VietNamNet Bridge – There are several villages, filled with many people who cannot read, write. Such villages are in the districts in Hanoi, just 70 km from the centre of the city.

Kiem tries to write his name on the paper

When asked if Kiem could write his name, he said that he could with the assistance of his daughter.

Kiem said that he remembers letters and can write both his name and his wife’s name, but addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, the four basic operations, prove to be beyond his capability. Kiem said that arithmetic is more difficult than ‘going fetching firewood in the forest.’

Lai Xuan Vuong, Headmaster of An Phu Primary School, asked: “Your daughter was born in 1999. How can you calculate how old your daughter is if you don’t know subtraction?” - “I count her age every year,” Kiem replied.

Kiem is one of many illiterate people in the Dong Chiem hamlet, where there are 400 families with 1,700 people.

Vuong said that the parents of many students there remain illiterate. Vu Van Chinh, who has been living for the past 60 years, estimated that ½ of residents in the hamlet are illiterate. The same thing is happening in neighboring hamlets and communes.

Meanwhile, the Head of the district’s education and trading sub-department, Dang Van Vien, affirmed: “Our district has universal education. There must not be illiterate people.”

Illiterate people can also be easily met in Khanh Thuong Commune in Ba Vi district.

Nguyen Xuan Hoang, in Khanh Thuong commune, born in 1981, is completely illiterate as he cannot even write his name. Hoang now lives in a 20 sq. m. house with his mother, wife, child and brother.

“I wish I could write my name, my wife’s name and my children’s names. I still do not have a birth certificate for my child who was born five months ago,” Hoang said.

Hoang related that only his elder brother, born in 1975, can write his name and sign documents of acknowledgement of debts.

Hoang and his younger brother are now working for a stone exploitation workshop 2km away from Khanh Truc Bai hamlet. He has to work hard all day, but he cannot calculate how much he can earn in a day. “Everyday I can break up three lorries of rocks and I can get VND 30,000 for each. And I don’t know how much I can earn,” Khanh said.

Khanh related that he rarely purchases meat. “I would pay VND 18,000 if the saleswoman said I have to pay VND 18,000 for 0.3kg of meat, VND 5,000 for every 0.1kg, because I cannot calculate,” Khanh said.

Learning? How to learn?

In the Dong Chiem hamlet in An Phu Commune, besides rice growing, the main career of local residents is fetching firewood and collecting plant leaves and roots to dry for herbal medicine.

Chinh said that the average income of every household in the region is just VND 200-300,000 a month. Local residents are not really interested in studying as they have to spend their time earning a living.

When asked if Hoang goes to class to learn how to write his name and his son’s name, Hoang said: “My most important job now is to earn money to feed my family. I will go to school when we have enough cooking.”

Dinh Gia Tu, Headmaster of Khanh Thuong B Primary School, said that local educators tried to persuade local residents to go to class, but Tu is afraid that the learners will become illiterate again. Even 7^th class students forget how to read and write because they do not work with textbooks after they learn.

In order to go to school, local residents have to go across nine streams and a long road that is nearly 8 km. With such a long road, the literacy of local residents has been dropping along the way.

Cam Quyen