Trung Ly is a commune in a particularly difficult area of ​​Muong Lat district ( Thanh Hoa ), with a 7.8 km border with Laos, the natural area is mainly hills and mountains, the terrain is fragmented, and farming conditions are still difficult.

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Mr. Ngan Van Lon (white shirt) encourages students in Ta Com village to go to school. Photo: Contributor

Currently, in Trung Ly commune, there are 15 villages, the transportation infrastructure is still difficult and isolated. To reach the villages, you have to cross the Ma River by boat from Muong Ly commune. The farthest village is about 50km from the commune center, such as Ta Com, Canh Cong, the nearest village is 7km away. The people are mainly Thai, Mong, Kinh ethnic groups, of which Mong people account for nearly 70%, the difficult life also interrupts the children's schooling.

Mr. Ngan Van Lon, Chairman of Trung Ly Commune People's Committee, said that the locality has nearly 1,400 households, more than 7,200 people, the poverty rate accounts for 66%. The educational level of the people is uneven, many people still believe that when children grow up, they must help with housework and support their parents. Some families only let their children finish grade 5 or junior high school, when children are old enough, they start families or go to work far away in companies or do farming, raising livestock... These things affect students' learning, many children drop out of school halfway.

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Road to Ta Com village. Photo: Contributor

Mr. Ngan Van Lon himself and other teachers have traveled to the villages many times to encourage students to go to school to learn to read and write.

“Students often take time off from school after summer vacation or long holidays. This is a sad reality, because the thinking of some students and some ethnic minority people do not really value studying, and they still have the mentality of going to school when they like it and not when they don’t,” said Mr. Lon, adding that he had to go to most villages to encourage students to return to school.

"In remote villages like Ta Com and Ca Giang (about 50km from the commune center), we have to travel all day, crossing the river to get to their homes to mobilize students and convince parents to encourage their children to go to school," Mr. Lon shared.

According to Mr. Lon, when children want to drop out of school and do not like going to school, it is very difficult to persuade them. There are families that he has to visit 2-3 times to persuade them to let their children go back to school.

The main reason students do not return to school is because their family circumstances are difficult and they do not have enough people in their house. There are cases where parents work far away for a whole year and only return home, leaving only elderly grandparents at home, or students have to stay home to help their families, such as taking care of younger siblings, herding cattle, or going to work with their parents...

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A school in Ta Com. Photo: Contributor

“There are families, when we go to persuade them, they say 'no way teacher, if he wants to go to school, then go, if not, then don't'. The parents' indifference is a big obstacle, and we have to be very persistent in persuading them. In one case, the teacher and I took turns going to the house, and it took 3 days to successfully persuade a student to go back to school. He didn't want to go to class because he planned to follow his siblings down to the lowlands to work for a company," Mr. Lon shared.

A typical case is HTH (born in 2012), a Mong ethnic, living in Ta Com village, who did not want to go to school to learn to read and write due to his family's extremely difficult circumstances. H.'s parents passed away early, and he had to live with his uncle and grandmother. Because H. had intended to drop out of school to go to work, even though his grandfather and teachers came to his house to persuade him many times, he still did not want to go to school. After 2 days of persistent persuasion, H. finally agreed to return to class.

Mr. Lon said that the whole Trung Ly commune currently has 4 schools, including: Trung Ly Secondary School, Trung Ly 1 Primary School, Trung Ly 2 Primary School and 1 kindergarten. Currently, the schools are spacious, clean and beautiful, ensuring teaching and learning.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/chu-tich-xa-vung-cao-thanh-hoa-di-50km-vao-ban-van-dong-hoc-sinh-tro-lai-lop-2382549.html