To fully enjoy the new school year

(Baonghean) - The road to remote communes such as Tri Le, Nam Nhoong, Dong Van, Thong Thu (Que Phong) has become much closer thanks to newly opened roads. Accordingly, education in the land of cinnamon has also improved day by day. However, there are still many difficulties for teachers and students here...

Teachers from Nam Nhoong Kindergarten went to Huoi Cam village to encourage parents to bring their children to school.

We had the opportunity to visit Nam Nhoong commune, a remote, extremely disadvantaged commune of Que Phong district. Although the road to the commune has now been paved, there are still 30 km of winding mountain passes. The commune has 476 households with more than 2,200 people, who are of the Kho Mu and Thai ethnic groups. Ms. Lang Thi Nguyet - Principal of Nam Nhoong Kindergarten, said: "Currently, Nam Nhoong has 9 villages, 5 kindergartens, Na village is the main school. In the upcoming school year, the school has 12 teachers with 8 classes of 132 children in 5 schools". Because the commune is an extremely disadvantaged area of ​​the district, with characteristics such as fragmented terrain, many schools in remote villages are still made of bamboo and thatch, so taking children to school is still difficult... People's lives mainly depend on agricultural production. In addition to growing rice, people only know how to pick mountain eggplants, dry them and sell them for 250,000 VND/yen, or go into the forest to pick bamboo shoots for about a few tens of thousands of VND, but it is not stable. Therefore, it is difficult to mobilize parents to contribute to building the school with materials, but can only contribute with labor. To prepare for the new school year, parents help the school clean, reinforce the fence, kitchen, and auxiliary works. Currently, Nam Nhoong has 4 schools with relatively solid buildings, only Nhot Nhoong village school remains, teachers and students still have to teach and study temporarily in a thatched house made of bamboo and leaves. Every time it rains, they have to endure the situation of leakage and wetness. Because people live scattered, it is difficult to mobilize children to go to school together at the same age. For example, Na Khich school has 16 children but they belong to 3 age groups from 3 to 5 years old. Even in Na village, the main point has to mobilize 3 age groups to have 1 class. Therefore, it is very difficult for some children to absorb the program. The teacher is in the same class, but she has to "transform" into 3 different roles for all 3 age groups.

In Nam Nhoong commune, in addition to the 5 Thai villages, there are also 4 Kho Mu villages: Nhot Nhoong, Huoi Cam, Mo village and Lien Khuong village. Therefore, teachers who come here to teach must learn the local language themselves to be able to communicate with their students; each lesson, in addition to using the common language, must also be explained in the local language so that the students can understand. The organization for the children to study semi-boarding here must follow the model of semi-boarding with the people (parents cook at home and bring it to class for their children). However, due to the hardship, many parents can only bring their children some cold rice from the evening, with a little salt. Some children only have a few potatoes, cassava, and a few bananas. At mealtime, the teachers have to gather everything together and divide the food equally so that each child can have a "little bit of salt". With a love for their profession and children, teachers in Nam Nhoong have found many ways to overcome, ensure enough class time, keep classes and minimize the number of children dropping out of school.

Teachers and students of Tien Phong Kindergarten.

At Hanh Dich Primary and Secondary School, with 16 separate villages, including some schools such as Chieng village, 16 km from the center, and 4 primary schools scattered in Muong Dan village, Cong village, Mut village, and Cham Put village, it is very difficult to travel, but teachers and students of the school still try their best to maintain learning. Mr. Ha Van Que - Principal of the school said that the school organizes meals for boarding students. The commune provides pots and pans, parents contribute rice and money, and the school asks someone to cook. In other schools such as Tien Phong, Tri Le, Thong Thu... boarding students still have to cook for themselves in small groups, rice and food have to be brought home to school every week.

The new school year in the mountainous district still has many difficulties. The biggest difficulty in terms of facilities is still at the preschool level. The whole district has 14 preschools with 14 main locations that are relatively solid, while the remote locations are mainly temporary buildings. The second difficulty is in implementing Decision 85 of the Prime Minister to support students in remote areas who are far from home and cannot return home during the day, each student receives 460,000 VND and 15 kg of rice. Thanks to this policy, the rate of secondary school students in Que Phong dropping out of school has decreased significantly (last school year, the whole district had only 20 students drop out). Currently, there are 2 boarding schools that organize meals for students at school, each meal sometimes has up to more than 20 trays of food, however, the conditions of the kitchen, toilets, bathrooms... are still not enough to meet the needs of this number of students. Besides, combining schools and classes (due to insufficient number of students) is still a common situation in the district, causing difficulties in teaching and learning.

Mr. Ho Mau Su said: “In recent years, the improvement of the Que Phong education sector is partly due to the attention of the leaders of the District Party Committee and the People's Committee. Before the new school year every year, there are always delegations of leaders coming to each school to visit, encourage, and grasp the thoughts and aspirations of teachers and parents, from which, there are directions for practical and effective guidance and support. However, one of the issues that the sector is concerned about is that after the number of students dropping out of school still remains because their houses are far away and there is no boarding place, these are also things that are difficult to change in a short time. In addition, after people were resettled under the Hua Na Hydropower Project, students followed their parents, so their household registration was greatly disrupted. Some students from Dong Van returned to Tien Phong, or from one village to another... Therefore, the education sector had to redo a universalization of all levels of education, and at the same time review and inspect to come up with appropriate solutions to stabilize the children's education."

From now until the opening day, teachers as well as leaders of the district education sector are busy with a lot of work, all for the goal of making the new school year come to Que students in a complete and joyful way.

Mr. Ho Mau Su - Deputy Head of the Education and Training Department of Que Phong district said: "To prepare for the new school year 2014 - 2015, the department has actively advised the District Party Committee and the District People's Committee on reviewing and rearranging the management staff, from principals and vice principals of the 3 levels of preschool, primary, and secondary school. Second, the District People's Committee advised the District People's Committee to establish 3 teams to inspect the facilities of all schools, gradually from the end of July to about August 12. The third issue is the training for the new school year. The department proactively mobilized management staff and teachers to participate in all training sessions. Also from August 6 to 8, the district will continue to review and rotate the teaching staff appropriately."

Article and photos:Tran Hai