The “drop-out” season has begun in many areas. Students don’t return to school after Tet, while teachers spend time walking long distances to meet students to persuade them to go back to school.

Come and leave

“Our school has resumed operation after the Tet holiday. The teachers have been trying to persuade students to return to class. However, many students only attended lessons for some days and then left.” Nguyen Van Ny, Headmaster of the Ba Xa Secondary School in Ba To district of the central province of Quang Ngai complained.

There are 52 7th graders at the school, but only 15 of them went to the class some day, while only 20 out of 49 8th graders returned to school.

“We have to wander up hill and down dale, traveling tens of kilometers on the forest road to reach out to students’ home,” said Truong Dinh Thuc, a teacher of the school.

“However, when we successfully persuade some students to go to class, other students escape from school,” he added.

It is really a hard job of persuading students in the remote area to return to class. In order to meet students and their parents, teachers have to put off other housework to come to students’ home early in the morning, before the students leave for rice fields with their parents. In many cases, teachers have to stay at the students’ home overnight to wait for the students to return home from the rice fields.

Showing the idle tables in a classroom, Thuc said that there are 43 students in the class. The teachers persuaded 23 students to go back to class some days ago. However, no more than 10 students were present at the class.

“The fact that students drop out after Tet holiday has been repeating for the last few years, despite the great efforts by the educators,” said Nguyen Van Tuan, Deputy Head of the Ba To district’s education sub-department. “We need the support from local authorities and agencies in order to heighten the awareness of parents to attach much importance to their children’s study.”

Pham Van Hien, a student of the 8B class of Ba Xa Secondary School, said that he cannot earn money when going to school, but he can earn 15-25,000 dong a day if he goes working with the parents.

Pham Thi Lam, Deputy Headmaster of the Son Dung Secondary School in Son Tay district, said that the school has joined forces with the local authorities to persuade students to go to school. However, at least 5-12 students have been absent at every class.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Van Anh, Headmaster of the Son Mua Secondary School, said that only 50 percent of students have returned to school.

Vuong Tan Ha, a mathematics teacher of the Son Dung Secondary School, said that when he asked a student why the student had not come back to school, the student answered that he forgot the school day, and so do other students in the same commune. At the high school in Son Ha district, 100 out of 579 students have dropped out after Tet.

According to the teachers, there are a lot of “traps” awaiting students. Many job brokers have arrived in mountainous areas to persuade students to give up schools and leave for the south to look for jobs.

Le Van Tien and Tran Thi Thu Thanh in Tan Binh district in HCM City were discovered as seducing three juvenile Hre minority children to go to the city to work for the family’s street rice shop.

Source: Tien phong/ VNN