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The spirit of achieving education is admirable even though they are poor......

Yearning for higher education
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Not everybody who sat this year’s university entrance exams came straight from school. For some who failed last year’s exams, the key to a better education is to never give up.


Nguyen Van Lam starts work at 7 a.m. at a leatherwear factory in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City. He works until 4:30 p.m. and returns to his room in a boarding house that he shares with seven other workers. The 19-year-old then goes to a nearby market to buy vegetables to cook for dinner. By 8 p.m. he finishes his chores.

The last month has been an important time for Lam who has been working in HCMC to save money to study. The final round of tertiary entrance exams finished Thursday and the ambitious young man from the central province of Quang Tri, who has his heart set on a career in the military, had studied every night after work.

“I’m doing all the reviews on my own, as I can’t afford fees at preparatory centers,” Lam, who recently sat the exams for the Academy of Border Defense in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, says.

According to Lam, his monthly income, including overtime pay is VND1.3 million (US$73.01), but his expenses - rent, meals, electricity and water - cost him VND500,000 ($28.08).

“Doing farming in our hometown [in the central province of Quang Tri], my parents can hardly afford to send my two younger brothers to school, so I can’t ask them for money [to take preparatory courses].

“I have borrowed books and other materials from students living nearby [for studying]. That’s the only way for me to do it,” he adds.

He has been working at the factory since he failed last year’s exams into the Academy of Military Politics so he could save money and prepare for this year’s tertiary entrance exams.

“I want to become an army officer, or work in some field related to the military,” he says.

Like Lam, many candidates who sat the entrance exams into universities and colleges which started early this month and finished Thursday, are not coming straight from high school, but have already gone out to earn a living, while continuing to study with the hope of attaining a higher education.

Determination

Twenty-year-old Nguyen Thanh Tinh has worked for Vina Sung Shin Company for a monthly salary of VND1.5 million ($84.25) since he failed the entrance exams into Nong Lam University last year.

Tinh says he has been working to save money for this year’s exams. The young man from the central province of Ninh Thuan, in fact, spent all his savings of VND1.8 million ($101.09) on a preparatory course at Nguon Sang Center.

Four days a week he rode his bicycle 30 minutes to the center, and spent hours studying at home at night. Tinh says some days he worked for his company into the night, but never skipped studying, as he wants to pass the exams this year.

Le Lanh, who lives with Tinh at a boarding house in Thu Duc District, says: “Tinh takes pains to study... He works making shoe soles which is very poisonous... Some days he looked so pale, but he would study till 3 a.m.”

While studying hard, Tinh tries to save as much money as possible, according to Lanh, saying that he only eats two meals a day and most of them are instant noodles.

Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, who is working at a District 6 embroidery plant, sat Thursday’s entrance exams for Nguyen Tat Thanh College.

Huong says last year she delayed taking the exams, because her parents were too poor to afford it. However, with her savings from working all year, she hopes she can make it this time.

The same story goes for Vu Thi Dinh, who is working in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak for the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

“My family depends on growing coffee on a small piece of land; they have never had much money. So when I graduated from high school last year I went out to work to support them,” says Dinh.

Like many other workers with hopes of a tertiary education, Dinh didn’t have the money or the time to take preparatory courses so she spent the last few months at her desk until the wee hours studying. She hopes to be accepted into Nguyen Tat Thanh College.

Source: Tuoi Tre