On the morning of January 31st, six-year-old Ha Ngoc Anh arrived at the gate of Si Pa Phin Primary and Secondary Boarding School at 6 a.m. Following her teacher's instructions, Ngoc Anh woke up very early, before the sun had even risen above the mountain ranges nestled together like inverted bowls, while the nearly eight-kilometer road to school was dark and bitterly cold in the mist.
Ngoc Anh was beautifully made up by her teacher, with red lips, rosy cheeks, and her hair neatly braided at the back. She wore a stylish white blouse with puffed sleeves and silver buttons, and a long black skirt that reached her heels, tied with a shimmering blue sash. This was the most beautiful outfit worn by White Thai girls, usually on special occasions and festivals.
Not only Ngoc Anh, but the school gate was ablaze with color today. Every student wore the traditional clothing of their ethnic group, from the Hmong, Ha Nhi, and Kho Mu to the Si La, Lao, and Cong… They lined up in formations to welcome General Secretary To Lam and other Party and State leaders visiting the school on its inauguration day.
The moment Ha Ngoc Anh was carried in the arms of the General Secretary as she walked up the steps to the ceremonial platform marked the official arrival of nearly 1,000 students from Si Pa Phin at the most impressive and modern school in the border region.
Twenty-five years ago, young teacher Nguyen Van Dup graduated from the Northwest Teacher Training College. Instead of returning to his hometown of Thai Binh, he decided to go to Muong Lay to teach. At that time, Si Pa Phin was still part of Muong Lay district, Lai Chau province.
The road from the center of Dien Bien to Muong Lay was treacherous and winding, with high mountains on one side and deep ravines on the other, overgrown with wild reeds. Passenger buses had to stop at Na Sang because the Na Pheo bridge at that time was still just a submerged stream, with no bridge built across it. Teacher Dup walked from there to the school, passing through Si Pa Phin, a total of 80km, taking him a whole day.
In his early years as a teacher, Mr. Dup's difficulty wasn't the poor roads or lack of resources, but rather keeping his students engaged. Many students would attend a few classes before dropping out because their families lacked laborers to work in the fields, because floods blocked the roads, or because hunger came before their studies. In one class, the initial enrollment was over twenty students, but by the end of the semester, only half remained.
“In the morning, the teacher taught the students, and in the afternoon, he followed them to the stream to catch fish to improve their meals. Recalling those days, I see reality as a dream—a dream I never dared to imagine even during the most difficult times,” said Teacher Dúp, his face still showing the haggard look of months of worry.
He has just been officially appointed as the Principal of Si Pa Phin Primary and Secondary Boarding School.
Teacher Dinh Van Giang started working in Si Pa Phin in 2010, nine years after Teacher Dup. He is from Quang Binh province, and after completing his professional training, he stayed in the Northwest region and became deeply involved with the border area. When Teacher Giang first arrived, the road to Si Pa Phin was still a narrow path created by the villagers going to their fields. There was no electricity and no phone signal. His family back home tried to contact him many times but couldn't, and they could only worry about their son in the remote mountains.
"When I came here to teach, I accepted that shortages were inevitable, but once I got used to it, I no longer saw it as a difficulty," Mr. Giáng said.
During the years of socio-economic hardship, it was not uncommon for students in Si Pa Phin to drop out of school to stay home, look after their younger siblings, or help their parents work in the fields. Some children would go to school in the morning and then have to follow their families to the fields in the afternoon, only returning to class a few days later. Their education was therefore interrupted, and teachers could only try to make up for lost time little by little.
Later, as living conditions improved and the Party and State paid attention to the area, providing many supportive policies, students also attended school more regularly. However, when he and the school received the new school building, Mr. Giang was still overwhelmed. He couldn't believe that a modern school, built to the strictest standards, could be constructed in a place of seemingly endless rolling hills.
"From now on, teachers and students will be under one roof. Not only will we attend classes together, but we'll also eat together and sleep in the same house," Mr. Giang said emotionally.
The Si Pa Phin schoolyard was more bustling on its inauguration day than even a spring market. Giang Thi Mo and Giang Thi Bau, two friends, walked hand in hand, exploring the school grounds. Both sisters live in Phi Linh 1 village, about 4 kilometers from the school. They are students from Tan Phong Secondary School, having been transferred to the Si Pa Phin boarding school.
Mò and Bầu's greatest excitement was being able to live in the boarding school, not having to wake up in the morning while the dew was still falling, lighting a fire to cook rice to bring to school; and not having to eat cold packed lunches or wander around grocery stores eating instant noodles.
The school even has a swimming pool, a football field, and musical instruments that the children are seeing for the first time in real life, not just on TV.
On July 18, 2025, the Politburo issued Notice No. 81-TB/TW, agreeing on the policy of investing in the construction of boarding schools for primary and lower secondary levels in 248 border communes. This is a key task in the socio-economic development of border regions, aiming to improve the intellectual level of the population, the quality of human resources, create a source of local cadres, and contribute to strengthening national defense and security.
According to this plan, in 2025, a pilot project will be implemented to build or renovate 100 schools, with completion required no later than the start of the 2026-2027 school year. These pilot projects are designated as models to serve as a basis for wider implementation, aiming to complete all 248 schools within 2-3 years.
Just nine days later, on July 27, 2025, General Secretary To Lam and the Central Committee delegation attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Si Pa Phin Inter-level Primary and Secondary Boarding School in Nam Chim 1 village, Si Pa Phin commune, Dien Bien province. This first project among 248 border schools carries the responsibility of being a model, exemplary school.
The project is managed by the Dien Bien Provincial Department of Education and Training, with funding sourced from Hanoi City and social contributions. The deadline for completion is before the second semester of the 2025-2026 school year.
Spanning an area of 6.88 hectares, the project includes 31 classrooms, 14 functional rooms, 120 dormitory rooms, 15 administrative offices, along with amenities such as a multi-purpose hall/cultural center, kitchen, bathrooms, swimming pool, sports fields, etc.
Under normal circumstances, a large-scale project like this would take months to implement just one aspect, such as the design. But at Si Pa Phin, the entire process, from topographic surveying, land clearance and leveling, architectural and landscape design, to construction, completion, and equipment installation, had to be completed within six months.
But most importantly, the moment the first strokes of the hoe were made on the hillside in Nam Chim 1 village coincided with the time Si Pa Phin entered its tropical rainy season.
The rains in the Northwest region of Vietnam are already harsh, but the 2025 rainy season is associated with record-breaking conditions. Floods and landslides are widespread from North to South, soaking mountains and hills, causing landslides everywhere. In this remote and isolated border area, where transportation is difficult and everything is scarce, from material resources to human capital, completing the project in just six months is unimaginable and unprecedented in Vietnam.
To meet the project schedule, it was implemented using a design-build approach, requiring close and continuous coordination between the investor, design firm, construction company, and local authorities. Technical plans were adjusted directly on the construction site. Many items were constructed in a phased manner, without waiting for all the documentation to be completed before starting work.
Throughout the construction process, the site maintained between 600 and 800 engineers, workers, and laborers, sometimes reaching nearly 1,000. The construction teams worked continuously in 2-3 shifts per day. The site was brightly lit all night long, with no sleep.
Mr. Nguyen Van Mui, Chief Project Supervisor of Sungroup Corporation, said this was the first time he had undertaken a project with such tight deadlines and demanding technical requirements.
“Implementing the project during the rainy season, we worked day and night, despite 45 days of continuous rain and flooding, right during the land leveling and foundation construction phase, facing the risk of natural disasters at any time. Difficulties piled upon difficulties due to the rugged and fragmented terrain, the arduous transportation of materials, not to mention the challenges in resolving legal procedures and urgently clearing the land.”
"The biggest motivation for us back then was the image of the children and teachers who had endured so many years of hardship, trekking through forests and crossing streams to get an education," Mr. Mui shared.
That spirit of the school builders transformed the impossible into reality. Si Pa Phin School gradually emerged, little by little each day, amidst the rain-soaked forests of Northwest Vietnam.
In January 2026, after more than five months of rapid construction, the school emerged as a grand, spacious, and modern building, surpassing any public school in major cities. Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Hien - Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training - who visited Si Pa Phin on the inauguration day, exclaimed: "Even schools in developed countries are only as beautiful as this one."
The Si Pa Phin border school project is considered a miracle in terms of construction progress given the remote terrain, difficult transportation, and harsh weather conditions. General Secretary To Lam assessed that this spacious, well-equipped, high-quality, safe, and fully functional school, completed in a very short time, is vivid evidence of the spirit of "saying what you mean and doing what you say, and doing it thoroughly."
When the design team began surveying the site for the Si Pa Phin Inter-level Boarding School, the first challenge they faced wasn't the shape or materials, but the terrain. High mountains, steep slopes, complex geology, heavy rainfall, and the constant risk of landslides meant that every decision regarding where to place the building, how high to raise it, and whether to move it further back or forward towards the road had to be carefully considered.
According to architect Tran Nguyen Quang, representing the survey and design unit, the final location chosen had to simultaneously meet several criteria: convenient transportation, minimal land filling, avoidance of areas with watersheds and high hillsides prone to landslides, and access to electricity and water sources.
The design time was shortened to the maximum extent; the entire process from surveying and conceptualizing to detailed design was compressed into just 15 days for basic design and 20 days for construction drawings, followed by parallel implementation on the construction site.
However, the biggest challenge doesn't lie in time, but in the question of how a school can ensure modernity, serving the learning needs of ethnic minority students to the highest standards, while still preserving their cultural identity. That's a difficult problem to solve.
In Si Pa Phin, the students are primarily Hmong and Thai. The design team chose an approach that focuses on local culture by incorporating the lifestyle, spatial structure, and construction experience of the Hmong and Thai people into the entire project.
The school is envisioned as a small village, where low-rise buildings are interspersed, clustered around open courtyards. Playgrounds are divided by age group and activity, creating a diverse and continuous rhythm of life.
According to architect Tran Nguyen Quang, the architecture of border schools needs to ensure two elements: sustainability and local character. Sustainability means using materials that are highly durable, easy to maintain, suitable for the skills of local workers, and even allowing teachers to repair simple items themselves.
The local approach involves adapting to the mountainous climate, learning from folk traditions in layout organization, ventilation, lighting, and building proportions, creating a familiar, home-like feeling for the students.
Therefore, Si Pa Phin School is designed to be an integral part of village life, where students maintain their connection with the community throughout their upbringing. The sports area, multi-purpose hall, and common living spaces are open for the participation of the local people, creating a natural interaction between the school and the community.
Local experience was also thoroughly applied by the design team, such as arranging classrooms along a North-South axis to catch cool breezes, avoiding the scorching hot summer winds from Laos and the biting cold northeast monsoon winds in winter. Every detail, from the restrooms to the dormitories, was calculated based on the actual living habits of highland students of different age groups.
Viewed from above, Si Pa Phin Inter-level Boarding School blends into the verdant landscape of the mountains and forests with its indigenous color palette: the brown of the earth, the red of the bricks, the green of the trees, and the hues of the rocks – colors that seem to have been picked from the skirts of Hmong girls during the Gau Tao festival.
Meanwhile, the symmetrically arranged, multi-tiered roofed houses in the White Thai style in Muong Lay are reminiscent of the geometric patterns on the Piêu scarf. The height-to-width ratio of the houses is taken from the actual stilt houses of the Thai people.
In particular, instead of pushing the building right up to the road, the design team proactively set the school back into the hillside, leaving the space in front for greenery and experimental farming. Over time, trees will cover the empty spaces, allowing the school to gradually "blend" into the forest.
"In a few years, when we return, we hope to see this school nestled in greenery, as if it had been here for a very long time," Mr. Quang said.
At the inauguration ceremony of the Si Pa Phin Primary and Secondary Boarding School, a Hmong student presented General Secretary To Lam with a small bouquet wrapped in light brown paper, unlike any bouquet the General Secretary had ever received before. It was a bouquet from the Northwest mountains, consisting of a white plum branch, a few fern sprigs, two small reeds, a sprig of late-season yellow mustard flowers, and a few wildflowers of unknown name. Within the school grounds, the flowering trees that Party and State leaders planted as gifts for the students were white bauhinia trees.
These are also profound messages about culture and national territorial sovereignty, where each border marker is fully embodied in the school in this remote border region - Si Pa Phin Primary and Secondary Boarding School.
Content: Hoang Hong, Manh Quan
Photo: Manh Quan
Design: Huy Pham
17/02/2026 - 06:00
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/truong-noi-tru-si-pa-phin-ky-tich-moc-len-giua-mua-rung-tay-bac-20260212102330726.htm
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