Many boarding schools in Xiangyang lack infrastructure.

Tuong Duong is a mountainous district with the largest area in the country. Its terrain is fragmented and scattered into different regions, with many small residential areas and traffic disruptions. Therefore, the school system is also greatly affected, leading to fragmentation in the planning of schools, especially at the primary level.
Currently, Tuong Duong has 85 schools, including 66 satellite schools. The distance from the satellite schools to the main school is from 3 km or more, with some locations up to 20 km.

Main points of Mai Son Primary School. Photo: DT

According to the General Education Program issued with Circular No. 32/2018/TT-BGDDT dated December 26, 2018 of the Ministry of Education and Training, Foreign Languages ​​and Information Technology will become compulsory subjects for students in grades 3, 4, and 5. With the current scale of primary schools, investing in facilities, equipment, and arranging enough teachers to teach these two subjects at all schools under current conditions is impossible.

Teachers at Huu Khuong Primary School had to ask for beds from other schools to reinforce them for students to use. Photo: DT

Mai Son Primary School, school year 2021 - 2022 has 280 students. Most of them are children of poor families of ethnic minorities such as Thai, Mong, Kho Mu. People live scattered on hillsides or along streams, many villages are 12 km from the main school. Villages such as Pha Khao, Pieng Cooc, students have to walk for 2 hours.

To improve the quality of education and reduce the fragmented school size, this school year the school has implemented a boarding school model for primary school students from grades 3 to 5. Due to the severe lack of facilities, especially accommodation for students, the school had to requisition a warehouse for goods of a family near the school area, then renovate it into accommodation for students from remote locations.

Mr. Dao Van Hai - Principal of Mai Son Primary School said that the school is located in a border commune, so the infrastructure is seriously lacking, especially the accommodation and food for boarding students. When preparing to enter the new school year, the school had to mobilize teachers and parents to organize repairs and make bamboo and wooden stalls for students to lie on.
“Sometimes when we look at the students’ food and accommodation, we can’t help but feel sorry for them. We feel sorry for them, but we can’t do anything else. We can only use our feelings to make up for their lack of material things,” said Mr. Hai.

The sleeping quarters of boarding students are borrowed from local warehouses. Photo: DT

Not only is there a lack of accommodation for students, according to the plan, the school is lacking 3 cultural classrooms, 1 IT classroom, 1 English classroom. In addition, the items for meals and accommodation such as bunk beds, rice trays, dining tables, chairs... are also not enough.

Not only Mai Son Primary School, but this is also the common situation of many schools in Tuong Duong. At Huu Khuong Primary School, there is no boarding place for students, the school had to requisition old classrooms to make sleeping places for the students.

Mr. Le Tuyen Huan - Principal of Huu Khuong Primary School said that the school is currently implementing two boarding points, one in San village and one at the main point in Pung Bon. To have a place for students to stay, the school has requisitioned old classrooms.
“At the main school, we had to mobilize teachers and parents to dismantle and move 7 wooden classrooms from Con Phen village to build at the main school. In San village, it was more convenient because there were 5 old classrooms available. We renovated some items to make accommodations for students. There are many types of beds for students, including bunks, wooden and bamboo stalls,” said Mr. Huan, adding that the bunk beds were requested by teachers from other schools and then welded and reinforced. The stalls were built with materials donated by parents, and teachers and parents contributed labor. Currently, the water tank and toilet systems are the most difficult problems. Despite great efforts, they have not been able to meet the needs of students.

Tuong Duong district leaders encouraged teachers at Mai Son Primary School. Photo: DT

Compared to other schools in Tuong Duong district such as Mai Son and Huu Khuong, Nhon Mai school is luckier because it has solid rooms for boarding students. However, there are no beds for students, so the school has had to ask for old beds from other schools to reinforce them for students. Currently, nearly half of the students are sleeping on beds made of bamboo, reed, and wood, which teachers and parents have contributed to.