involved in drinking, smoking, and neglecting their studies is inevitable. “The school has coordinated inspections and worked with landlords, residential area leaders... But honestly, it is very difficult to control thoroughly. The students are not cared for by their parents, and their eating, living, and living on their own have caused many problems, including security and order. Fortunately, the school's students have not had any major problems, but the risk is real...”, Mr. Nguyen Hong Tuan shared.
There is a problem that, according to Mr. Tuan, is very difficult, which is the school nurse retiring but there is no one to replace her. Mr. Tuan said: “In addition to teaching, the Board of Directors assigns teachers the task of supervising students. Teachers must have a list of their students' dormitories. If students are absent from school, they must go to the dormitories to find out and encourage them to go to school. This task is really hard, especially when students are sick. Without a nurse, the responsibility falls on the teachers. Because most of the students' parents work far away, and their relatives are only elderly and weak grandparents, teachers must worry, take turns to be on duty or take the students to the hospital. Therefore, the school really hopes to implement a boarding or semi-boarding model…”.
According to the Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Tuong Duong district - teacher Nguyen Thi Tuyet Chinh, high school students have to rent a house to study, eat, rest and live by themselves, so it will be very difficult to concentrate on studying; many social evils can occur, such as using tobacco, drinking, girls, etc. If students are allowed to stay in dormitories, comprehensive education will certainly be better. Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Chinh said: "The total number of students of the two high schools in Tuong Duong is nearly 1,700, of which, the number of students who have to rent a house to live is very large. Therefore, to improve the quality of high school education in mountainous districts including Tuong Duong district, it is necessary to implement a boarding or semi-boarding school system. The Department of Education and Training, the schools and the district have also discussed this issue many times, however, the solution to this problem is still not available...".
When we learned about the negative side of students renting accommodation, the Board of Directors of Quy Chau High School spent a long time discussing and expressing their feelings. The school's principal, Mr. Cao Thanh Luu, who had just moved from Quy Hop district for a short time, said: "When some students got involved in drug abuse, the school's teachers were all heartbroken and worried..." According to Mr. Cao Thanh Luu, the reason is that when students from remote areas come to town to study, they are not equipped with life skills and do not have the awareness to prevent and fight against the negative aspects of society. Lack of family management, while the school cannot closely monitor its students every night, so they are easily penetrated by social evils. Talking about the reality, most of the rented rooms for students are very makeshift, cramped, cold in winter, hot in summer, lacking space for studying, security and order issues are complicated... Mr. Cao Thanh Luu said that we still need to thank the people, because after all, the students still have a place to live and study.
Faced with this situation, Mr. Cao Thanh Luu proposed a solution: “From the practical experience of education and student management over the past years, in my opinion, for mountainous districts, the State, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the province should build a boarding school model or a semi-boarding school. If due to economic difficulties, it is not possible to create facilities to accommodate 100% of students at the same time, then 50% of students are also good. For the remaining students, the government and the Education and Training sector should call for socialization to build boarding service models that better meet the conditions for eating and resting for the students; or develop transportation services to pick up and drop off the students. Then, the management will be better, the quality of learning will increase, and at the same time, the situation of students being abused and going astray will be reduced. Another problem is that currently, high schools are not assigned the task of organizing semi-boarding or boarding schools. If it is implemented somewhere, it comes from the heart of those working in education. Therefore, it is necessary to create a legal basis for schools...", Mr. Cao Thanh Luu discussed.
