Many children in the remote mountainous Tra Don Commune of Nam Tra My District in the central province of Quang Nam are struggling at school, after being given responsibility by their parents to look after younger siblings. 

A teacher at Tra Don Commune Semi-boarding School recently posted on his Facebook account photos showing some of his eight-year-old pupils attending classes with their younger siblings in a humble classroom. 

The teacher, Tran Van Tuan, said that his class at Village 5 have more than 10 pupils most of whom are from poor ethnic minority group families who lack books and warm clothes. 

"Due to the small number of pupils here, my class includes pupils from grade one to three," Tuan said. "Although life is very difficult here with a salary of just VND2.6 million (USD115) a month, I still want to stay here to teach the children." 

Speaking with Dantri/DTiNews Newspaper on January 10, headmaster of Tra Don Semi-boarding School, Nguyen Anh Tuan, said that the school has 14 classes with a total of 520 pupils and 45 teachers in different villages.

"The class at Village 5 is among eight classes with most pupils from poor households," Tuan said. "The village lies in a remote area which has no road so we haven't been able to upgrade the already deteriorating class over the past 15 years. Meanwhile, most of the local people here are poor farmers who can’t contribute to the construction."

 Eight-year-old Ho Thi Nhung carries her eight-month-old sister to class at Tra Don Semi-boarding school in Quang Nam Province.

Another seven-year-old student takes care of her baby brother in class

Pupils have to borrow books from their teacher  

Pupils of different grades in one class 

Dtinews