Vietnam - Rural children have nowhere to play in summer

VietNamNet Bridge – In big cities, children have many choices for the summer holiday. Meanwhile, in rural areas, parents feel worried that their children would have nowhere to play.

Summer camps, live skill courses awaiting urban students

The summer holiday would come only in one month, while general schools are still busy reviewing lessons to prepare for the second semester exams. However, Nguyen Thi Mai in Tu Liem district in Hanoi now has to think about where to send the two children to in summer holiday.

There are so many choices for training courses and summer camps for urban children this summer: the leaflets introducing summer training programs have been delivered to her everyday, when she is at the office or walks on streets.

“My daughters are eager to attend summer camps. However, I still need to think about this. I do not have detailed information about the programs, while the costs are very high,” Mai said.

Not only delivering leaflets to parents and students, training centers have also joined forces with schools to bring summer camp programs into schools and turn the programs into official extracurricular activities of the schools.

Nguyen Thanh Nga, Deputy Head of the Ly Thai To High School in Hanoi, also said that there are many invitations for summer training programs, but no agency comes forward and certifies the quality of the programs.

In mid April 2012, the live skill training center belonging to Vietsea Company, launched two summer camp programs named “We are military officers,” which would comprise of seven series, commencing on May 28 and ending on July 14. Every student would have to pay 3,980,000 dong to attend the programs.

4T center in HCM City has also launched a noisy ad campaign for the “2012 eventful summer camp” program with six topics: namely military summer camps, sports, countryside, live skills, job career and international summer camps. The costs are also relatively high between 2 million dong and 4.2 million dong.

Well off families tend to send their children to overseas summer camps. Thien Hung Overseas Study Consultancy Firm has offered the summer camp package in Singapore and Malaysia with the cost of 28 million dong for one week and 47,400,000 dong for two weeks camps.

Explaining the high costs, Nguyen Tung Lam, Deputy Director of 4T Center, said 40 percent of the expenses would be paid for students’ travel, accommodation and meals, the other 20 percent on uniforms and props, while the other 40 percent on other services, including the work of ensuring safety for children.

Rural children lack playing fields in summer

While urban students have so many choices for spending time in summer, rural students do not know what to do when they do not go to school.

Ta Huu Quang, Youth Union’s Secretary of the Hoang Hoa district in Thanh Hoa province, said that rural areas lack playing fields for children. The youth union is the organization which takes the responsibility of organizing summer activities for local children. However, as there are not enough officers and necessary funds; the organization of summer activities still has been depending on the “kindness” of local authorities.

The children aged 10-15 in An Khe commune of Thai Binh province only begins their summer holiday from mid-August, when the new academic year nears. A Youth Union’s officer in the commune said the children do not have any other program except the mid-autumn festival which lasts three days.

Source: Dan Viet

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