Temporary Classrooms for Poor Students in Ha Giang Province

Pupils in a poor village in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang are in need of financial support to replace their current compacted-earth built classrooms. Over the past 16 years, whenever it has strong wind and heavy rains, six classrooms in Na Quang Village have their roofs blown off. They are part of Bat Dai Son Primary School in Quan Ba District. It took DTiNews 13 hours to travel rough roads by car to the classrooms in Na Quang Village which is located on a mountain. Built from compacted earth by villagers, the wall of the classrooms have many cracks and the building lacks foundations. The classroom roofs were replaced with asbestos-cement in 2006. However, the roofs have still been blown away by strong wind and heavy rains. When rain leaks in, teachers and pupils have to relocate to the kitchen to keep warm, teacher Lo Thao Tuan said. Among six classrooms in Na Quang Village, two are for children aged from one to five and the rest for primary students. All children of the classes are from the Dao ethnic group. Teacher Nguyen Thanh Binh, deputy headmaster of Bat Dai Son Primary School, said that “We’re scared on the quality of the classroom at Na Quang, so we’ve moved a number of pupils to the main school site to learn, which is up to 10km from the village. This has caused difficulties for parents and children.” Binh hopes that the school will receive financial support from donors to build new classrooms in Na Quang Village. (http://dtinews.vn/en/news/020/48660/temporary-classrooms-for-poor-studen... Dec 20)