LookAtVietnam – 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.
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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