In harmony with the excited atmosphere of students across the country, young children in Vinh Thuc island commune (Quang Ninh), about 20km from Mong Cai center, are also ready to enter the new school year.
Sharing about the journey of "sowing literacy" in remote islands, Ms. Hoang Thi Thu - Principal of Vinh Thuc Kindergarten said that on the island commune there is only 1 kindergarten with 3 school sites. In addition to the main school site, there is also one site in Vinh Trung village, one site in Cua Dai village about 15km from the center and only about 20 students. The school's staff includes 48 officials, teachers, and staff, meeting the scale of 14 groups of classes. In the 2026 - 2027 school year, the school plans to mobilize 382 children.
Ms. Thu said that besides the advantage of being supported in all aspects by local leaders, departments, branches, and unions, from facilities to people, the school also faces difficulties in mobilizing preschool children to go to school. People in the island commune mainly live by farming and fishing, many parents do not really value preschool education. Some parents are still hesitant to send their children to school because their families are large and travel is difficult.
To change parents' perceptions, "going through every alley, knocking on every door", mobilizing parents to take their children to class is a regular task of teachers as well as departments, branches, and unions. Our school is mostly local people, in which the two vice principals are both local people, so exchanging and mobilizing parents is also quite convenient. The school only has 3 management and accounting staff from the mainland," Ms. Thu said.
With Quang Ninh's specific policies, students are supported with lunch, tuition fees, school milk, and in the near future, children aged 3-5 will also be supported with material money... at the beginning of the 2026 - 2027 school year, parents have been very active in taking their children to school. "I hope that in this school year, when parents change their perceptions, the rate of parents sending their children to class will also reach over 90%," Ms. Thu added.
Not only kindergartens, education work at Vinh Thuc Primary and Secondary School also faces some limitations. Mr. Khong Duy Phong - Principal of the school said that parents often go to work all day, so the management, care, education, and reminding of students to study at home are still limited. In addition to studying, students have to stay at home to help their families, provide economic support, and even take care of and pick up their children from school, so they do not have much time for studying.
The island commune area is far from the center, roads are difficult to travel, the rate of secondary school graduates going to high school is not high, only reaching 70-80% annually. The staff and teachers are mostly from the mainland to work, so the school also has difficulty in arranging travel, eating, sleeping, and resting for teachers," Mr. Phong said.
Despite some difficulties and limitations, the school's facilities and teaching equipment are still being invested in, contributing to improving the quality of education, ensuring the maintenance of primary and secondary education universalization at level 3, literacy at level 2, and maintaining national standard schools at level 1. To date, 100% of schools in the area have achieved the national standard school target.
In the 2025-2026 school year, the school also achieved many achievements in exams. At the excellent student exam, the school won 2 third prizes; at the cluster-level English Club competition organized by the Department of Education, the school won the third prize overall; at the national online English Olympic competition, the school had 1 student participate and won a Silver medal...
In the 2026 - 2027 school year, the school will improve the application of information technology, digital transformation in schools, STEM education and forms of education to supplement students such as life skills education; implement legal regulations such as traffic safety, security and order, fire and explosion prevention and injury prevention in schools.
