School drop-outs increase as children in mountainous areas lose subsidies

Hundreds of pupils in the mountainous areas of Quang Nam Province may stop going to schools as government is going to stop providing food to boarding schools.

Hundreds of pupils in the mountainous areas of Quang Nam Province may stop going to schools as government is going to stop providing food to boarding schools.

   

Nguyen Van Troi Secondary School prepares rice for children

According to Tay Giang District Department of Education and Training, in the first semester of the 2017-2018 school year, a total of 371 pupils were not able to enjoy preferential policies for ethnic groups and mountainous areas outlined in Resolution 116 for 2016-2020 period. Almost 350 pupils were not supported in the second semester as their villages were no longer classified as especially poor.

There are many reasons for pupils to stay home including parents forcing children to help them with agricultural work and many pupils who don't want to walk long distances across difficult terrain to get to school.

For the 2018-2019 school year, 332 pupils still haven't been supported including 165 pupils at Nguyen Van Troi Secondary School, 39 at Nguyen Ba Ngoc Secondary School, 31 at Bhale Primary School and 97 at Tay Giang High School.

   

Hundreds of children may drop out of schools

Ho Minh Quoc, deputy head of Nguyen Van Troi Secondary School, said they had to call for help from the public and district authorities to provide meals to the pupils. The school is incurring debts to buy food for the pupils in order to keep them from dropping out of school.

Tay Giang District Department of Education and Training is implementing measures to provide meals to the schools and called for the authorities to provide children in mountainous areas with other kinds of preferential policies. The department suggested spending 40% of the basic wages to buy food for the children.

After receiving the department's request, Tay Giang People's Committee provided VND360,000 per pupil for five months in the first semester and four months in the second semester with the local budget but they need more concrete policies from the government.