VietNamNet Bridge – Even in the capital city of Hanoi are schools with poor infrastructure and material facilities. There is only land for business development, while there is a lack of land for building schools.

Ba Trieu Primary School’s students

Every day, 1,135 students of 27 classes of the famous school have to go to four places to follow their lessons, No 40 Ngo Tram street, 220 Hang Bong street, 23 Nguyen Quang Bich, and 36 Ly Thai To (the Hanoi Children’s Palace).

At lunchtime, over 80 students have to take the bus from the Children’s Palace, and over 120 students walk from Nguyen Quang Bich street to the headquarters at No 20 Ngo Tram street to have lunch.

After lunch, some students take the bus to the Children’s Palace, others are led by teachers to Nguyen Quang Bich street. Meanwhile, 43 students of 1A class, who are learning at No 220 Hang Bong street, do not have an opportunity to have lunch at the school and then continue to study in the afternoon.

6-7 years ago, the city’s authorities planned to expand the campus of the school so that all the school’s students could study in one place, considering this a very important project that needed to be completed before the celebration of 1,000 years of Thang Long-Hanoi in 2010. However, only half of the project is finished.

The Hoan Kiem Health Care centre, which once shared a fence with the school, has moved to another location, giving 534 sq m more to teachers and students of Thang Long School, raising the total area of the school to nearly 1,500 sq m. However, the proposal of ‘building the overall strategy on the school development, which allows 100% of students to learn two shifts a day, remains unanswered.

But the material facilities of Thang Long School are still things Ba Trieu Primary School in Hai Ba Trung district only can dream of.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan went to the school to attend lessons in March 2007.

Teacher Dung, Acting Headmaster of Ba Trieu School, related that there were a lot of visitors from the ministry and Hanoi Education Department. However, as the classroom was too narrow, only Minister Nhan, Deputy Minister Nguyen Van Vong, and the Deputy Director of the Hanoi Education Department could take seats in the classroom, while other visitors had to sit in the corridor.

Students of Ba Trieu School now have to go to five places to follow their lessons. Besides the headquarters at No 31 To Hien Thanh, the school’s students are learning at 37 To Hien Thanh, 173 Ba Trieu and 294 Ba Trieu as well. Moreover, the school has to hire another place at No 118 Trieu Viet Vuong street for the classes of students who learn two shifts a day.

Ba Trieu School does not have a playground for students to play on during break time. For PE classes, students and teachers have to practice on the…pavement.

Though located near the centre of the city, just 2 km from Hoan Kiem Lake, Ba Trieu School cannot enroll enough students. Ten years ago, the school had 713 students, but this school year it has only 279 students.

(Source: Tien phong)