Although a new school year began a month ago, one kindergarten class in the Central Highlands Kon Tum City remains closed for the third year in a row.
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| Kindergarten group 8 has been abandoned |
The Kindergarten Group 8 of Hoa Phuong Pre-School is located on Hoang Thi Loan Road, Quang Trung Ward, Kon Tum City. Wild grass covers the area stretching from the gate to the yard.
Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, principal of Hoa Phuong Pre-School said that the construction was funded by an organisation from Monaco named “For the Children\'s Sake”. However, since 2008 it has been closed because there are no students to fill the classes.
Children of the Ba Na Ethnic Group living in Plei Don and Plei To Nghia Villages, Quang Trung Ward do not want to go to this kindergarten because their houses are very far from it. Also, the school cannot let them stay at school for the entire day or feed them because the school and local authority don’t have enough food or money.
Huong added that at present, Quang Trung Ward and the school could try their best to offer meals for 50 five-year old children learning in Plei Don and Plei To Nghia Villages when they stay at school for the whole day. However, they cannot support the other 100 children aged 3 to 4 years old.
If the school is provided with rice and food, they can teach and feed the 100 remaining children and there would be no more abandoned classes.
According to Kon Tum Province’s Department of Education & Training, the whole province now has a total of 3,200 kindergarten children, 560 of them are from ethnic groups.
While many schools in Vietnam\'s remote areas do not have enough classrooms for students and many classrooms are in terrible condition, this well-built kindergarten has not been used for 3 years and is going to waste as for now.