Teachers at Thanh Cong Secondary School in Nguyen Binh District, Cao Bang Province, have managed to get all drop-outs back to class.

“I follow my heart,” says Hoang Vinh Cam, a 59-year-old teacher at Thanh Cong Secondary School, Cao Bang Province. “I tell them, school is like a home for them where they can learn to read and write and make a better life for themselves.”

The teacher says he can’t remember the exact number of school drop-outs that he has persuaded to return to their studies. “But I do know I am always successful,” he says.

Logistics

Cao Bang has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the north of the country – 22 per cent of its population cannot read or write.

“Many communities in the area are scattered and roads are bad, so it is very difficult for kids to get to school,” Cam says.

Thanh Cong Secondary School is on the top of the highest mountain range in Nguyen Binh District’s Thanh Cong commune. The commune is the last locality in the district with no access to the national power grid.

“I once had to climb a mountain road for tens of kilometres to reach a student’s house, so I could convince them to come back to school,” Cam says.

Thanh Cong School can accommodate 150 students, but it recently built a boarding house to accommodate students overnight.

A lot of kids from the Red Dao ethnic group are usually absent from school, says headmaster of the school, Hoang Thi Vang.

“This is mainly because their families are very poor and their communities depend a lot on old customs and rituals.

“When I ask them why they often skip class, they say things like ‘I had to help my mother find a lost buffalo, or ‘I couldn’t leave the house, because it was the festival of the wind.”

Catch 22

Gradually, as students miss more classes, they find it impossible to catch up and so decide to drop out. Vice principal Ngan Ba Em admits it’s a challenge to keep class numbers up.

“Long distances between their homes and the school and the lack of boarding facilities are our biggest problems,” he says.

The issue is so pressing that the school management board has to hold a meeting every week to review the situation and draw up measures to get kids back to class.

Cam is always the first to volunteer to visit students’ homes and persuade them to come back, headmistress Vang says.

“He is so enthusiastic and understanding. There is a real rapport between him and the students, they form a strong attachment to the school.”

In one case, a seventh grade student, Xiet, was absent from school for a month, but her parents did not know she was not attending. Cam found out the girl had been playing truant because she was finding it difficult to understand the lessons.

“I skipped school several times, because I was scared of math and English,” she says.

“But I talked to teacher Cam, and he convinced me to go back. I’m not afraid of classes anymore.”

Cam has also managed to persuade other teachers at the school to run extra lessons for students who are struggling.

“It’s important to instill in the children the idea that learning is very good for you,” Cam says. “What will their future be like, if they do not learn how to read and write? It’s my responsibly as a teacher to help them, I’m not an exception.”

VietNamNet/VNS