VietNamNet Bridge – Southern provinces have been witnessing the impressive economic growth in recent years. However, it seems that the localities are too busy building industrial zones, while not paying attention to developing nursery schools.

“I watched TV some days ago and I heard that a babysitter maltreated a baby. I feel worried about my child,” said Nguyen Thi Nga, a worker in Bien Hoa 2 Industrial Zone in Dong Nai province.

However, it seems that Nga and many other workers in the industrial zones in southern provinces do not have other choice. They still have to bring their children to private run nursery classes instead of schools, because there are not many schools in the localities.

Old women now work as baby-sitters

Nga, who comes from Thanh Hoa, is now working for a factory in Bien Hoa 2 Industrial Zone. Nga lives with her husband and child in a rented room in Long Binh Ward. She brings her child, only 8-month old, to a class run by Nam La, a 60 year-old woman.

The woman is looking after five children, including Nga’s, who is the smallest one. The oldest child among them is two years old. All of the children are the children of the workers who rent rooms in the area. La related that some years ago, when her health was better, she could look after 7-8 children at the time.

In Trang Dai Ward, Lan and her son have to get up early and leave home at 6:30 am. Lan has to go to the factory, while her son has to go to class. Bin, Lan’s son, is three years old, and he related that his classroom is in Sau’s house, and there are three friends in the class.

Lan has been bringing Bin to the Sau’s class since Bin was seven months old only. In fact, Lan wants to take Bin to a nursery school, but she cannot. The problem is that both Lan and her husband have to work in shifts in factory and they cannot arrange time to take their son to school and pick him up after.

Other workers also say they cannot take their children to nursery schools because of the problems working schedule. Meanwhile, nursery schools in localities do not accept the children of less than 18 months. As the result, the only choice for workers is to bring their children to privately run classes, where there are only one “teacher” and several “pupils”.

In fact, the “teachers” here are just baby-sitters, because they cannot teach anything, they simply look after the children. The “teachers” are mostly old women, , who set up classes right at their homes.

In recent years, Dong Nai province has developed tens of industrial zones. All the districts, towns and cities in the province have industrial zones, attracting 278,000 female workers in childbirth age.

Education socialization – when?

According to the Dong Nai Education and Training Department, the number of children who need to go to nursery schools is very big. Meanwhile, there is only one state owned nursery school or kindergarten in every commune. As the result, many children cannot go to schools.

Chu Nhu Y, a senior official of the Dong Nai Education and Training Department, said that a legal document released in 2002 stipulated that efforts need to be made to upgrade facilities at nursery schools in remote areas. Therefore, Bien Hoa City has not had other new school in recent years. The city has to call for education socialization, i.e. using the money from different sources in the society to develop schools.

It seems that very few enterprises pay attention to developing schools for their workers’ children. In Dong Nai province, only Phong Thai group has built a nursery school in Trang Bom district for its workers’ children. Tin Nghia Company has presented two schools to Long Thanh and Nhon Trach districts as gifts.

Source: Tien phong