QUANG NGAI — Thousands of children in mountainous areas of the central provinces of Quang Ngai and Quang Nam still have to study in temporary classrooms, with a shortage of equipment and teaching aids.

In Quang Ngai Province's Tay Tra District, students even have to study while standing because there is no furniture.

Tra Xinh Primary and Junior Secondary School has four classrooms but does not have a room for the school management board and library.

Deputy principal of the school Nguyen Cong told the Tien Phong (Vanguard) publication that kids were quitting school because of the poor conditions.

Tra Veo Village in Tra Xinh Commune has three classrooms for primary students but they are made from bamboo with tin roofs.

Last school year the classrooms had roofs of canvas and nylon, which made them too hot in summer and they leaking when it rained.

During the summer vacation, a whirlwind swept the classrooms away and they had to be rebuilt by local youth volunteers. Now they don't have furniture.

The classrooms are located near a resettlement area of the Nuoc Trong reservoir project, where construction work on a school is half-completed.

The project management board promised to complete construction before this year's new school year but it was not to be.

Dinh Van Lap, director of the Tay Tra District Department of Education and Training, said the district had more than 20 temporary classrooms.

"I'm not sure when the district will have spacious schools due to the lack of funds although plans to build the schools were set up two or three years ago," he said. Meanwhile in the Quang Nam province, students in mountainous districts, such as Nam Tra My and Bac Tra My, have faced lack of classrooms.

Officials from the Bac Tra My Department of Education and Training told Tien Phong that the district had more than 50 temporary classrooms but 40 of them needed serious maintenance.

Recently Song Tranh 2 Hydro-electricity Project's investor gave financial support to the district to repair classrooms in the resettlement residential quarter, however the district received the money too late to repair them in time for the new school year.