Island School

Tri Nguyen Island School's official name is Vinh Nguyen 3 Primary School, located in Vinh Nguyen Ward, Nha Trang City, but I still secretly call it by another name, the island school. The school includes many small schools on inhabited islands. The first time I learned about the island school was twenty years ago, around 2004. That time, I was able to take a boat trip to attend the year-end ceremony at the island schools. It is known that every year, on the occasion of the year-end or the opening of the school year, Tri Nguyen Island School hires a boat to take the Board of Directors to each island to attend, and at the same time, pick up the teachers to the main school to attend the year-end ceremony. There are 2 boats carrying the Board of Directors to 2 different school routes. The route I took stopped at the islands: Hon Mot, Dam Bay, Vung Me.

Dam Bay School. (Photo taken in 2012)

Hon Mot school is located near the water's edge at the foot of the island, consisting of 2 classrooms and 1 teacher's dormitory. The closing ceremony is held in one of the two classrooms because there is no school yard. The school yard near the water's edge has only a dry eucalyptus tree planted on a pile of rocks that serves as a flagpole. The classroom on the day of the ceremony is decorated with a light blue floral tablecloth covering the old wooden teacher's desk. On the desk is a vase of colorful plastic flowers. The large words "closing ceremony..." are written on the blackboard in both colored and white chalk.

Attending the closing ceremony were more than twenty elementary school students along with the same number of parents. The fathers were still relatively neat and tidy, sitting solemnly, while the mothers stood and sat as they pleased, each carrying at least one baby. In that scene, two young female teachers walked in from the door with bright smiles and beautifully made-up faces that lit up the entire classroom. One was wearing a pink ao dai with red flowers embroidered on the sleeves and hem, the other was wearing a black dress and a white shirt.

As a teacher began reading the final report, the wet heads of boys with seawater-soaked hair, who were school-age but probably not students, began to appear outside the window at the end of the classroom. Some poked their heads into the classroom. Some climbed onto the window sill and sat there because the window was just an empty pane, without bars or iron frames. They talked, laughed, pointed, and called out the names of the students who were sitting in the room attending the ceremony, then threw green mangoes at them, making the students sitting in the room attending the ceremony fidget. The last part of the ceremony was the award ceremony. While the award ceremony was going on enthusiastically, a teacher hurried to the back of the classroom, looked through the window and called out a name loudly, saying: "Hurry up and change your clothes to receive your award!" Among the children who were swimming and splashing in the sea, a boy ran up. The teacher happily and calmly turned back... The ceremony only lasted an hour, after which the teachers and the Board of Directors got on a boat to continue to another island.

Students of Vinh Nguyen 3 Primary School (Tri Nguyen Island campus) on the opening day of the 2023-2024 school year. Photo: Minh Chien

Dam Bay school is more formal, not as "fun" as Hon Mot. Perhaps because there are 2 male teachers here, not 2 female teachers. There are only 10 students in total. Dam Bay school in those years required the teachers to be male, because to get to Dam Bay, the boat had to go through Thach Du cape, which often has dangerous "cockfighting" waves. These 2 teachers had just come to take over the school, replacing the 2 previous teachers who had taught here for 8 years and had just moved to shore. The parents were also excited when talking about the 2 old teachers. They said that when the 2 teachers said goodbye, the students "cried and cried".

Unlike Hon Mot and Dam Bay, Vung Me school is not at the foot of the island but is located on a high mountainside, near the top of the island, and you have to climb a path to get there. Perhaps that is why the ceremony was more orderly and peaceful.

On the way back to Tri Nguyen Island School, sitting on the boat, I heard the teachers talk about their memories. There were lovely memories like when a teacher first came to receive the school, sitting alone at night missing the city and home, suddenly a group of students came up with lamps. It turned out that these students heard that the new teacher had arrived and had gathered together to catch the wet nurse to cook a pot of porridge to welcome her. Or there was the time when the teacher was practicing drumming with the students when a parent ran up, angrily shouting: "The sea was calm and peaceful, why are you beating the drum all of a sudden, what do you want?" Then there was the story of 5th grade students often skipping school to go to the beach. When a student asked for permission to take a day off, he said: "Teacher, let me take a week off to go to the beach, when I come back I will give you a long fish" (mackerel)...

The island schools are all primary schools. After finishing 5th grade, if students want to continue to 6th grade, they have to go to Tri Nguyen island where there is a junior high school. If the family does not have a private boat to take them to and from school every day, the only option is to bring rice back to Tri Nguyen to rent a room or stay at a relative's house. Therefore, most children only finish 5th grade and then drop out, sometimes even before graduating. When the teacher comes to the house to persuade them, the parents say that even if they graduate, they will forget everything; or if they study, they will go to sea, or if they don't study, they will still go to sea!

After that time, I did not have the opportunity to return to Hon Mot and Vung Me. As for Dam Bay, I was able to return a few more times, the last time was in 2012, when there were no more boats on the island, I had to hitch a ride on Bich Dam's boat. The boat was running "halfway" when it encountered a Dam Bay boat that was stopping at sea, so it stopped to let me cross. Later, I learned that this boat stopped to wait for a student to "hitch a ride". This little student lived with her family in a fish cage on the sea.

Now all have become memories, although Tri Nguyen Island School is still there. The generation of students from that time are now young people in their twenties and thirties. Thank you to the school's Board of Directors. Thank you to the young teachers of the past for giving me the opportunity to meet them.

VAN HA

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/van-hoa/nhung-vung-ky-uc/202407/truong-dao-c6c6593/