The concerns of workers' children and the problem of kindergartens and schools

The children came last

4:30 pm, after finishing the program,little friendsof Ha An Private Kindergarten (Nguyen Truong To Street, Vinh City) gathered on the first floor, playing with each other while waiting for their parents to pick them up. At this time, some children were taken to the bathroom by their teachers - something I rarely see in public schools. "These children were asked by their parents to bathe because their parents are shift workers and come home late. If we wait until evening to pick them up to bathe, it will be too late, which is not good for their health" - Principal Do Thi Ha explained. In winter, the number of children whose parents ask the teachers to bathe them is even greater.

It was past 6 p.m., the sky was starting to get dark, while all the kids had been picked up by their parents, the kids whose parents were working overtime still couldn't go home. Photo: Diep Thanh

At 5 minutes to 6, while all the students and teachers had gone home, there were still 6 children staying behind and playing with the principal's children. It was getting dark, the games were less fun, the children stopped playing and sat on the swings, looking sadly out the gate. Afraid that the children would be hungry, Ms. Ha brought out some candy for each child. Ms. Ha explained: "I know that it's almost dinner time, if I feed the children like this, they won't be able to eat later, but if I let the children go hungry and miss their mother, I'll feel sorry for them." Most of the parents were workers, many times Ms. Ha had to stay behind to look after the children for the workers who finished their shifts late.

Picking up her children at 6 o'clock, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa asked the teacher about the children's situation while rushing to take her children home so she could go to the market on time. She said: "My husband and I also wanted to pick up our children early to go home and feed them early, but the nature of our work did not allow it, so we had to give up. During the pandemic, both my husband and I were unemployed, and now we have to work overtime to save more money. Raising two twins at the same time is very difficult. Many people advised us to send our children to their grandparents in the countryside, but my husband and I did not want to."

The joy of Nguyen Thi Hoa's children being welcomed home by their mother. Photo: Diep Thanh

Despite his best efforts, Mr. Le Van Vinh could not pick up his child earlier. Photo: Diep Thanh

One by one, the children were gradually picked up by relatives. I say relatives because many children had to ask neighbors, relatives or colleagues to pick them up because their parents worked overtime. The child whose child was the last to come home had a mother who worked at Minh Tri Garment Company (Bac Vinh Industrial Park) while the boarding house was in Hung Binh Ward - near the father's workplace. When asked why he did not choose a school closer to home, Mr. Le Van Vinh - the child's father said: "My wife and I have searched, but it is difficult to find a school that is suitable in terms of tuition, time and location. It is also convenient for my child to study here because my mother goes to work early in the morning and can take her there." Although it is convenient, with a distance of 5 km from home to school, it will be very difficult for his daughter to go to school by motorbike on rainy and cold days.

Indeed, as a parent looking for a kindergarten for their child around VSIP Industrial Park, I realized that this journey is not easy at all. Most schools do not accept children after 5am, only private daycare centers have this policy. However, when they turn 5, children in these centers must find a kindergarten with a standard training program to enter primary school. With tuition fees ranging from 1.2 to 1.8 million VND/month (including meals), daycare centers and kindergartens around the industrial park are often full.

A private daycare center allows parents to pick up their children late at Bac Vinh Industrial Park. Most kindergartens do not allow children to be sent outside of working hours, so workers can only leave their children at private daycare centers or take them back to their hometowns for their grandparents to take care of. Photo: Diep Thanh

Admitting that she was a mother who came late to pick up her child, Ms. Vi Thi Xuan -workers rentat Bac Vinh Industrial Park shared his story: “My husband and I came here from Ky Son to work as factory workers and brought our two children to make it easier to take care of them and to create conditions for them to study in the city. The older child is in first grade and we can no longer pick them up late, so we take turns. Somehow, someone has to come home early to pick them up. It’s very passive.”

Need a safe environment

Ms. Xuan's story does not stop at being hasty and passive. "During the time my child was under 3 years old, I accepted to stay at home to take care of the child so that my husband could go to work alone. When my child was old enough to go to school, I continued to go to work. During the recent epidemic, when schools had not reopened, many times I had to lock the door so that my two sisters, one 6 years old, the other 3 years old, could stay home to look after each other while I went to work. I knew that there were many risks that could happen, but there was no other way. Therefore, I went to work with a burning heart, thinking of going home quickly," Ms. Xuan sadly shared.

To avoid both of them working overtime and no one picking up their child, Vi Thi Xuan's husband accepted to work freelance instead of working for the company. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

At the program"Come to the workers' hostel"organized by the Provincial Labor Federation recently, there were many stories similar to Ms. Xuan's. Leaving her 5-month-old child at a neighbor's house to attend, Ms. Ho Thi Ngan (Luxshare ICT Nghe An Co., Ltd.) confided: "From June 1st, I will start working again. My first child is 2 years old and I will send him to daycare, and my grandmother in Quynh Luu will take care of the second child. Because I don't get a break at noon, my child will have to drink formula milk, and soon I will lose my milk supply."

There is only 1 bed but the room is 15m2²Ms. Ngan's house is a place for 3 adults and 2 children. They know it's hot, they know it's not good to sleep on the ground, but with a total salary of more than 10 million/month for both husband and wife, and diapers and milk costing 5-6 million VND, they have no other choice.

Because she is raising a young child in a boarding house, Ms. Ho Thi Ngan (striped shirt) received a gift from the Provincial Labor Federation in the program "Coming to the workers' boarding house" in 2022. Photo: Diep Thanh

When the problem of schooling for their children cannot be solved, many parents are forced to choose to live far away from their children and send them to their grandparents in the countryside. Ms. Le Thi Thanh Nga (Thanh Chuong) has been a worker at a garment company in Bac Vinh Industrial Park for nearly a year now. Before returning to Vinh, she worked in Bac Giang, also at a garment company. In her story, when mentioning her children, she held back tears: “I went to work far away from home hoping for a better income to take care of my family, but then I realized that the difference in salary cannot compare to my children's childhood. Grandparents cannot replace their parents, and their way of raising them is no longer suitable, leading to the children becoming stubborn and losing connection with their family. Now my eldest daughter is 12 years old, I returned to work near home to be close to her and make up for her.” Ms. Nga also shared that in the near future, she will find a business right in the district to live with her child, instead of being able to go home once a week like now.

Returning to their rented room after work, Ha Thi Phuong (Que Phong) and her husband chatted with their 14-month-old child on the phone. It has been 5 months since Ms. Phuong has visited her child. Photo: Diep Thanh

Sharing the same sentiment, after the pandemic at the end of 2021, Nguyen Thi Thuan and her husband in Nghia Dan district also quit their jobs with a salary of 15 million VND/month in Binh Duong to return to their hometown to find work. She confided: Now that I think about it, I see that my children have suffered so much. Living far away, coming home 1-2 times a year, even if I call them every day, I still cannot make up for the emotional deprivation of my children, especially during their puberty, the older they get, the more I need to care for them.

Not long ago, through the story of a colleague, I learned about the extremely pitiful situation of a worker's family. The couple worked far away, leaving their 7-year-old son with an older grandmother to look after. During a trip, the boy accidentally slipped into a pond near the house and drowned. Unable to bear the pain, the wife went crazy and the grandmother lived in torment all day and then fell ill.

Although not cited much in this article, such cases are not few. Somewhere in the stories of workers’ dormitories, there always appear examples of children living far away from their parents, worries, anxieties, and unspeakable anxiety… Workers really need a solution to solve all the problems in raising and educating their future generations.