Along with the whole country, on November 9, the People's Committee of An Giang province simultaneously started construction of three primary and secondary boarding schools in the border communes of Vinh Gia, Giang Thanh and Khanh Binh, opening up learning opportunities in the best conditions for children in the border area.
The way to school will not be far anymore
Vinh Gia commune - after merging 3 communes Vinh Phuoc, Vinh Gia and Luong An Tra - became the locality with the longest border in An Giang province, bordering Cambodia. Although the area is large, Vinh Gia commune has less than 10 primary and secondary schools, with inadequate facilities. Students and teachers face many difficulties in living, traveling and studying.
Ms. Phan Thi Tuyet Minh, a teacher at Luong An Tra Secondary School, said her house is more than 75 km away from the school, so she has had to live in a dormitory for the past 13 years. "Seeing students going to school dirty during the rainy season, many of them having to walk a long distance, we really hope to build a spacious school with decent food and accommodation so that the students can study with peace of mind, no longer feeling self-conscious or thinking about dropping out of school" - she confided.
When hearing that Luong An Tra Secondary School was chosen as one of 100 locations in the border area to build a boarding school model, starting construction in 2025, joy spread throughout teachers and students. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Vice Principal, expressed: "We used to dream of a modern school that could accommodate teachers and students, allowing them to live and study on-site. Many students have no idea what a boarding school is, and keep asking us about where they will live and study. For teachers, this has been a long-awaited dream for many years."
We went to Thi Bich Lien's house - a 9A1 student at Luong An Tra Secondary School. The small stilt house, only about 30 square meters wide, was just built on the dike and is home to 5 people. In the house, there is only one plastic chair for Lien to sit and study. Her father is of Cambodian origin and works as a hired hand to support the family.
Lien's house is 7 km from school. Every day, she has to walk a 500 m long dirt road to get to the main road and then ask for a ride from a friend. During the rainy season, she has to roll up her pants and wade through the muddy road twice. "When I heard that there was going to be a boarding school, I was very happy. The younger students will have an easier time from now on. I only regret that when the school is completed, I will have been promoted to a higher level. If my father cannot buy an electric bike, I will continue to ask for rides from friends like I have been doing for a long time," Lien confided.
Lien's dream of having a boarding school is also the dream of border students in An Giang province, and of border students across the country.
Happy day for students and teachers in border areas
Vice Chairman of Vinh Gia Commune People’s Committee Huynh Van Minh said that there are currently 9 border schools in the area, with a total of 3,061 students and 232 teachers. However, the school facilities and equipment do not meet the demand. Some schools are degraded, lacking classrooms, playgrounds, equipment, etc.
According to Mr. Minh, most of the people in Vinh Gia commune live on farming, their income is still unstable, so they do not really care about their children's education. Some teachers and staff come from other places to work, some from 100 km away, and have to rent accommodation. This also partly affects the quality of teaching and the motivation of students to go to class. Therefore, building an inter-level boarding school will fundamentally solve the difficulties of the local education sector, meeting the expectations of the people.
November 9th became a happy day for students and teachers in the Vinh Gia border area when the construction of a boarding school for primary and secondary levels was started in the locality, with the participation of Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son and Secretary of the An Giang Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Tien Hai. This school was built on the basis of merging Luong An Tra Primary School B and Luong An Tra Secondary School.
Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son, leaders of An Giang Provincial Party Committee and delegates performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of Vinh Gia Primary - Secondary Boarding School.
The project is implemented in the form of new construction combined with renovation and upgrading of existing facilities of 2 old schools, creating a school that fully meets the living and learning facilities that previously, teachers and students in the border area could only see in their dreams. With a total estimated investment of 186.74 billion VND, the school has a scale of 45 classes, meeting the learning needs of 1,500 students in the whole commune.
Vinh Gia Primary - Secondary Boarding School will be newly built, combining with the renovation and upgrading of the facilities of Luong An Tra Primary School B and the former Luong An Tra Secondary School.
At the same time, An Giang province also started two projects to build Giang Thanh Primary - Secondary Boarding School (Giang Thanh commune) and Khanh An Primary - Secondary Boarding School (Khanh Binh commune). The schools have synchronous investment in learning areas, dormitories, kitchens, cultural and sports areas.
Mr. Tran Quang Bao, Director of the Department of Education and Training of An Giang province, believes that these spacious boarding schools will help solve the shortage of classrooms, create the best learning environment for students, thereby reducing the dropout rate. "The Department of Education and Training is determined to coordinate closely and promptly with localities so that the projects can progress as quickly as possible, ensuring quality to put into operation in the 2026-2027 school year," he affirmed.
According to the leaders of An Giang province, investing in the construction of boarding schools is a major, comprehensive, and humane policy of the Party and State for the cause of education in border areas, aiming to improve people's knowledge and develop human resources. Thereby, creating stable and long-term learning conditions for children in border areas, especially children of ethnic minorities, contributing to strengthening national defense and security and the great national unity bloc.
(To be continued)
(*) See Lao Dong Newspaper from November 16 issue
Source: https://nld.com.vn/dung-truong-xay-diem-tua-bien-cuong-nang-buoc-tre-vung-bien-196251116194537325.htm
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