VietNamNet Bridge – The high percentage
of drop-outs cause a headache to the provinces in the central region and Mekong Delta. Many students have given up schools because
they are busy working to earn money for their families.

It has been
one week since The schools in Quang Ngai province have returned to their normal
working after a long Tet holiday. However, hundreds of students in six
mountainous districts, including Ba To, Son Ha, Minh Long, Son Tay, Tra Bong and
Tay Tra, still have not come back to school.

Chief
Secretariat of the Quang Ngai provincial education and training department
Nguyen Ngoc Tuu has confirmed that in these districts, only 85 percent of
students have returned to classes, and that hundreds of students have not
turned up.

Explaining
this, Tuu explains that it is now the harvest season for dot tree (a type of tree used to make brooms), therefore, many
students have to help their families to earn their living. Besides, some other
students want to prolong the Tet holiday, therefore, they have not come to
class. Tuu says that the students will come back to school in the second half
of the first month of the lunar year.

Director of
the Education and Training Department of Binh Dinh province Tran Van Quy
reports that 2000 students in the province have given up school after the end
of the first semester. Especially, high schools have the highest percentage of
drop-outs:1400 students. Their bad results at school and difficult financial situation have been cited
as the main reasons.

Thanh Hoa
province has also reported that many students in the province have given up
school to pick dot and bong lau trees to earn money. These
trees are called by local residents as the “gifts from the forest” and are
harvested only in dry season. Every student can earn 50,000-70,000 dong a day
from picking and selling dot and bong lau, therefore, they would rather
go working than to school.

The report
released by the Thanh Hoa Education and Training Department on February 16
showed that by the end of the first semester of the 2010-2011 academic year,
2000 students had reportedly dropped out. Most of them are living in
mountainous areas. These include 1172 high school students and 841 secondary
school students.

The same is
happening in Mekong River Delta. Teachers in the provinces have to go to
students’ families to persuade parents to let their children go to school. But
without success because most students are still busy working with their parents
to earn the living.

In Ca Mau,
not only students in remote areas, but also those in the city have also given up school. After the
Tet holiday, 240 students of the Ca Mau High School reported that they have to
work for money.

The number
of students at the Ca Mau High School has dropped from 4160 to 3920. The school
headmaster Tran Hong Chau says that the regulation that tuitions for the year
have to be paid in one installment has caused big difficulties for poor
households. As a result, many students have to give up school because they do
not have the money.

In Soc
Trang province, Pham Thi Cam Tu, Headmaster of Nguyen Khuyen High School said
that the number of students has decreased by 4.7 percent. “We have been told
that many students have given up schools to go working,” she says.

The high
percentage of drop-outs causes a headache to many provinces. However, there is
no easy solution because parents say their children need to earn their living
first before thinking of going to school. Some parents have told teachers that
they will only let their children return to school if local authorities give
them rice and cooking.

Headmaster
of Tu Diem Primary School in Soc Trang province Nguyen Van Von said that the
sea water has penetrated the poor district and flooded the farm lands.
Therefore, local residents have to leave villages for other localities to work
for other people. As children follow their parents and drop out from schools.

C. V