Buy firewood, transport it to the forest...
In the remote and impoverished Nga My commune of Tuong Duong district, a high-altitude border region, completing the construction of a boarding primary school may require traveling over 100km to the lowland district of Do Luong to purchase land for site preparation...
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Nhat Lan • July 23, 2024
In the remote and impoverished Nga My commune of Tuong Duong district, a high-altitude border region, completing the construction of a boarding primary school may require traveling over 100km to the lowland district of Do Luong to purchase land for site preparation...
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Information regarding the construction project of Nga My Ethnic Boarding Primary School, which is likely to be delayed and not completed in time for the 2024-2025 school year due to a lack of land for leveling, reached us before the 21st session of the 18th Provincial People's Council. We contacted Tuong Duong district to inquire about the delay caused by the lack of land for leveling, and they confirmed the situation. Over the phone, Mr. Nguyen Phung Hung, Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Tuong Duong district, said: "This is a very difficult situation that the district has not yet found a solution for…"
To get a more accurate picture, we traveled to Tuong Duong district on July 16th. Upon reaching Thach Giam town, we were informed that there had been heavy rain in Tuong Duong district over the past few days, and the nearest route to Nga My had landslides. Therefore, for safety, we had to head south to Khe Bo town, following National Highway 48C through Yen Thang and Yen Hoa communes, a distance of nearly 80 km. Following the directions, we drove for another two hours, arriving at the construction site of the Nga My Ethnic Boarding Primary School at midday – Van Mon village, where the O Du people are being resettled.
On-site, the school's structure is clear: a two-story school building with a roof already in place, and 12 classrooms being plastered to a fairly complete state. However, the caretaker, Mr. Luu Viet Ba, stated that the project will not be completed according to the contract. Mr. Ba said: “According to the contract signed with the district, the project should be completed and handed over by October of this year. We have tried to speed up construction to strive for early handover, in August, so that the children in Nga My can attend the opening ceremony of the school year at the new school. The school building should be completed by the end of July, and the boarding facilities for the children will be reused from the old school building next door. But the school needs not only a building, but also a playground. Without land to level the ground, we can't do anything…”
Walking around the school grounds with Mr. Luu Viet Ba, it became clear that leveling the ground was urgently needed. The school's land was significantly lower than National Highway 48C, and a stream ran along its front. Therefore, the project required the addition of a 45-meter-long retaining wall to prevent landslides before soil could be added to create a level surface for the school grounds and gardens. Observation revealed that the retaining wall had already been constructed, and a portion of the grounds had been leveled with new soil.
When asked about this situation, Mr. Luu Viet Ba replied: "After building the embankment, knowing that some households in the area had excess land for building houses, we paid for the transportation costs so they could dump the excess land. However, the authorities later inspected the site and warned that doing so violated the law, requiring them to purchase legally obtained land for leveling..."
After a moment of hesitation, Mr. Ba continued: "When reminded, we have to stop, but without land, the project will be stalled. We've had to redistribute labor and machinery to other projects because we don't know when the fill soil will be available. It's strange and very wasteful that the surplus soil from households and some construction projects is dumped into the ravine instead of being used to level the ground for the school..."
Contacting Nga My commune, representatives were well aware that the project, part of the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction, would be delayed due to a lack of land for leveling. Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Nga My commune, Vi Thi Mui, stated that the Party Committee, the commune government, and parents are eager to expedite the project so their children can study in the new school, but finding land for leveling the ground is proving very difficult.
Ms. Mui expressed her concerns: “The old school is too cramped and lacks everything, making it unsuitable for the children to attend boarding school and for the teachers to do their job properly. The school and the commune have petitioned many times before a project to build a new school was approved. However, the commune doesn't have the land for leveling, as the district inspection teams have all pointed out as being hampered by regulations. The district has also planned to use the surplus land from the Púng Xiêng resettlement area to level the school grounds when the project is implemented, but there is only a plan, not a land use plan yet. Implementing this plan will take a very long time; even if things go quickly, it will still be until 2025…”
Nga My Ethnic Boarding Primary School consists of one main campus in Pot village and six satellite campuses with a total of 445 students. Visiting the main campus, the facilities were indeed as described by the Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Nga My commune, Vi Thi Mui. The school comprises a two-story building with six classrooms, a single-story building, and a parking area; the campus is only a few hundred square meters.2Because it's summer, there aren't many people here. Therefore, to get more information, according to the commune officials, you should contact the Principal, Mr. Kha Van Thong, who lives in Tam Dinh commune.
We visited teacher Kha Van Thong's home. Knowing the reason for our visit, he said, "We've missed the start of the new school year..." According to Mr. Thong, the school construction project, overseen by the District People's Committee, has a total investment of 9.9 billion VND, including 12 classrooms and a system of playgrounds, gates, and fences. The accompanying auxiliary facilities are not yet available, so the school plans to reuse the building from the Van Mon branch school and mobilize parents to build temporary shelters for the boarding students. However, even so, with the new school, the classrooms will be adequate, the playground will be spacious, and the education and care for the boarding students will be improved.
“In 2022, Nga My Ethnic Boarding Primary School began implementing the boarding program at its main campus with 35 students; in the 2023 school year, the number of boarding students increased to over 100 out of a total of over 320 students. With boarding students, the school's teachers and staff faced immense difficulties. The single-story building originally intended for the school's management and teachers had to be used as classrooms. Only the Principal and Vice-Principal had a place to work. The parking area also had to be converted into a communal kitchen for the children. As for the resting place for boarding students, due to a shortage of rooms, they had to rent additional rooms from nearby residents. The main campus is located right next to National Highway 48C, on a steep slope, making traffic safety very unsafe. Every time school ends, the Head of the Youth Union always has to work closely with a teacher to help the children cross the road…,” Mr. Thong shared.
According to teacher Thong, the school is unclear about how the land for leveling the ground for the new facility will be secured. They only know that the construction unit leveled a small area but then had to stop due to some procedural issues. Because of the lack of land for leveling the grounds, the project is behind schedule. Given this situation, the school has reported the matter to the commune for discussion, and the district is currently focusing on resolving this issue…
“This school year, Nga My Ethnic Boarding Primary School has 115 boarding students. We thought the school would have a new facility to help improve education and care for the children, but with this situation, we don't know how long it will last. We can only wait for the district to find a solution to resolve the issue and speed up the progress, so that the project can be completed and put into use, helping to change the educational situation in the remote Nga My commune…,” added teacher Kha Van Thong.
When discussing the incident in Nga My commune with the Head of the Education and Training Department of Tuong Duong district, Mr. Thai Luong Thien, it was learned that Tuong Duong district considers investment in education a crucial task and a foundation for socio-economic development. Therefore, during the planning process for the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction in 2022, attention was paid to reviewing and proposing investments in school infrastructure. Of the 10 projects submitted and approved by the Provincial People's Committee, 3 projects involved the construction of ethnic minority boarding primary schools in Yen Thang, Luu Kien, and Nga My communes.
Mr. Thai Luong Thien said: “Nga My is a remote commune in Tuong Duong district, more than 60 km of mountainous road from the commune center to the district center. The lives of the people are still fraught with difficulties, and the school infrastructure, built many years ago, is dilapidated, cramped, and lacks functional rooms and playgrounds… making it unsuitable for implementing the 2018 General Education Program. For these reasons, the Nga My Ethnic Boarding Primary School Project is prioritized for implementation. However, difficulties are currently arising regarding land leveling, leading to delays. As far as I know, this is a common difficulty for all projects requiring land leveling in the district. The district is paying attention to resolving this issue. The Department of Education and Training hopes that this problem will be resolved soon…”
According to Nguyen Huu Hien, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Tuong Duong District, the district has planned a soil mine in Thach Giam town, with the goal of supplying fill soil for projects in the area. However, the district has been unable to attract businesses to invest. The reason is the long distance between Thach Giam town and the communes. Some communes are more than 160 km away by road, while others are 40-60 km away. Meanwhile, the demand for fill soil for infrastructure and civil works in the district is not large; if businesses invest, they will incur losses. Therefore, all projects requiring fill soil face difficulties that the district has yet to find a solution for.
Regarding the Nga My Ethnic Boarding Primary School Project, approximately 9,000 m³ of soil is needed to create the school grounds. Tuong Duong District is a mountainous area; while there is no shortage of soil for leveling, it cannot be used. Therefore, the District People's Committee has assigned relevant departments to investigate and determine that obtaining the necessary soil for leveling would require traveling to Do Luong or Yen Thanh districts – areas with soil mines – for purchase and transportation. For example, the soil mine in Do Luong District has quoted a price of approximately 303,000 VND per m³ for leveling soil delivered to the construction site.3This means that if land for leveling is purchased from Do Luong district, the school project for Nga My will incur additional costs of over 2.73 billion VND…
I asked Mr. Nguyen Huu Hien: Buying land for leveling in Do Luong or Yen Thanh is like spending money to buy firewood and transport it back to the forest. Solving the problem this way will both affect the progress and waste a lot of budget money. Why doesn't the district report this to higher authorities to find a solution to overcome the difficulties?
Nguyen Huu Hien, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Tuong Duong District, replied: "This issue has been discussed many times by the district at numerous meetings. Recently, at the 21st session of the 18th Provincial People's Council, the Chairman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee also suggested that this issue should be urgently considered to resolve difficulties for mountainous districts, not just Tuong Duong. However, the problem lies in the regulations of the law, specifically the Mineral Resources Law. I think that only when the Mineral Resources Law is amended to suit the actual situation can we hope to resolve this difficulty. Otherwise, it will be very complicated, not only for the Nga My Ethnic Minority Boarding Primary School Project, but will also be a bottleneck in the socio-economic development of mountainous districts..."
At the 21st session of the 18th Provincial People's Council, held on July 10, 2024, the Chairwoman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee, Vo Thi Minh Sinh, stated: The reality of a shortage of construction sand, a lack of leveling soil, and difficulties in managing scattered, small-scale mineral resources... has been a long-standing issue in mountainous districts (especially in the implementation of infrastructure projects under the National Target Program for New Rural Development, such as Ky Son, Que Phong, and Tuong Duong) and midland districts of the province. This is a "bottleneck" in investment in infrastructure development for socio-economic progress and one of the fundamental causes leading to violations of the law and social unrest.
