Keeping Chut students after long vacation

GD&TĐ - Going to the village, knocking on every door in Rao Tre village (Phuc Trach commune, Ha Tinh) to encourage students to go to school or calling for support for books and clothes - that is how teachers accompany Chut ethnic students before the new school year.

Go to the village, knock on every door

While students in many favorable areas are busy preparing to return to school, in Rao Tre, going to school for Chut ethnic children is still full of difficulties. Although the people's lives have gradually become more stable thanks to the attention of the government, border guards and social organizations, their awareness of studying is still limited. Every summer vacation, there are children who drop out of school and do not return.

Therefore, every year, when the school year comes, teachers in Phuc Trach commune ( Ha Tinh ) begin their familiar journey - quietly going to each house, persistently encouraging each child to return to class.

As one of the young teachers, Ms. Dinh Thi Hai Anh (born in 1998) - a teacher at Huong Lien Primary School, has many times personally prepared small gifts such as candy packages, alphabet boards with vivid illustrations to bring along on "civil mobilization" trips to each Chut household in Rao Tre village.

In the 2025-2026 school year, she was assigned to be the homeroom teacher of Grade 1 - where there were two new Chut ethnic minority students, Ho Dinh Phuc and Ho Quoc Hao. Fully aware of the difficulties in the learning ability of ethnic minority students, she proactively approached and got to know them since they were 5 years old in kindergarten.

After a long summer vacation, many students had forgotten most of the letters, and their learning skills were disrupted. Ms. Hai Anh had to start over by reintroducing the alphabet, helping students get familiar with basic concepts, learning materials, and stimulating their interest in learning.

Not only Ms. Hai Anh, many teachers at Huong Lien Primary School are used to going to the village, to each house to learn about the situation and persuade parents to send their children to school. Among them, Mr. Tran Song Hao, who has been working with Chut ethnic students for nearly 20 years, continues to be the homeroom teacher of grade 3 this year.

New books and clothes come to Chut students before the new school year.

Teacher Hao shared that the biggest obstacle at the beginning of each school year is maintaining student numbers and reinforcing knowledge after a long break. Despite having smartphones and being included in Zalo and Facebook groups, Chut parents still rarely interact with teachers due to precarious living conditions, frequent travel to the forest, and unstable residence. There are cases where teachers cannot contact by phone and have to rely on the support of border guards or village officials to search for and update information.

When they know when parents are at home, teachers immediately visit and talk to them to understand their thoughts and wishes, and check their books and school supplies. To ensure full attendance on the first day of the new school year, teachers have to go back and forth many times, even waiting until late at night to meet with parents. But above all, teachers persevere because they understand that each student who comes to class is a hope to open up a new future for the whole village.

In particularly difficult circumstances, teachers not only mobilize with words, but also provide practical support such as buying books, clothes, and preparing learning materials for students from their own money. Thanks to this dedication, many ethnic minority students not only return to class, but also make remarkable progress in their studies.

Ho Dinh Phuc and Ho Quoc Hao - first grade students at Huong Lien Primary School eagerly wait for their teacher to come and give them gifts.

New books and clothes come to the students.

In the 2025-2026 school year, Huong Lien Primary School is expected to welcome about 217 students, including 22 ethnic minority students - mainly Chut and a few Muong. In order to ensure that all students can attend school, since the beginning of August, teachers have returned to work and have been specifically assigned to coordinate with the village authorities to review the number of students, verify the circumstances of each student, and prepare all necessary conditions for the new school year.

According to Mr. Tran Khanh Tung - Principal of the school, maintaining the number of students at the beginning of the year is a key task, associated with the assessment of the quality of education throughout the year. Although the school's facilities have been invested in and built spaciously, and policies to support ethnic minority students have been fully implemented, economic difficulties, living conditions and parents' awareness are still major barriers.

Most Chut students are children of poor households, with many children, and poor learning conditions at home. That is why the school must constantly mobilize social resources to support students to go to school.

Along with the primary school, Huong Lien Commune Kindergarten also has 18 Chut ethnic students aged 2-5 studying at Rao Tre village school. Here, the local government has invested in building facilities, providing teaching equipment, toys, and organizing boarding meals. Two teachers are assigned to stay in the village to take care of the children every day.

Ms. Dinh Thi Thanh Hoa - Principal of the school said that in order to better support the Chut ethnic students, the school has proactively coordinated with units to mobilize socialized funding to ensure breakfast and lunch for 100% of ethnic students in the first months of the school year. Although the resources are not large, it is a commendable effort in difficult circumstances.

In particular, the role of the border guards in accompanying the Chut students is indispensable. The Rao Tre working group, under the Ban Giang Border Guard Station, always coordinates closely with the school to update the students' situation, repair bicycles for them to have a means of transportation to class, and encourage parents to take their children to school on schedule.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Thien - Team Leader, Ban Giang Border Post said, Rao Tre village currently has 56 students, of which 18 are in preschool, 19 are in primary school, the rest are studying at Ha Tinh Ethnic Boarding Secondary and High School.

“With the close connection between the army, schools and localities, mobilizing students to go to class is more convenient, especially in families that lack attention. We have repaired and refurbished bicycles so that 19 primary school students have a means of transportation to school in the new school year,” Lieutenant Colonel Thien informed.

On the eve of the new school year, Huong Lien Primary School has actively called on organizations and individuals to support ethnic minority students. As a result, the school has mobilized 22 sets of uniforms (summer clothes and winter coats) for Chut students, along with 19 sets of textbooks sponsored by the Ha Tinh Department of Education and Training. However, there are still concerns when the traditional uniforms used for cultural activities and festival exchanges have deteriorated without any source of support to replace them.

On the other hand, the support of 936,000 VND/month for each ethnic minority student is still transferred to the family, while most of the actual study and living expenses are shouldered by the school and teachers themselves.

Despite the difficulties, thanks to the perseverance and sincere affection of the teaching staff, no student has dropped out of school in the past 5 years - that is the proud achievement of these mountainous schools full of love and responsibility.

Over the past three years, the boarding school model at two levels has helped improve the quality of education for Chut students. They are given two meals a day and study in safe and stable conditions. However, to maintain this activity, the schools need more than 100 million VND per year, mainly from philanthropists.

“There was a time when lunch was not sponsored, the school had to cut regular expenses to maintain the model, both to maintain the number of students and to ensure the quality of teaching. The new school year is approaching, the school is coordinating with local authorities to call for support to maintain meals for ethnic minority students,” Mr. Tran Khanh Tung - Principal of Huong Lien Primary School worried.

Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/giu-chan-hoc-tro-nguoi-chut-sau-ky-nghi-dai-post745811.html