Using rudimentary boats to get to school, many students in Vietnam who live by rivers and canals face a great risk of drowning everyday.
Vo Thi Muoi, a 6th grader at Khanh An Junior High school in An Phu Ward in the southern province of An Giang, and her sister, who is currently studying at Quoc Thai High school also in An Phu Ward, have to wake up at 4:30am everyday to row to school through flooded paddy fields and dangerous river bends.
Recently, during such a trip, they were swept away when their small boat was capsized by strong winds and heavy rains. However they were luckily rescued.
Mui said her old small boat cost a mere VND100,000 (US$5). “I’m always afraid it’ll capsize,” she said.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Van Giang, Mui’s schoolmate, said since August 15 when their new school year began, she and her friends were twice thrown into water as their boats were overturned.
It takes over one hour for most students in the province to cross the Hau river by ferry boat, and most don’t have life-jackets or self-rescue equipment.
La Van Be, Principal of Khanh An Junior High-school, said around 124 overseas Vietnamese in Cambodia are studying at the school and everyday they use small boats to cross severely flooded rice fields to get to school.
Be said this is every dangerous.
A representative of the department of Education and Training in the central province of Quang Nam told Tuoi Tre on Monday that around 1,000 students in the province have to go to schools by ferry boat.
These include 200 students in Dai Binh Hamlet in Nong Son District where 18 students were drowned in 2003.
In the southernmost province of Ca Mau, around 36,000 students in Ngoc Hien, Dam Doi, Nam Can, and Phu Tan districts use unsafe ferry boats to get to school.
And in Ho Chi Minh City, students in hamlets No. 3 and No. 4 in Hiep Phuoc Commune in Nha Be District, are willing to risk their lives and use the downgraded Rach Giong ferry boat which doesn’t offer enough life-jackets for passengers.
Many students, which are not provided with life-jackets, get on the Rach Giong ferry boat to get to school on September 9, the day to mark new school-year.
Hoang Dung, a 10th grader at Long Thoi High school in Nha Be District, said for the last ten years, this ferry’s owner had only offered life-jackets to passengers when local authorities examine the boat.
Le Van Ngo, Director of Department of Education and Training in the central province of Nghe An, said 2,000 students in the province use ferry boats to get to school.
In the central province of Ha Tinh, thousands of students also take ferry boats to school everyday, risking their lives because they don’t have any life-jacket.
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