Invested in and built more than 20 years ago, Phuc Hoa Boarding Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities is currently the only place to receive boarding students of ethnic minorities in the area.
The school is currently in a state of serious disrepair. The boarding area and the main items of the school now no longer ensure the learning and living of students.
According to Ms. Trinh Thi Minh Hanh - Principal of the school, the unit currently has 225 students and 32 staff and teachers.
With only 8 classrooms, each classroom must be arranged with up to 30 students, the area is narrow, not meeting the prescribed standards. The boarding house has 27 rooms but most of them are degraded, from the electricity, water, roofing systems to the windows are damaged, no longer meeting the minimum living conditions.
Recorded on August 26, in the boarding room area, the walls were peeling off many layers of fat, rust and discoloration, creating a rather shabby scene.
In the teaching area, the steps as well as the built walls also showed signs of damage.
Not only that, the school also does not have a public service room for teachers, making it difficult to manage and care for boarding students. Due to limited facilities, this school year the school can only receive half of the applications, although the demand of parents sending their children to school is very high.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Diep, in residential group 6, Phuc Hoa commune, shared: "The family wants to send their children to boarding school from primary school to work away from home with peace of mind, but the current conditions of the school cannot be met.
Many parents in border areas work far away every month, even a few months to return, so they can only send their children to their grandparents".
The reality of deterioration in facilities makes investing in building a new, spacious, large-scale boarding school an urgent requirement.
With the desire to have a new school, and at the same time, it is a step to implement the Politburo's policy on building a system of inter-level ethnic boarding schools in border communes, Cao Bang province is urgently implementing the first steps.
The Phuc Hoa Primary and Secondary Boarding School project was selected as the first project to start construction, expected in September 2025. The new school was built right in the center of Phuc Hoa commune.
The new school is expected to be built on an area of 6 hectares, with 36 classes, 1,260 students, each class has a maximum of 35 students to serve children in the commune and the communes of Be Van Dan, Thach An, Duc Long and Hanh Phuc. The estimated construction cost is about 220 billion VND.
"The total area of land expected to be recovered for the project is 4.56ha, with about 10 households, individuals and organizations affected. The land areas are currently being cultivated by the people for sugarcane and glue. The total cost of site clearance is about 5.58 billion VND" - said a representative of Phuc Hoa commune.
It is expected that in 2026, Cao Bang province will complete the construction of inter-level boarding schools in Phuc Hoa, Tra Linh, Dinh Phong, Trung Khanh, Ha Lang, Truong Ha, Coc Pang, Duc Long, Dam Thuy, Lung Nam, Quang Han, Quang Trung, Tong Cot communes.
