While new school year ceremonies for the 2019-20 academic year were organized across Vietnam on Thursday, few could be as special as the one held atop central Vietnam’s highest peak, attended by fewer than 40 students and teachers.

Just like schools nationwide, a small school in Tak Po, a small village located at an altitude of 1,000 meters above sea level on Ngoc Linh Mountain in Quang Nam Province, also kick-started the new academic year with a simple ceremony on September 5.

Thirty-four students and two teachers attended the event, and photos of the ceremony only show a stark contrast to how the ceremonies are held in the lower lands.

Due to its distant location and tough living condition, there is only one school in Tak Po Village, enrolling children from kindergarten to elementary ages, who are members of Ca Dong, a Vietnamese ethnic group residing mainly in Nam Tra My and Bac Tra My Districts in Quang Nam.

It takes about two hours to travel a ten-kilometer distance from the village’s center to the rudimentary school, built from woods atop a hill in Ngoc Linh Mountain and which is only accessible by foot.

A small school is located on a hill on Ngoc Linh Mountain in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, September 5, 2019

Despite all the obvious difficulties, the school’s only two teachers, two young women in their twenties, managed to give their 34 students a memorable school-year opening festival just like what most of their peers across Vietnam were able to enjoy that day.

Tra Thi Thu, 25, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that she and her colleague, 23-year-old Riah Uoi, had to get up from 4:00 am on Thursday to set things up for the ceremony, including preparing flowers and leveling the ground in front of the school.

The efforts paid off when the young teachers saw their children, with innocent, unwashed faces, coming to the school, bringing along flower branches their parents picked from home as a decorative present to their teachers.

Tra Thi Thu takes her students to a hill on Ngoc Linh Mountain in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, September 5, 2019

The school-year opening ceremony was carried out amid the green, foggy scenery and cool temperature of the early morning in Tak Po, with simplified procedures.

Thu conducted a flag-salute ceremony and read a congratulatory letter by Vietnam's State President to students nationwide, as well as expressed her wishes and expectations for the new academic year to the little children.

The teachers and students then posed for a group photo.

Thu sent some photos of the ceremony to Tuoi Tre, which got its published online on Thursday, attracting many supports from readers for the teachers and students in Tak Po.

“How simple yet lovely and cozy this school-year opening ceremony was!” a Tuoi Tre reader commented.

Below are some photos provided to Tuoi Tre by teacher Tra Thi Thu.

Riah Uoi and her students attend a flag-salute ceremony in Tak Po Village, on Ngoc Linh Mountain in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, September 5, 2019

Riah Uoi and her students attend a flag-salute ceremony in Tak Po Village, on Ngoc Linh Mountain in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, September 5, 2019

Tra Thi Thu speaks at a school-year opening ceremony in Tak Po Village, on Ngoc Linh Mountain in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, September 5, 2019

Tra Thi Thu and her students pose for a photo on Ngoc Linh Mountain in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, September 5, 2019

Ca Dong students pose for a photo on Ngoc Linh Mountain in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, September 5, 2019

Ca Dong students attend a school-year opening ceremony in Tak Po Village, on Ngoc Linh Mountain in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, September 5, 2019

Tra Thi Thu and her students pose for a photo on Ngoc Linh Mountain in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, September 5, 2019

Tra Thi Thu takes her students to a hill on Ngoc Linh Mountain in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, September 5, 2019

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