The new academic year kicked off last week, but a lot of students do not intend to go to school. They have to go to work with parents on rice fields or small production workshops to earn money.
The teachers in An Hao commune of Tinh Bien district in the southern province of An Giang are still busy persuading parents to allow their children to go to school. The local authorities hoped to receive 300 primary and secondary school students this year in the Cam mountain area. However, only 150 students turned up at the school opening ceremony.
“Since the day the landslide occurred, the number of travelers to the Cam mountain area has decreased dramatically. Therefore, small merchants like us have been facing big difficulties and we cannot afford the study of our two children,” said Tran Thi Kim Loan, a parent in Cam mountain area, whose one child has given up school.
Earning their living the top priority
In the 2011-2012 academic year, 1180 secondary school and 800 high school students dropped out in Bac Lieu province, while the number of primary school drop outs was numerous.
The Vinh Hau commune in Hoa Binh district is reportedly the locality which has the highest percentage of illiteracy and drop out in Bac Lieu province and Mekong River Delta. Tran Van Phi, an official of the commune, confirmed that at least 40 percent of people in the commune are illiterate. Therefore, when borrowing capital from banks, local residents signed their names with cross.
“Local residents here are very poor, and parents need their children to have to work to earn money,” Phi said.
When asked about the grandchildren, Ly Th Pol in Vinh Hau commune said: “We still cannot earn enough money to feed our mouths, so why we have to go to school?”
Pol has 11 children, most of them did not go to school, and all of her grandchildren are illiterate.
Poiting to the nine year old grandchild, named Ta Dum, Pol said she sometimes told the boy to go to school, but the boy did not want to, saying that his parents and aunts still can catch fish and find food, while they do not need to go to school.
A teacher in Vinh Hau commune said it is very difficult to successfully convince parents to allow their children to go to school, but it is even more difficult to retain them. The local students only go to school in the morning or afternoon, while they have to spend the remaining time going searching for snails to sell for money. On the days of high tide, students would go to school, but on the other days, they would go catching snails. Since they do not attend the lessons, they would lag behind the classmates, and they would rather drop out.
Phi said that 12 students from poor families in the commune receive 10 kilos of rice a month from the local authorities, which helps them keep going to school. However, since the local authorities cannot give rice to hundreds of students in the commune, the other students have given up school.
Le Van Lai, Headmaster of the Kim Dong Secondary School in An Hai commune of Phu Yen province, said that after the summer holiday, tens of students would not return to school.
When the teachers of Kim Dong School came to see Huynh Phi Hoang, a ninth grader, they saw Hoang preparing to go out for catching cuttlefish. When Hoang saw the teachers, he said: “I will not go to school. I would rather go fishing, because I can earn money”.
