School dropouts scavenge unexploded war bombs in central Vietnam

HANOI, Vietnam - Attracted by rising prices for scrap metal, students have been dropping out of school to scavenge unexploded ordnance near Vietnam's former demilitarized zone, an official said Thursday.

Since early March, 24 students ages 11 to 15 quit Cam Tuyen secondary school in the Cam Lo District in Quang Tri to scavenge full time, said Nguyen Van Binh, the district's deputy director of the Education Department.

The students, mostly from poor families, have started searching for scrap metal in nearby hills where land mines and unexploded ordnance still litter the landscape nearly 30 years after the Vietnam War ended, Binh said.

Scavengers often trigger blasts by handling such ordnance, which kills or maims dozens of people each year.

Binh said district authorities have sent representatives from the district People's Committee and the Education Department to the students' homes to urge their parents to send their children back to school. Six have returned to class and district authorities are considering offering aid to the families, he said.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/.../8437591.htm?1c

Go back to school!

aw ... poor those kids.

How can they go back to school when they can't afford to go to school in the first place? Poor kids.

What do you mean they can't afford to go to school? Aren't the school public? I didn't even pay a cent to go to high school here. I thought Vietnam's education is the top priority, and kids should go to school from elementary to high school, and that is a requirement!

These kids are poor, but they can still go to school. They just need money, that's all. They should go back to school!

Dude, education is not free in Vietnam. I've known several people when I was there 2 months ago whom couldn't continue their education due to couldn't afford the montly fee of $300,000 or something.

That's gotta be college dude. There's no way people should pay to get a high school, middle school, or elementary school education. The government is responsible for this.

Should doesn't equate to reality. Education is free and compulsory for the first 5 years. This is Vietnam you're talking about, not a Western country with a well developed welfare system.

I don't know dude. I believe Vietnam's education system is free from elementary to high school. But if it's not, then I'll be...

no, school fee in hs/elementary school in vn isn't that expensive (in rural area).. but the required books/notebooks and stuff is a bit more expensive.. but there are ppl who can't even afford them..

Of course I want Vietnam to have a free education system from primary to tertiary, but that is not the case because the country can hardly afford it at the moment. Education was not free even at the primary level but the government changed that to free. Let's just hope in the few years time secondary will be free as well. But looking at the literary rate of well over 94%, it is a darn good job for a third world country.

If you want further proof then do a round of google.

Okay, so it's not free. But it's also not expensive. Hmmm... we got a problem for some people here.

It is not expensive to us but it is for them. An average Vietnamese only makes around 600,000 in the city and 200,000-300,000 or even less in the rural areas. Sending their children to school beyond elementary is a very big commitment.

WTF?! $300,000??!! Per month ???!!! That's just impossible.

LOL. That's Vietnamese Đồng DaMo.

Sure, Vietnamese make that much USD a month. Heheheeh...

lol.. i thought u were saying that it's too little.. but then i look at the $ .. lol.. 300,000d = ~$30

Can somebody do the math?

300,000 divided by 15,000 = ???????

Too lazy to use my brain...

That's not alot eh? I spend twice that much when going out with friends.

'sokay Chuong, that's how much u must spend with the money you made here... but twice that much.. spender

I spend 1 dollar a day.

But then again I don't go out that much these days since uni. I do help out at the family business to earn some extra money.