While education is compared to ‘human cultivation,' children in the northern province of Ha Giang, one of Vietnam’s poorest provinces, are like buds that thrive each day despite their hardship.
Every day, these children walk several kilometers across streams and hills to pursue their dream of going to school, which is also their daily dose of happiness.
The boarding school model is generating positive results, especially in areas off the beaten track.
There are 160 boarding students at Quyet Tien Elementary School in the province’s Quan Ba District, either because they live far from the school or their parents are too occupied with work to take proper care of the children.
Apart from studying, students are also engaged in extracurricular activities like growing vegetables and raising pigs to add nutrition to their own meals.
However, since it is no easy task to accommodate all students who want to attend the boarding school, remote schools have been established inside the villages to allow every student a chance at education.
Hoa, a teacher at Sung Trai A School in Sung Trai Commune, Dong Van District, said it takes a long time to impart knowledge to students of ethnic minorities.
Below are a series of photos by Vu The Son featuring the school life of children in Ha Giang.
These photos were one of the entries to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper's year-long competition themed “Vietnam – Country – People" concluding in October last year.
Since some villages are too far from the school campus, remote schools have been established near residential areas to make it more convenient for students to go to school. In the photo: a kindergarten class at a remote campus of Sung Trai A Elementary School in Sung Trai Commune, Dong Van District, Ha Giang Province.
Lo Thi Thi, 7, a student at Quyet Tien Elementary School in Quan Ba District, grows vegetables and raises pigs with her friends to improve their meals.
A third-grade student at Sung Trai A School warms his hands before writing on the chalk board due to the near freezing weather in the winter
A class of Ms. Hoa at a remote campus of Sung Trai A School in Sung Trai Commune, Dong Van District
Milk cans are used as water mugs.
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