247 students one 'bathroom'

Che Tao Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities (Che Tao Commune, Mu Cang Chai District, Yen Bai Province) still faces many difficulties in arranging sanitary facilities.

Che Tao Primary School has 10 classes teaching 319 students, of which 247 are boarding students - Photo: DNCC

The school has 100% Mong ethnic students

Located 35km from the center of Mu Cang Chai district, Yen Bai province, Che Tao Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities includes administrative areas, school locations, public works, etc. scattered within a radius of about 2km. The reason why the school campus is not continuous is because of the specific terrain of Che Tao commune, which includes many rugged hills and mountains, and the ground is not flat enough for construction.

The school contains many hardships and challenges for both teachers and students in the "same sky" Yen Bai - Photo: DNCC

Because 100% of the students are Mong ethnic people from six different villages, the farthest village is 30km away on a steep mountain pass, along the mountainside, so some students are forced to stay at the school for an entire semester (four months) before being able to return home.

Queuing up, dividing time just to… go to the toilet

However, in contrast to the number of boarding students, the number of auxiliary sanitary facilities in the school is pitifully small.

Secondary sanitation facilities are not only few in number but also seriously degraded - Photo: DNCC

The school currently has two toilets, but only one is still usable, with three stalls for girls and two stalls for boys, but it is also degraded. Meanwhile, according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training , for toilets in primary schools, there must be one urinal, one toilet and one sink for 30 boys and one toilet and one sink for 20 girls.

In particular, in the evening and early morning, the school is forced to regulate bathing times for boys and girls as well aseducate students to ensure environmental hygiene. However, all of this is still very difficult because the demand for use is too high compared to the number of existing sanitary facilities.

According to Mr. Mua The Quynh - Principal of the school, in the past, students and teachers had to share toilets. Fortunately, in 2023, after a survey, Hanoi Medical University donated 30 million VND to the school to build two separate toilets covered with corrugated iron for teachers. However, in times of overload, the teachers' toilets are still 'utilized' to support the students' activities.

This is the bathroom of hundreds of students at a school - Photo: DNCC

Not only the toilet, even the bathing of more than 300 students at this school is also contained in a 'bathroom'. It is called a bathroom but in fact this is just a shed surrounded by iron sheets with an area of only 10 square meters built by the teachers here.

The teachers' lives here are also very difficult, but for the sake of the children, they still try to allocate part of their income, as well as their time and effort, to help them improve their lives.

However, all of these are just temporary solutions and are certainly not enough to meet daily bathing needs as well as affect students' privacy, psychology and comprehensive development.

Providing students with truly 'sanitary' sanitation facilities is the dream of both teachers and students - Photo: DNCC

These facilities are 'secondary' to the school but are extremely necessary for hundreds of students who live every day in the harsh weather of the highlands of Mu Cang Chai. Being able to provide students with truly 'sanitary' sanitation facilities that meet all their needs can be said to be the dream of both teachers and students here.

It is known that the budget can only be used to improve classrooms and serve professional training and education... so it can only partially meet the needs of improving sanitation facilities for children.

For this reason, teachers and students always want to receive attention and sharing from the community to build more spacious bathrooms and toilets. This is the most basic stepping stone to help students move towards a bright future. Join and contribute directly on Viettel Money here.

With the desire to provide safe living conditions and best support for the development of children, Viettel Money, in collaboration with the General Education Innovation Support Fund (VIGEF), has been implementing the project "Building a Happy School - Phase 4" with the goal of raising two hundred million VND to serve the construction of bathroom and toilet infrastructure at Che Tao Primary and Secondary Boarding School.

The program 'Building Happy Schools' aims to bring opportunities to access modern education and develop comprehensive capacity for children in mountainous areas with practical activities such as: renovating the clean water supply system for schools, supporting nutritious meals, building classrooms, providing teaching equipment according to the STEM model...

Source: https://toquoc.vn/ngoi-truong-cung-troi-mu-cang-chai-247-hoc-sinh-mot-nha-tam-20250213211333969.htm