Nghe An: Parents react because their children's boarding benefits were cut

(Baonghean.vn) - Many parents in the extremely disadvantaged commune of Thanh Mai (Thanh Chuong, Nghe An) are upset because the commune People's Committee suddenly refused to approve their children to continue enjoying the boarding support regime..

In mid-December, many households in the highland hamlets of Thanh Mai Commune (Thanh Chuong District) were “bustling” to borrow money to buy motorbikes for their children to go to school. They said that because the school was too far away, while their boarding support was cut, they had no choice but to send their children to school by motorbike. Even though they knew that doing so was against the law.

“I have three children, two in secondary school and one in primary school. Last year, my children received more than 16 million VND in support, along with more than 400 kg of rice. But this year, all of a sudden, they received nothing,” said Nguyen Thi Ngan (35 years old, Nam Son hamlet). Because she no longer received support, Ngan had to let her children go home by themselves during the day.

Thanh Mai Secondary School (Thanh Chuong district). Photo: HT

Although the distance from her house to Thanh Mai Secondary School is more than 8 km, passing through mountainsides with streams. She is afraid that her children will not be able to get to school on time by bicycle, and she is not strong enough to study two sessions a day, so she said that she will soon borrow money to buy motorbikes for her children. Even though her family is not well off.

Ms. Ngan is one of the parents in Nam Son, Da Bia, and Trung Son hamlets who wrote a petition to Nghe An Newspaper complaining that their children did not receive boarding support this school year because the Thanh Mai Commune People's Committee refused to sign the confirmation. These are the most remote hamlets in this particularly difficult commune. "In previous school years, our children all received the benefits. But this year, although we have completed all the documents, we do not understand why the commune has refused to sign the confirmation," the parents stated in their petition.

The money and rice that parents have reported are under Decree 116/2016/ND-CP on policies to support students and primary schools in extremely disadvantaged communes and villages. According to research, last school year, Thanh Mai Secondary School had more than 40 students supported under this policy.

However, this year, only one student is eligible. This student has a registered residence in Thanh Xuan commune but rented a room in Thanh Mai to study. Similarly, last year, Thanh Mai Primary School had 47 students receiving support. But this year, the number has dropped to 16.

The sudden cut-off of boarding school support for a large number of students was so sudden that, at the beginning of the last school year, the rice support for Thanh Mai students was still transported in the same quantity as last year (3.5 tons of rice to the secondary school and 4.7 tons of rice to the primary school). After distributing too much surplus rice, which had been stored in the warehouse for half a month, the school had to hire a truck to transport tons of rice to other communes in need, following instructions from superiors.

Tien Hung - Phuong Thao