VietNamNet Bridge - Many preschool children stay in classrooms located in dilapidated warehouses while local authorities’ plans for bigger schools remain on paper.

There are three preschool branches in Yen Noi Hamlet in Quoc Oai District in Hanoi. The kindergarten, upgraded from a cooperative warehouse, has 256 children aged 3-5. The nursery school, where 87 children go every day, is a 60 sq meter classroom. 

Since the classroom is too small to arrange furniture, the teachers there have to sit on a foam piece on the ground. When it is rainy and wet, the teachers lay sedge mats for children to sleep on.

The third branch is a place for 50 children. The classroom there is 30 square meters large. They are part of the hamlet’s rice storehouse which has fallen into disrepair. There is a small yard behind the classrooms, enough for a rusty ferris wheel. 

Pham Thi Quyen, who has been working there for 20 years, said on sunny days, 3-4-year old children have to learn lessons in shifts. Some children learn in the classroom for 30 minutes and then leave to give their spot to others.

The classroom was in such bad condition last year that children could not go to school on rainy days, because the roof leaked.

“When it rained suddenly, I had to call parents to pick up their children,” she said.

The children in Luong Xa Hamlet in Chuong My district are facing the same situation. Seventy children go to old classrooms which were once the cooperative’s rice warehouse. 

There are four classrooms there. However, only two can be used, while the other two are unsafe. There is a school yard there, but part of the yard is used as the kitchen.

Local authorities many times promised to build new schools for children, planning projects worth billions of dong. However, it is unclear when the schools will be ready to receive students.

The Yen Noi nursery school project, capitalized at VND14 billion, kicked off in November 2010. Yen Noi’s residents were told that the school would begin receiving students in the 2012-2013 academic year.

However, the local authorities failed to implement the project. The school construction has not been completed over the last five years because of slow disbursement. 

Nguyen Thi Chien, headmaster of Dong Quang Nursery School, said she does not know when the school would be ready. What she knows is that the project lacks capital to continue.

Vuong Manh Hao, deputy chair of the Dong Quang People’s Committee, also said he has no information about capital disbursement, because the Quoc Oai District authorities are the investor. 

Thanh Mai