Poor Student Support Deserves More Help

Poor Student Support Deserves More Help

By Quynh Thu

Free meals for students, reads the sign the man in the photo is holding

On the TV screen, Cao Thi Oanh looks like other women in their middle age, speaking with the accent of a northerner. But this Saigonese house owner has been a savior of many poor provincial students who all arrived in the city to take exams they sought to change their life.

These days, Oanh’s new three-story house on Thong Nhat Street, Go Vap District, is turning into temporary accommodation for hundreds of examinees and their accompanying relatives from the provinces. Not only providing free lodging, Oanh also seeks help from philanthropic individuals and organizations to give free meals to the boarders. Retelling her story in a TV show last Saturday evening which featured the higher education entrance examination in HCM City, Oanh said she had borrowed bank loans to rebuild her house. Consequently, Oanh’s refurbished house is able to accommodate some 300 lodgers in the exam time this year, double last year’s number.

And yet Oanh is just one among the contingent of generous benefactors in town who wish to support needy provincial students taking examinations in HCM City. For years, this support—officially named “Tip sc mùa thi” (Help for Examinees)—has become a social campaign not only in HCM City but also in major cities across Vietnam.

Saigon is home to more than 100 universities and colleges where some 330,000 students are studying for their future career. Those higher education institutions are the places of choice for many high school graduates from the provinces, particularly those from the Mekong Delta and central Vietnam. In these poor rural areas, academic achievements pave the way for an escape from poverty and a better livelihood. Parents thus pin all hope on their children who are about to take university entrance exams.

A considerable number of them are poor and the first challenge they have to take on before encountering their biggest academic endeavor is to survive in this city. Moreover, many of the students are first-timers to Saigon. As Vietnam’s most populous metropolis, the city is too crowded, too wide and weird in their eyes. To many of them, lodging, meals and transport in the city during the few days of examination seem to be an onerous burden, if not unaffordable.

In Saigon, the social campaign to help the students has attracted a wide range of supporters, from business executives and ordinary people to university student volunteers. While philanthropists offer the needy students support in cash or in kind, tenants like Oanh give away free or discount accommodations. This year, about 5,000 free accommodations and 25,000 discounted ones are available to examinees from the provinces.

According to the Center for Supporting Students, the official coordinator of the campaign, philanthropic individuals and organizations have this year alone pledged 100,000 free meals, 20,000 free bus tickets, 2,000 packs of instant noodles, plus a number of maps of HCM City and exam handbooks.

Meanwhile, students at the city’s tertiary institutions help by becoming voluntary guides to the newcomers. One of the tasks they undertake is to stay at train, coach and bus stations to welcome provincial examinees and their relatives. On the spot, student volunteers will provide the new faces with any guidance they need. Volunteers also take turns to be available round the clock at key stations. This year, some 17,000 students from universities and colleges throughout the city have registered for the campaign.

During a TV close-up, Cao Thi Oanh said in the first years of her life she was luckily born the youngest child of a happy family. But as she grew older, life got harder and pushed her to the bottom rung of society. When completely down and out, Oanh was supported by benevolent people she had not known before and began to walk her way up again in life. Therefore, she now wants to do whatever she can to help the needy, Oanh told the TV crew.

Some students who were once assisted by Oanh are now returning to arrange things at her house in support of the temporary lodgers. They also transport meals and water to Oanh’s house, and carry examinees to exam locations.
If these students are wholeheartedly helping Oanh at full capacity, others’ contributions are of even greater significance. Giáo Dc TPHCM (HCM City Educational Affairs) newspaper reported about Tran Dinh Chuong, director of a business based in Binh Thanh District. Once a volunteer for this social drive when he was a staff member at the Center for Supporting Students, Chuong is now using the three vacant floors of his office building to accommodate students arriving for examinations. Chuong expects to receive about 300 students this year.
In an interview with the press, Oanh recalled a story that she said has moved her deeply. Some time ago, she received a student who had enough money only for the first two university entrance exams. But she performed badly in both. The student then attached her last hope to the third exam that would give her access to a college if she succeeded. Knowing of the student’s dilemma, Oanh not only kept her in the house but also gave her free meals. The lucky student made it the third time: she passed the entrance exam and is now on her way to finishing the curricula.

Helping needy students from provinces is a worthwhile community task. It enables young talents to continue their academic achievements which would otherwise be wasted. Given the current widespread selfishness across social strata, the support for poor students provided by Oanh, Chuong and other gracious benefactors should receive due recognition and more contributions.