VietNamNet Bridge – Thousands of students from flood stricken areas in Phu Yen and Binh Dinh provinces are returning to empty schools.

Students of Hoi Phu School clean their class to prepare for lessons. Photo was taken on November 12

Phu Yen: high percentage of drop-outs warned

Tuoi tre reporters, who visited primary schools in Tuy An district in Phu Yen province on November 12, reported that many schools in the locality still had not resumed classes. An Thach School yard was still full of soil and stones.

Teacher Nguyen Si Hiep fears that a lot of students may give up learning. “Many families have members dead in the flood, others have collapsed houses while assets have been swept away by the flood waters. Therefore, they have no urgency to bring their children to school,” he said.

In Song Cau Town, six schools had reported that they still could not resume classes. Other schools have restarted classes, but they still have few students.

According to Nguyen Hue city, Head of the Song Cau Town Education Sub-department, 6,300 students from 16 schools have lost textbooks and learning aids and still cannot go back to school.

In Dong Xuan district, most of classrooms were severely damaged. Some schools in the district have lost everything to the floods.

Pham Ngoc Hoa, deputy head of the Dong Xuan district Education Sub-department said students are called to return to class next week, but he fears that teaching and learning will still face difficulties due to the poor conditions.

Binh Dinh: Teaching in tears

Tuoi tre reporters related that the first image they saw when returning to schools in Binh Dinh province one week after the floods, was that of thousands students in schools but with no textbook. Some students brought flood damaged books to schools. Some others did not wear uniforms but instead were in old clothes because they lost uniforms.

One woman of a first grade student of Nhon Phu Primary School, said that at first, she told the son to stay at home for a fewmore days so that she can borrow money from relatives to purchase textbooks. However, the son insisted that he wanted to go to school immediately.

When Tuoi Tre reporters arrived in Nhon Phu school, teacher Huynh Thi Kim Thanh started her first lesson.

The first question from Thanh was how many students had houses flooded. All 45 students raised their hands.

Thanh asked students if they had any cooking to eat in flood day. Students mostly answered that they had no meals for more than one day until they got instant noodle from relief workers.

“I have never before seen students going to classes in such poor conditions in the ten years since I began working as a teacher,” she said.

At Nhon Binh Primary School, reporters witnessed teacher Ngo Thi Le Hoa writing on the blackboard while drying tears. Meanwhile students struggling to write on wet notebooks.

VietNamNet/TT