Ethnic highlands youth to get vocational training

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News
March 18, 2009

VietNamNet Bridge – Vocational training is now planned for the mostly Mong children in the secondary boarding schools of Ha Giang Province high in the mountains that border China north of Ha Noi.

Studetns study at Thanh Van Primary School in Quan Ba District in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang.The students will undergo training that will help them find work in the province, says Ha Giang Education Department director Luong Van Soong.

"It’s a model that I hope will be attractive to all students, but especially the ethnic minority students," he says.

The introduction of vocational training follows the successful introduction of public-private schools in the province.

Ha Giang now has two types of boarding schools.

At one, the State provides free meals and at the other – public-private – parents contribute to the cost.

But the meals at both are usually limited to men men – a mixture of corn flour, vegetable and either tofu or peanut – regardless of who pays.

Although not as nutritious as the that enjoyed by the children of the lowlands, the students are content with the fare because what they want most of all is not food, but knowledge.
At the Dong Van District’s Ta Phin senior secondary school, teacher Hien explains that a room about 72mx2m serves as a dormitory.

"The walls are of bamboo and fibre and the beds are of planks," she says.

The only belongings of each child is a little wooden or tole box and an old, thin blanket.
The students each receive VND100,000 (US$6) from the provincial administration while their parents contribute rice, vegetables and firewood for their children.

Ta Phin Commune Viet Nam Communist Party Committee Secretary Giang My Lung says local administrators have done their best to subsidise meals for the students.

"Life on this high plateau is very difficult," he says.

"But everyone wants knowledge."

Ta Phin District is home to 2,680 people with 366 households classified as poor. Their yearly per capita income is VND260,000 per year ($17). Yet parents still try to send their children to school.

For example, each households of the Dong Van District’s Lung Cu Commune voluntarily contribute 30kg of rice a year to the boarding school, whether or not their children attend there.

Tender persuasion

It is not easy to have all school-aged children attend classes.

Teachers visit each household where they stay, work and eat with the families to ensure children attend school.

Khau Vai kindergarten headmistress Duong Thi Thuy explains that her staff visits the homes of their pupils each morning to collect and carry the children to school.

"Some of the children live several kilometres away," she says.

The teachers also have to "translate" from Vietnamese to the language of their pupils.
"Up to 90 per cent of the children can’t speak Vietnamese properly and the language barrier is a major barrier for new teachers arriving from the delta."

All teachers have to learn a minority language to make communication with the students easier and teaching more effectively.

They have to make teaching aids to help the students more quickly understand the lessons and find them more interesting.

As Meo Vac District Education and Training Department deputy director Nguyen Van Hien explains: "Teachers are the second mothers and fathers of students in the mountainous regions."

Lower dropout rate

The dropout rate from schools in Ha Giang Province was previously higher than elsewhere.
But the number of school drops has decreased with the establishment of public-private boarding schools.

Quan Ba District Education and Training deputy director Long Thi Xo says the initiative has improved the quality of student learning.

"They have more confidence in themselves and have passion in learning," she says.
The deputy director argues that although the model has some limitations it should be replicated.
The perception among parents that their children will have to stay in the village with or without learning is one of the negatives, she says.

Ha Giang Education and Training Department director Luong Van Soong has proposed the integration of education with vocational training as a way of dispelling such notions.

The deputy director has asked the Provincial People’s Committee to support his idea by allocating money from its budget for pilot programmes.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News