Teachers and students in mountainous areas strive to overcome difficulties

After the recent prolonged floods, many educational institutions in the highlands suffered heavy damage. With a sense of responsibility, companionship and sharing, the entire education sector, together with organizations and businesses, implemented many timely support activities to help schools stabilize teaching and learning activities.

Ho Lap Truong, a 5th grade student at Tra Nam Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities (Tra Linh commune) in his new learning corner. Photo: NTCC

Make-up classes to keep up with the program

At the end of November, students of Tra Leng 1 Primary Boarding School (Tra Leng Commune) returned home on the weekend after nearly a month of staying at school to make up for the time off due to the impact of floods. Teacher Le Huy Phuong, the school's principal, said that in order to keep up with the school year's curriculum, the school assigned teachers to stay and teach students extra classes on weekday evenings (except Wednesday evenings) and weekends. The school has 226 students, most of whom are boarding students, so organizing extra classes for them is also convenient, and so far they have basically caught up with the curriculum.

Similarly, schools in Tra Linh, Tra Tap, Tra Van communes... also teach make-up classes to help students keep up with the program. At the primary level, schools use extra classes such as library reading, Vietnamese language, Life skills... to teach classes such as Math, Vietnamese. In addition, each class will add one more period, and make-up classes will be organized on weekends. At the secondary level, schools add more classes during the day; teach extra classes to main classes and make-up classes on Saturdays and Sundays. Thanks to that, so far, schools have kept up with the progress of the school year's curriculum framework.

Teaching and learning activities of teachers and students in the highlands have returned to normal. Photo: NTCC

In addition to compensating for schooling to keep up with the program, the "school helping school" model has also been implemented by many schools. Among them, Hai Ba Trung Primary School (Son Tra Ward) through two fundraising rounds has sent 101 million VND to its sister school, Tra Leng 1 Primary Boarding School, to help share difficulties and improve students' learning and living conditions.

Or when hearing the news that prolonged rain and floods had washed away the drinking water and living water systems of Quang Trung High School (Dong Giang Commune), affecting the lives of more than 300 students, in the spirit of mutual love, Phan Chau Trinh High School (Hai Chau Ward) launched an internal fundraising and support campaign to help the other school quickly recover.

In this second campaign, Phan Chau Trinh High School received nearly 65 million VND, of which 50 million VND was used to support the repair of drinking water and living systems in the dormitory. The remaining funds were used by the School Youth Union to buy notebooks to give to elementary school students, continuing to spread the sharing journey from the city to the highlands.

Connect and share

To create conditions for students to study with peace of mind, in the 2025-2026 school year, Tra Nam Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities (Tra Linh Commune) will deploy "Learning Corner - Nurturing Knowledge in the Highlands" with the desire to build a learning corner at home for students in difficult circumstances, helping them have their own study space, fully equipped with desks, chairs, bookshelves and essential learning materials. At the same time, it contributes to forming and maintaining scientific study habits, training students' self-awareness and self-study awareness.

The city's Department of Education and Training coordinated with Vietnam Publishing and Educational Equipment Investment Joint Stock Company (VEPIC) to donate a library bookcase to Duy Phuoc Primary School No. 1 (Nam Phuoc commune). Photo: DVCC

Teacher Nguyen Thanh Bao, Head of the Youth Union, Tra Nam Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, said that the school coordinated with homeroom teachers, parents' representatives and village and hamlet authorities to make a list of students with difficult circumstances and students with a sense of striving to improve in their studies to build a study corner for them through arranging suitable study tables and chairs at home, arranging and decorating bookshelves, placing books, notebooks, and school supplies, etc.

Up to now, the school's union has deployed study corners for 70 good students and students with difficult circumstances. Teachers in the school, the union, and the youth union directly went to the students' homes to arrange, set up, and give school supplies to more than 20 students. Currently, the school has received support from benefactors with 200 sets of desks and chairs, which are expected to be deployed for all students in the school.

Teachers and students of schools in mountainous areas strive to overcome difficulties to continue teaching and learning activities. Illustration photo: NTCC.

At the end of November, the Department of Education and Training coordinated with Vietnam Publishing and Educational Equipment Investment Joint Stock Company (VEPIC) to donate library bookshelves to Hoa Phuoc Primary School No. 2 (Hoa Xuan Ward) and Duy Phuoc Primary School No. 1 (Nam Phuoc Commune). These are 2 of 30 schools damaged by floods after storm No. 12 that VEPIC supported with bookshelves according to the commitment with the Ministry of Education and Training during Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong's visit to Da Nang on November 4, 2025.

The awarded bookcases include textbooks, teacher's books, supplementary books and reference books from the series "Kite", "Knowledge Connection", "Creative Horizon". Among the 30 schools receiving support, there are 10 primary schools (from 100 million VND/bookcase), 10 secondary schools (from 50 million VND/bookcase) and 10 high schools (from 80 million VND/bookcase). For the remaining schools, VEPIC Company will hand over the bookcases directly to the units in December 2025, ensuring the full quantity and genre of books as planned.

According to Mr. Tran Nguyen Minh Thanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training, understanding the difficulties and damages of schools in the area affected by natural disasters, these bookcases will be a rich source of documents, including textbooks, professional books, reference books for learning; contributing significantly to supplementing and improving the quality of libraries, creating favorable conditions for students to access knowledge.

Source: https://baodanang.vn/thay-tro-vung-cao-no-luc-khac-phuc-kho-khan-3312529.html