The rice warehouse of Khao Mang Ethnic Boarding Secondary School (Mu Cang Chai district, Yen Bai province) is empty - Photo: C.TUỆ
For the past two weeks, many boarding schools in Mu Cang Chai district (Yen Bai province) have had to "call for help" from local authorities, mobilizing parents and businesses to lend or borrow rice to cook for boarding students due to delays in receiving rice support.
According to the provisions of Decree No. 116-2016 of the Government on support policies for students and general schools in extremely disadvantaged communes and villages, each boarding student is supported with 15kg of rice/month.
Normally, in early March every year, boarding schools in Mu Cang Chai district are provided with rice to support students in the second semester. However, this year (as of March 22), all boarding schools in Mu Cang Chai district have not received rice support.
Empty rice warehouse
At around 9am on March 22, Tuoi Tre Online reporters arrived at Khao Mang Ethnic Boarding Secondary School (Mu Cang Chai District, Yen Bai Province), at the same time that Mr. Thao A Khay (school staff) had just borrowed an additional 30kg of rice from parents to cook lunch for the boarding students.
"The rice support for students has run out, so the school has asked parents to lend 15kg/student for cooking. When the rice support is provided, the school will return it" - Mr. Thao A Khay said and hurriedly brought the rice into the kitchen to cook.
Mr. Thao A Khay goes to get rice from the parents' house to cook for the boarding students - Photo: C. TUE
"The rice warehouse is very clean now, there is nothing left" - Ms. Duong Thi Lieu, vice principal of Khao Mang Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, said when a reporter asked to lead her to the school's rice warehouse.
Standing in an empty rice warehouse, Ms. Lieu said that since the beginning of March, the rice support for 515 boarding students has been used up, while the school has not received any rice support for the second semester.
Therefore, for the past two weeks, the school has been mobilizing to borrow 15kg of rice from each boarding student, so that they have rice to cook for them every day. As of March 22, the school has borrowed about 12 tons of rice from parents.
"As you can see, the warehouse is out of rice. Today and tomorrow, students will go home for the weekend, and the school will continue to ask parents to lend rice so that they can cook for the children next week," said Ms. Lieu, adding that the rice loan will last until new rice is provided.
Ms. Lieu said that according to the document of Yen Bai Department ofEducation and Training, rice support for students will be provided before April 10.
"Every day, the school needs about 260kg of rice to cook for more than 500 students. If this situation continues, the school will have difficulty managing because most of the students are Mong ethnic group, of which 50% are from poor households, not every family has rice available," said Ms. Lieu.
A notebook recording the amount of rice that Khao Mang Secondary School borrowed from parents of students in each class to return later - Photo: C. TUỆ
The school hopes to receive rice soon.
Ho Bon Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities also ran out of rice support since March 8. To have rice to cook for 635 boarding students, the school mobilized parents to contribute nearly 5 tons of rice and borrowed 4 tons of rice from outside businesses.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Truong, principal of Ho Bon Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, said that like previous years, the school only reserves enough rice to feed the children until mid-March.
"When the school learned about the late rice distribution, it consulted with the Ho Bon commune government to mobilize rice resources to ensure that there would be rice for the students to eat before April 10," said Mr. Truong, who wished to receive rice earlier, especially in the second semester, so that the school could be more proactive in ensuring rice for students to cook.
Students of Lao Chai Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities bring rice from home to lend to the school - Photo: C. TUE
Lao Chai Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities also encountered some difficulties due to the delay in receiving rice support.
To ensure enough rice to cook for more than 600 boarding students, over the past two weeks, the school has also had to mobilize each student's parent to lend 10-15kg and borrow from businesses in the commune.
"The mobilization of rice is only guaranteed to last until the end of March. We hope that the government will support rice for students more promptly in the coming time and the following years so that the school can organize the care and feeding of boarding students well," said Mr. Vu Van Manh, vice principal of Lao Chai Secondary School for Ethnic Minority Boarding Students.
8 boarding schools in Mu Cang Chai district had to borrow about 40 tons of rice - Photo: C. TUE
Most schools in Mu Cang Chai can only proactively provide rice until the end of March - Photo: C. TUỆ
The longer the rice support is delivered, the more difficult it will be for schools - Photo: C. TUỆ
Schools only have enough rice left until the end of March.
Mr. Vu Anh Thuy, Head of the Department of Education and Training of Mu Cang Chai district, said that the whole district has 20 ethnic boarding schools with nearly 12,000 boarding students.
According to regulations, the annual distribution of rice to support boarding students takes place in early March (semester 2) and October (semester 1). But this year, up to this point, the schools have not received any rice support.
"The People's Committee of Yen Bai province has decided to issue quotas. However, according to information, the General Department of National Reserves is bidding so it has not been issued yet. Therefore, some schools are short of rice and have to borrow," said Mr. Thuy, adding that according to statistics as of March 19, 8 primary and secondary schools had to borrow about 40 tons of rice from parents and businesses in the area.
The remaining schools only have enough for March. If it is delayed any longer, the schools will have difficulties because of the large number of boarding students.
Mr. Thuy also said that the department has considered the option of borrowing rice from the reserve warehouse of Mu Cang Chai district if the rice supply is slower than planned.
Previously, on March 5, the Yen Bai Department of Education and Training sent a dispatch to the State Reserve Department of Hoang Lien Son and Vinh Phu regions requesting the delivery of more than 1.9 million tons of rice to districts, towns, and cities, with the delivery date set for April 10.
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