Where it takes students months to read a single letter

(Baonghean.vn) - The teacher had to ask for an interpreter. The student was picked up by the teacher at home every morning. It took months to teach the children to write a single letter… That was a daily occurrence in the border village of Pa Khom.

Pa Khom is a Mong ethnic community in the high mountains of Tri Le border commune, Que Phong district (Nghe An). The local primary school has 59 students studying in small, narrow huts made of samu planks.

In recent years, the attention of social and charitable organizations has brought about some changes in the lives and studies of students here. They have new uniforms and warm clothes to wear to class.

In the photo are students from Pa Khom village in traditional costumes going down the mountain to receive charity gifts at the end of September.

At the highest point in the village, there is a temporary school that has existed for decades. The classrooms are only about 20m wide.2, the roof and walls are made of samu wood planks. In the 2016-2017 school year, Pa Khom school has 3 male teachers and 2 female teachers. Among them, 2 male teachers have been living in the village for nearly 20 years.

A teacher who has worked for many years in the Tri Le border commune shared: At this small and narrow school, teachers and students really struggle with each letter every day. Many students are not used to holding a pen, so teaching them to write is a difficult task. To write a letter correctly, some students have to practice for several weeks. However, students' pronunciation is even more difficult. Some students know how to write but cannot pronounce some Vietnamese words correctly.

Teacher Nguyen Thi Luu, primary school in Pa Khom village, shared: The biggest difficulty for teachers here is the language barrier, teachers and students “do not understand each other”. This always requires a Mong teacher to “translate”.

The fear of contact between the Mong community and the daily life of making a living makes it difficult to mobilize students to go to class in Pa Khom. Teacher Luu shared: To prepare for each lesson, teachers have to get up early to pick up the children at home to go to school. During the rice harvest and bamboo shoot picking seasons, many children follow their parents to the mountains, and teachers have to go up the hill to mobilize the children to go to class. In the photo, the children wait for the teacher to pick them up before going to class.

A rare bustling recess time for the children of Pa Khom village when a charity organization visits. It is expected that by the end of 2016, the children will leave their cramped classrooms and move to another location, in a new school built with funds donated by a social organization and the local government. The new school is expected to create favorable conditions for both teachers and students of this border village to have a more convenient place to teach and study.

Ho Phuong - Huu Vi