Sharing difficulties, giving opportunities for students to go to school

With the care and sharing of the entire political system and society, many poor students have reduced some of their difficulties, gained more confidence and motivation to enter the new school year, and continue their dreams of conquering the future.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Pham Tan Hoa (5th, from left) awarded scholarships to disadvantaged children sponsored by a petroleum company in Binh Hiep commune.

"Wings" of dreams

Student Huynh Hong Nguyen (residing in Khanh Hung commune) is confident in studying at Long An College thanks to the care and support of the school and local authorities.

Coming from a near-poor household, Huynh Hong Nguyen (residing in Khanh Hung commune) clearly understands that only by studying can he escape poverty and have the means to help his parents take care of his 5 younger siblings.

Through research, Nguyen realized that vocational training is both cost-effective, has a short study time, and makes it easy to find a job after graduation, so right after graduating from high school, he registered to study at Long An College - Main Campus.

The day he received the acceptance letter, his family was both happy and worried. They were happy because he was gradually realizing his dream, but also worried because they did not have enough money for Nguyen to cover living expenses for the entire 3 years of college.

Nguyen shared: “When completing the admission procedures, I shared my family situation with the Student Affairs Department of the school. Through that, the school created conditions for me to stay in the dormitory with a room rent of 80,000 VND/month; completed the documents and procedures to receive living expense support of about 6 million VND/year; issued a certificate of studying at the school to borrow capital from the Social Policy Bank (SPB) from the Student Loan Program; supported many scholarships,... In addition, I also took advantage of my time to work part-time to earn income to cover my living expenses. Now, I have entered my second year of study and am confident in completing my program because I know that on the journey to find knowledge, students with difficult circumstances always receive support from many people."

Le Thi Yen Vy (residing in Tan Thanh commune) has the opportunity to go to school and fulfill her dream of attending university thanks to the student loan program.

Similar to Nguyen, Le Thi Yen Vy (living in Tan Thanh commune) is worried about whether she will have enough money to cover the costs of studying Environmental Resource Management at university. At this time, many people advised Yen Vy to drop out of school and go to work as a factory worker, because her family's economy is difficult, her parents are old and often sick, and dropping out of school halfway would be a waste of money and time. Despite all the difficulties, Yen Vy still asked her parents to let her continue pursuing her dream.

Mr. Le Trung Quan (Yen Vy's father) confided: "Seeing that my child is so eager to study, it would be a pity to let her drop out, but if I let her continue studying, I'm afraid she won't be able to afford it and will drop out halfway. While struggling to figure out what to do, the commune created conditions for the family to borrow capital from the Student Program from the Tan Thanh Social Policy Bank Transaction Office. For the 2024-2025 school year, the family was able to borrow 40 million VND to help reduce the pressure on tuition fees, only worrying about living expenses. Yen Vy is also aware that her family is in difficulty, so after school, she takes advantage of working part-time to earn income to cover her living expenses."

The student program of the Social Policy Bank is a "lifesaver" and "wings" for thousands of students in difficult circumstances to go to school.

Tran Ngoc Ngan (living in Tan Tru commune) lost her mother. Ngoc Ngan and her sister can only rely on their father with his salary as a factory worker. Although still young, Ngan is always aware of the family's hardships and difficulties. Perhaps that is why, at the beginning of the new school year, Ngan never dared to ask her father to buy new clothes, only wearing her older sister's old clothes. For the 2025-2026 school year, Ngan received a scholarship of 1 million VND from the Provincial Children's Support Fund. With this money, she asked her father to buy new uniforms and books for both sisters.

Ngan excitedly said: “This school year, my whole family is happy. My siblings and I have new clothes, and my father has reduced the burden of expenses at the beginning of the school year. I promise to try to be good and study well so that in the future I can have a stable job to take care of my father.”

Community responsibility

Infantry Company 8 maintains the model of Helping Children Go to School

On the eve of the new school year, while many families are busy preparing necessary items for their children to go to school, for families in difficult circumstances, preparing necessary conditions such as clothes and school supplies for their children to enter the new school year becomes a concern. In order to promptly share the difficulties of poor, near-poor households, and families in difficult circumstances, all levels, sectors and the whole society have had many practical activities.

Senior Lieutenant Nguyen Nhat Nam - Political Commissar of Infantry Company 8 (under Defense Zone 4 - Tan Thanh), informed: "In addition to carrying out assigned political tasks, the unit also maintains the model of Helping Children Go to School. Every year, the unit supports 4 preschool children, 1.2 million VND/child per month, the funding source is taken from the amount of increased production. These children all have especially difficult circumstances such as being orphaned, living with grandparents, belonging to poor or near-poor households, etc. The model is both meaningful in accompanying poor children and educating soldiers about the spirit of sharing with the disadvantaged in society."

In the 2025-2026 school year, Vo Van Kiet Primary and Secondary School (Binh Hiep Commune) will have nearly 400 students enrolled, with 13 classes (including 8 primary classes and 5 secondary classes). Determined not to let students drop out of school due to difficult circumstances, the school's Board of Directors will review and classify students to have timely support measures.

Principal of Vo Van Kiet Primary and Secondary School Lai Thanh Thien Phong shared: “The school has tried to mobilize funding sources, mobilize philanthropists, and teachers in the school to give scholarships and textbooks to students. Specifically, the school has 12 students who have just received scholarships, each student 1 million VND and 20 notebooks; mobilized 2 scholarships for 2 students from poor households, each scholarship 6 million VND,…”.

With easy loan conditions and preferential interest rates of about 6.6%/year, the Student Program of the Social Policy Bank has become a "lifesaver", "giving wings" to thousands of students with difficult circumstances to go to school. As a result, up to now, the whole province has outstanding loans of more than 2,000 billion VND, helping more than 30,000 households borrow.

Deputy Director of the Provincial Social Policy Bank Nguyen Thi Anh Hong affirmed: “In recent times, the Provincial Social Policy Bank has proactively coordinated with local authorities, associations and unions to effectively implement credit policies, including preferential credit for students. Through monitoring and review, most borrowers have used the capital for the right purpose, contributing to helping students in difficult circumstances continue to go to school for a better future.”

In the 2024-2025 school year, Long An College Youth Union awarded 60 scholarships, worth more than 42 million VND, to students in difficult circumstances.

In 2018, Long An College implemented the Scholarship Fund model to help and support students in difficult circumstances to continue going to school; promoting the spirit of "mutual love and affection" to educate students' personality.

Conditions for receiving scholarships: Students must be poor, near-poor, disabled, or orphaned (or have a certificate of hardship from the People's Committee of the commune where the student resides); have good training scores or higher; participate well in activities launched by the School Youth Union.

Funding source: For students, contribute 1,000 VND/month; for officials, civil servants, and workers, mobilize 5,000 VND/month. Every month, depending on the actual situation, at least 5 scholarships will be awarded, each worth 700,000 VND.

Secretary of the Youth Union of Long An College Tran Nguyen Truong Tri said: “In the 2024-2025 school year, the Youth Union will award 60 scholarships, worth more than 42 million VND to students in difficult circumstances. Although the model is small, it has received positive contributions from officials, employees, workers and students of the whole school. In the coming time, the Youth Union will expand the target of fundraising from companies and businesses that are cooperating with the school. Hopefully, the Youth Union will continue to receive the cooperation and contributions of many people to increase from 5 scholarships to 10 scholarships, helping many disadvantaged students to confidently go to school.”

The 2025-2026 school year has begun. We believe that with the shared responsibility of all levels, sectors and the whole society, there will be no cases of students dropping out of school or dropping out midway because they do not have money to cover the expenses at the beginning of the new school year./.

Le Ngoc

Source: https://baolongan.vn/chia-se-kho-khan-trao-co-hoi-cho-hoc-sinh-den-truong-a201856.html