Vang Thi Xua, an 11-year-old girl from the Khang ethnic group in Hang A Village in northern Dien Bien Province, has a brother and sister aged four and one. Thanks to new oppor-tunities being offered by the Government in a more prosperous Viet Nam, she can attend primary school. | Xua (centre) helps cook lunch on a brick stove in their simple boarding house next to school. (Photo: VNS) | Had Xua been born a few years earlier, she would have had to stay home and look after her siblings, but her mother decided to do this herself to enable her oldest daughter to get an education. The Khang still practise slash and burn farming. Xua is now in the fourth grade at the only primary school in Rang Dong, a town located deep in a valley run by Phinh Sang Commune. It takes two hours to walk the 8km down a winding path to the school. But as the track is impassable in wet weather, Xua lives with dozen of other ethnic students in a boarding house opposite her school. The accommodation consists of a few rusty, two-level beds. Xua stuffs all her personal gear – a few books and clothes – into an old schoolbag at the corner of her bed. Xua’s daily diet consists mostly of rice and vegetables. At weekends, she treks home to visit her family, returning with a small sack of rice and VND10,000 from her parents. Headmaster of her school, Dao Thi Hue city, said that although the students come from deprived families, they were not considered poor enough to qualify for a monthly allowance of VND140,000. Despite the difficulties, Xua and her friends are determined to study. This puts her ahead of many girls of the same age. Statistics from the provincial Department of Education and Training show that in recent years, only 40 per cent of ethnic girls attend primary school and few reach higher grades. UNICEF reports on welfare The UNICEF report “An Analysis of the Situation of Children in Dien Bien” is among the first in a series of provincial analyses on children’s welfare that UNICEF Viet Nam has initiated. The analyses will contribute to the provinces’ regional five-year plans and annual socio-economic development plans, so that they can develop more child-sensitive and evidence-based approaches to problems. These include the rights to survival, development, protection and full participation in society. This is the first data report that provides a holistic picture of the situation of children issues in Viet Nam. The report will be launched nationally next month. | A report on the situation in Dien Bien conducted by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2009 said that the low transition rate to higher education was holding back the development of many children from remote villages. It also said that girls were likely to be withdrawn from school at an early age to do domestic work – and get married. Twenty-one-year-old Lo Thi Nhinh, also from Phinh Sang is a mother to two toddlers. She said she dropped out of school in the eighth grade, not because her parents forced her to, but because she “answered the call of love”. “The fear of being left on the shelf influences the decisions of many teenage girls. My two sisters-in-law used to be my classmates before dropping out to marry my two brothers,” she said. The UNICEF report said that poverty was the most important reason for lack of education in remote villages. Poor households still depend heavily on child labour and frequently withdraw their children from school during busy farming periods. This creates a permanent backlog in the education of many children – and they often quit school altogether. Nguyen Hai Huu, head of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs’ Child Care and Protection Department, said this pattern was common throughout the northwest. Deputy director of the provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Vinh said Dien Bien was one of the five poorest provinces in the nation. Although poverty has declined from 38.3 per cent in 2007 to 33.6 per cent in 2009, their are wide differences in the rates in the 21 ethnic groups around Dien Bien. Lotta Sylwander, UNICEF’s Viet Nam representative, said there was a great need to reduce income disparities among the different ethnic groups. Deputy chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Pham Xuan Koi said only by promoting economic development, could the province address child issues in a sustainable way. The province’s dissected mountain terrain and weak infrastructure, however, present a tough challenge. Most of the land is steep and rises to 1,800 metres. Koi said provincial authorities would use the UNICEF report to help introduce more child-sensitive policies into the socio-economic development plan during the next five years. Sylwander added: “Now the pressure is on because local authorities know the problem. But much more data like this needs to get out to the people. “They need to know that if they push for better infrastructure and services, they will come.” Xua has a dream of becoming a teacher, a dream shared by many of her schoolmates. They see education as the only way to a better life in a broader, more sophisticated world. VietNamNet/Viet Nam News |