About the article “Primary School 2, Thach Ngan (Con Cuong): Hoping to have a water well soon”

(Baonghean) -Nghe An Newspaper, issue dated February 5, 2013, published the article: "Primary School 2, Thach Ngan Commune (Con Cuong): Hoping to soon have a water well" by author Phung Van Mui.

On April 9, 2013, Con Cuong District Party Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 119-BC/HU to Nghe An Newspaper with the following content:

Pursuant to Official Dispatch No. 1760-CV/TU, dated February 18, 2013 of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, on the inspection and handling of the article: "Primary School 2, Thach Ngan Commune (Con Cuong): Hoping to have a well soon". The Standing Committee of the District Party Committee issued Decision No. 376 - QD/HU to establish an inspection team to examine and verify the contents of the article. The Standing Committee of the District Party Committee had a working session with the District People's Committee, relevant departments, the Standing Committee of the Thach Ngan Commune Party Committee, the Board of Directors and the Chairman of the Trade Union of Thach Ngan Primary School 2 and the author of the article to hear the results of the inspection and verification; at the same time, conducted a dialogue with the author of the article.

After the meeting, the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee agreed as follows:

Drought and lack of water for production and daily life are common situations occurring in the district, including schools (especially in the left bank). However, the level of difficulty as stated in the article is not accurate, even exaggerated. In particular, only the main school (Ke Gia) of Primary School 2 in Thach Ngan commune is the most difficult, while the other schools are not too difficult.

Faced with the above situation, the district Party Committee and government have made efforts to pay attention and care, and have had many programs and projects to serve the people with water for production and daily life. However, currently, many communes and schools still have difficulties in water due to lack of water sources. In addition, schools and parents have had many solutions to overcome difficulties and care to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Therefore, in general, the quality of education in Con Cuong district has achieved good results.

It is true that some teachers (whose families live in town) bring “clean water” from home every day to teach for cooking and drinking (the water delivery tool is a mineral water bottle). On days when they cannot return, they use stream water (currently, due to drought, the stream water is also dry and not hygienic; the two self-flowing water projects of Ke Gia and Thach Son were damaged after the flood).

- Some of the article's content is incorrect:

The article states that there is only one living flower, the “cactus”, which is incorrect. Teachers can still grow ornamental flower gardens.

“Most teachers, when assigned to work here, try to find ways to refuse or ask for unpaid leave, because getting here is difficult because of the roads, and they have to endure thirst due to the lack of water for daily activities.” The article stated that this was not accurate, although the road is far, at the time the article stated the road to Ba Ha was paved, making it difficult to travel during the rainy season, and lacking water during the dry season. The Department of Education and Training, the school’s Board of Directors and a number of teachers all affirmed: The ideology of the staff and teachers is stable, no teacher refused to accept the task or asked for unpaid leave.

In 2007, the school made a proposal and received financial support from the Trade Union of the industry for 10 million VND to dig wells. The wells were all effective, but in 2012, the water level dried up, the school organized to dig more wells but there was still no water (Ke Gia point). After 2007, the school has not made any proposal to request the district or commune for funding to dig wells... Therefore, the article stating: "The Board of Directors and the School Council have made a proposal to request the commune and district to support funding to drill industrial wells, but the cost is more than 40-50 million VND, so the district and commune cannot support" is incorrect.

There is a lack of clean water at the school, but the information that "The school's budget is not enough to cover stationery and business expenses, so teachers and students have to suffer thirst" is incorrect. Because teachers are provided with clean water according to Decree 61 of the Government and it is included in their monthly salary; teachers and students do not have to suffer thirst.

The figure of “over 20 teachers with over 300 students” is not accurate. In reality, the school has 30 teachers, 24 classes, 171 students, of which at the main location there are 16 teachers, 5 classes, 42 students.

The school and commune's viewpoint on the content of the article: "The lack of water at school is real, but some of the content mentioned by the author is completely inaccurate."

- The Standing Committee of the District Party Committee requested the Propaganda Department of the District Party Committee to seriously review and learn from experience. For the author of the article, when collecting information and writing the article, it must be accurate to avoid readers from misunderstanding the reality.

The District People's Committee and the Department of Education should pay more attention, if possible, to find solutions to overcome the current water shortage.

First of all, Nghe An Newspaper sincerely thanks Con Cuong District Party Committee for reviewing, verifying and sending a response letter regarding the content of the article: "Primary School 2 Thach Ngan (Con Cuong): Hoping to soon have a water well" by author Phung Van Mui.

Nghe An Newspaper would like to discuss further as follows: The purpose of Nghe An Newspaper and the author publishing the above article is to reflect on the current situation of lack of clean water for daily life at schools in Thach Ngan commune and that is true. We are very pleased that after the article was published, the People's Committee of Con Cuong district had a policy to overcome and conduct a survey to develop a project to find ways to exploit clean water sources for teachers, students and people in the area. Currently, the phenomenon of water shortage has been and is being overcome.

Nghe An Newspaper would like to acknowledge the above errors and has organized a discussion to learn from the experience of the author as well as the editorial and news review team. Nghe An Newspaper hopes to continue to receive timely feedback from readers as well as the Con Cuong District Party Committee.

Con Cuong District Party Committee - Nghe An Newspaper