Drop Out Situation Ha Giang
TABLE OF CONTENT
1.INTRODUCTION 2 1.2 BACKGROUND 2 1.3 RESEARCH TOPIC 2 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3 2. THEORETICAL DEFINITIONS 3 3. METHOD & METHODOLOGY 3 3.1 TARGET GROUP 4 3.2 SAMPLING 4 3.3 METHODS APPLIED & ISSUES ENCOUNTERED 5 3.4 ETHICAL CONCERNS 10 4. SUMMARY RESEARCH 11 5. TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS 16 6. RECOMMENDATIONS 17
1. INTRODUCTION
For twelve days in March 2013, one student form SGS and one from FIS, performed a minor field study in the third village of Nam Dich. This has been a part of a course that has been composed through collaboration between the faculty of Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg and the faculty of International Studies at Hanoi University. The course is an opportunity for the students to perform a minor study within a subject that they find interesting in the local context of Nam Dich. In doing this the students have had the opportunity to use different academic methods in collecting data and also assess how they as researcher relate to ethical and methodological concerns.
1.2 BACKGROUND
Ethnic minority group’s makes up for 15% of Vietnams total population, but they are still representing 47% of Vietnams poor. According to the World Bank report, poverty in Vietnam is still closely linked to low education attainment. The report also states that the enrolment in primary school is high and at the same level across different social categories. When looking at the lower secondary school, the figures change, the minorities have a tendency to drop out, especially if they are within the category of poor or extreme poor (WB. R 73, 76). In Ha Giang province education is seen as an important aspect of development but the enrolment continuously drop after primary school and few pursue higher education (Jörgensen, 2006, 139-141). Our field research has taken place in the third village of Nam Dich within the ethnic minority Tay.
1.3 RESEARCH TOPIC
The multifaceted aspects of why dropouts occur are the core issue in our field report. Assessing the different reasons why the children are not able to succeed within the education system is important seen to the broader context presented above and something that caught our attention during our first stay in Village 3 of Nam Dich Commune. Central in the report is what kind of possibilities that are presented to the children. How do they percive their opportunities and what effects do that have on their ambitions? Therefore our research also includes assessing the parents and teachers perspective in relation to what the children wants. This means that the report will take into account the perspectives from children, parents and teacher with a common focus to understand hindrance for succeeding in school. Also a big focus of ours is to assess the opportunity and will of the children.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The reports main research questions are: * What are the most common obstacles preventing secondary children within Tay minority, in village three of Nam Dich commune, from continuing with secondary school or move on to higher education? * How do the children review their opportunities in compared to the parents perception?
2. THEORETICAL DEFINITIONS
To put our topic and research in a broader theoretical context we have chosen to assess our findings from the capability and functionings approach (Tikley, Barrett).
We choose to understand capability as the opportunities of realising different functionings that an individual value for one self. Capability here is not understood as skills but rather freedom and opportunity for these children to make use of their own assets as individuals into achievements or outcomes within the school system (Tikley, Barrett).
Functionings is understood as states and activities that constitute a person. To simplify, we will use these terms to look at opportunity to achieve and the actual achievement. Our main focus is the children’s perspective and what they tell us about what they would like to pursue and if it’s within the educational system - and then assess their possibility to do so. (Tikley, Barrett).
3. METHOD & METHODOLOGY
The team has been collecting qualitative data as a part of conducting social research. The field studies was structured in the following way, four days on location in Nam Dich and then go back for reviewing and writing the research plan before heading out again for eight days. Since neither team member had any clear idea or local knowledge of Nam Dich beforehand we decided to have an inductive approach. This meant that the team basically assessed what ever information that was presented by our immediate surroundings over dinner, small talk or by observations during the first four days. After reviewing our data and impressions after the first period, the team became interested in education issues and drop out tendencies. This led the team to a change their approach to a more deductive one. The team now worked with the notion, or idea, that this phenomenon is recurrent; that it is a problem and that the study was centralising around collecting empirical data concerning the obstacles for children in continuing with education - and also assess how they themselves review their opportunities (Mikkelsen, 168).
One other very important aspect and one that the team has been constantly aware of is how us posing as researchers, or just our persona, has a direct impact on our surroundings. Not just that the team work with a conscious or sub-conscious pre-understanding, that affect them when reviewing collected data. Mikkelsen explain this about empirical data collected in general, the respondent’s answers are always adapted to us as receivers and therefore have a direct inflict on what kind of results our study will find (Mikkelsen 177).
Another methodological concern is the fact that the study was conducted in Vietnamese. Only one out of two speaks Vietnamese and even that part of the team had trouble in the interview situation at times, since the village members often spoke in Tay domestically. This means that the data is translated from Vietnamese into English and that can lead to misinterpretations and misrepresentations. The research might have lost a dimension of the respondent’s discussion because of this. Therefore the researchers are open to the possibility that the some findings could be misunderstood or that some aspects are not visible.
Because of all these methodological concerns the team has tried to work with triangulation, as to not be dependent on a single method, theory or data (Mikkelsen 96).
3.1Target group
The team has chosen to answer the research questions from three different perspectives; teachers, students in secondary school and their parents. This because we try to assess the capability and functionings perspective from the child’s point of view, but the other two groups are still vital in deciding or affecting the child.
3.2 Sampling
The research team have done necessary sampling decisions to be able to have a narrow focus. It is only children within Tay in secondary school from the third village of Nam Dich the report concern. The team chose children in secondary school because primary or high school will not be appropriate due to following reasons:
1. Children in primary school might not be fully aware the distance between their hope, dream and reality and therefore have not started to assess their actual possibilities. The choice of continuing their education is still to far away.
2. Students have to pay tuition fee to go to high schools.
3. Students in secondary schools probably have the ability to view their dream or hopes and relate contextualise them.
The reason why the report only concerns Tay within the third village is access; the research team was placed in a host family in this neighbourhood and they are Tay. In locating these children the team have taken help from the host family who wrote a list of Tay families which have children in secondary school in the third village. Our sampling concerning which parent to interview was random. This has to do with the problems in locating family members. The team visited as many households as possible but whom we were able to talk to depend on the possibility of locating family members. Often the family is out during the day, especially the women; the team had much easier finding dads. This has not to do exclusively with the aspect of locating it is has also a gendered dimension. The team member who conducted the interviews was a man and it became harder to access the female sphere. On the other hand, it was easier to access the male sphere, but because of this dilemma we have chosen not to conduct conscious gendered sampling. Whenever an interview was conducted the team tried harder to locate that particular respondents parents or children. The team wanted the perspective from different members within the same family, because it resonance better with our analytical tools.
The teachers were chosen randomly by asking who had time and desire to help us with our research. Our only requirements were that they worked as secondary teachers in the secondary school of Nam Dich.
Sampling is always unruly and random. That of course always affects the result. To clarify, we are not trying to do any generalisations or presumptions about dropouts in the commune of Nam Dich or even the third village. As researchers we acknowledge that the answers to our research question are probably multifaceted and that a very short field report will not take into account all possible explanations, aspects or opinions.
3.3 Methods applied and issues encountered
The research team applied three different methods while in field, besides observation. We performed semi-structured interviews, structured interviews and PRA ranking exercises. What kind of method we chose had primarily to do with what kind of information we were gathering. We have numbered our target groups 1-3. 1. Children 2. Parents 3. Teachers
Our interviews are numbered 1-10 in an time orderly fashion.
Semi structured interview
We performed seven semi-structured interviews with fifteen different people. Some of these were group interviews. Since we had three different target groups, our interview structure differed. Only with two of these groups did we conduct semi-structured interviews, the children (group 1) and the parents (group 2). We chose this method in hope of being able to spur up a more open and less affected interview session. Our aim was to make the respondents feel comfortable and safe.
Group 1
Our interview structure for the children was centred on three themes, studying situation, purpose of education and parents sentiments. The themes were an attempt to centralize our main question from different aspects. How they themselves assess their own situation in relation to school/studying/ability and what they want to do in relation to their parents wishes. This is directly related to capability/functionings and we will come back to our analytical discussion under tentative conclusion.
The team often opened with small talk and questions about family to make sure that the interview situation wouldn’t feel as awkward. In the initiation of the interview we tried to start up with quite general question and try to stir it to the subject matter. Under these themes we had prepared a couple of sub questions. They were for the team to fall back on if the interview didn’t run as smoothly as one would have wished. These sub-questions evolved during our stay. This has to do with experience; it took a few interviews before the team started to understand what kind of context that was of interest to decipher in hope of grasping the situation. For example; under the theme studying situation, we asked questions like the following: 1. What kind of chores do you perform at home besides going to school? 2. Do you often raise your hand in the classroom?
Our intention with question A was to understand the amount of work they perform on a daily basis. This gives us further understanding about ability when we discuss with group 2 or 3. Often group 2 and 3 say that school or continuing school depends on the child’s potential. The potential of the child is directly linked with work amount, hence the relevance of question A. Question B was an attempt to see if they feel comfortable in school and/or if they do their homework. Something that often came up in our interviews was that sometimes children stay home from school when/if they haven’t done their homework or did not understand the lesson they had the day before. This is because of the risk of not passing the teachers questions.
One big methodological problem for our interviews was to get the respondent to feel comfortable. This was especially hard when approaching group 1. It was a lot of factors that influenced the situation and often made the respondent very nervous. The most prominent was often the research team itself, as foreigners, as a man or woman, our seniority etc. These are factors that weigh very heavily when we assess our interviews. That’s why in our resultant part we will depend profoundly on observation as a way to triangulate the answers. One example of an extreme situation was respondant from interview number 10. The repondante was so uncomfortable that the team took a decision to change the semi-structured approach to a more structured one, in a vain attempt to collect any data. This interview is therefore not classified as a semi-structured interview.
Group 2
The interview structure for parents was centred on four themes; general views of education, factual knowledge about education – opportunities etc., expectation on their children, why children stop coming to school and their recommendations for support. The team tried to get their perspective in relation to their children’s expectations or dreams and understand their sentiment about education, which is directly linked to their children’s opportunity.
Initially in the interview the interviewers often had to go around the subject matter and approach the question carefully, this is due to being polite and an attempt to get the respondent to start talking by her or his own accord. A very thankful way of get the conversation flowing was to begin by asking about their children and then continue from there. Another approach was to actually state our main research question quite upfront but phrased in as a very general matter. The question is quite general in it self and are therefore an upstart for talking about a lot of different aspects of barriers in relation to education.
Our goal was to talk with both mum and dads but more often it was the dad we could get a hold of during daytime. In interview number 1, the team were able to speak to a mom alone. She was very uncomfortable and the interview did not go as planned. By observation we can conclude the respondent felt that she could not answer adequately and expressed a concern about not answering correctly. The respondent did not maintain eye contact while talking and had a tendency to become distracted by her son. The team felt that they had failed her in that perspective that the situation had made her feel inadequate. This is something that the team are very well aware of when assessing the answers and also an experience that stayed with us in the continuation of our field research. Within the category 2 the team also managed to have three group interviews. They were in fact rather unintentional but non the less a very welcome addition to our report. Two were initiated when we came to visit the parent and that person had guests who participated in the conversation. This mean that the group involved were not all part of intended target group. This opened up for a more general conversation about education and development for the village in general. The third group interview (number 8) was with a mom and dad. To be able to interview both parents was for us a great advantage. Not just in getting answers from both parties, but also the possibility to observe the interaction between them while answering. The mom in this scenario was actually a teacher in primary school. She lead the conversation around education and the team also choose to ad questions that were used in informant interviews with teachers to further take advantage from her experience as both a teacher in our area and parent. It was first when we approached development questions that the husband also got more deeply involved in the conversation and their perspective actually differed on the subject matter.
The research encountered numerous methodological difficulties with group 2. The most prominent were; lack of interest in the subject matter, the interview situation made them uncomfortable, alcohol intoxication, answering what they think we want to hear rather than what they actually believe. An example of one of these issues was in conversation with a semi-intoxicated respondent in interview number 2. The respondent told us that his son always had to put school first, that he was suppose to do at least two hour of homework everyday and first after helped with the domestic work. At the same time the time saw, by observation, his son ploughing the field just outside the house. In addition to this, the day after the team walked with the boys from our village to school and this particular respondents son were missing due to farm work. Central here is awareness that sometimes the answers were adapted to us and are misrepresentative of what’s actually going on.
Structured interviews
Only three out of our ten interviews was structured interviews. As previously mentioned this was due to methodological problems with interview number 10. The research team applied structured interviews with teachers, group 3 (number 3 and 9). This was a decision in accordance with using them as informants rather than respondents. The team had quite specific questions and that makes a more structured interview more ideal. With that said, the team still got very broad, insightful and interesting answers from interview number 3. It was in some aspects easier to talk in a more direct way with the teachers because they had no difficulties grasping the concept of being interviewed. Also the more formal approach felt more apt as we foremost asked them about information from their perspective as teachers. The team’s questions were centred on the problems with dropouts and absentee in general, from their perspective as teachers in secondary school. They differed vastly in their answers. The respondent from interview number 3 gave a very long and problem-raising answer which was confirmed of the mom/primary teacher from interview 8, but the second teacher from interview number 9 was very evasive, saying that no such problems existed. The team choose to evaluate these differing answers by relate them to what information we been gathering through out our interviews with all target groups. No one else of our respondents have made such a statement when discussing our subject matter, the village leader in interview 7 did say the situation has become better but nothing about the problems non-existence. This was one of our first questions in our interview with respondant number 9 and his answer became a huge methodological problem since our following questions was concerning that our subject matter was an actual problem. The research team then had to try and approach the subject from a different angle and tried to ask about absentee and the educational level in general. Even though the team did not get answers in relation to the actual problem or his opinion of the matter, his silence or reluctance still speaks for it self, and the team has been assessing this more under observations.
Ranking
In all three of our group interviews the team were able to perform ranking exercises. Why we chose to do ranking exercises in our group interviews was because it became a shortcut in inviting our participants to a broader discussion and reflection. Using ranking in the one on one interviews is something the team should have given more consideration. According to Mikkelsen it is a valuable method when seeking the background or information concerning peoples attitueds (Mikkelsen, 90). But at the time the teams assessment of the if/when/how concerning ranking often fell to mere chance and if it felt suitable for the occasion. The team used ranking exercises in an emancipatory fashion, asking the participants to name the four key aspects for the development of their village. The answers from the participants were then written down on different sheets of paper and the team asked them to rank them 1-4, where one is the most important. In one case this was done orally. This was a good way for the research team to assess what is the most important for them when it comes to development questions, which relates to our background and the broader context of the World Bank report about how poverty in Vietnam is still closely linked to low education attainment. They were not asked to put education as one of the key aspects though; this is also a methodological consideration and an attempt to try and see if/how they perceive education as a development factor for themselves. This exercise often spurred a broader discussion, the problem was just that the participants chose do this in their mother tongue, Tay. This made it impossible for the research team to actually understand how they’re reasoning before the provided answer. In one case (number 5) our respondents were a father and four sons, whereof one of the sons was our intended respondent. In their discussion it became quite obvious, despite them speaking in Tay, that it were the father that had the final word in the conversation. He and our intendent respondant were the ones who discussed intently while the other three were quiet or just made a small comment. Using discussion to understand or to get answers is always problematic, since it will always be the person or persons that feel free to speak up who will be heard. The research team is therefore fully aware of not being able to understand everyone’s individual opinion and will not use the ranking data as to make any generalisations. It was still a valuable method because of its effectiveness in get a discussion going, but it is very clear that the information needs to be supplemented with observation.
Observation
Observation has been a very effective method when assessing our data. What we have been told have often differed with what we have observed, and therefore it has had complementing our data. In some cases it also an effective tool when understanding our respondents better, there interaction as a group, sentiments towards us, or intoxication are all methodological considerations. Observation has been a vital part of the experience for the one team member who does not speak Vietnamese. While the FIS student function as both the interviewer and translator is fully engaged in the conversation, the GUS student is free to make thorough notes and pay more attention to what is not said but implied by the social interaction between the respondents or the respondent and the team itself. It is also these observations and contradictions that have become the foundation of our analytical discussion in our report. Methodologically though we are fully aware that our observation are subjective and that we might over interpret situations because of our own pre-understanding. This is a great disadvantage but it can also be seen as an advantage, having the outside and looking in perspective can lead to new insights. Still it is important to emphasize that observing social situations as an outsider under a very limited time gives us no right to make general assumptions. The team it self will also have an effect on the social environment created and observations therefore always be touched by our presence.
3.4 ETHICAL CONCERNS
Performing field research within a development context is always difficult. Many of the team’s respondents expressed their hopes for this research to lead to change. Mikkelsen discusses development work and how/if change and intervention in the name of development is all that it is said to be (Mikkelsen 333). Are there positive forces in doing this research or does it (very unintentionally) just highlight and therefore deepening the social stigmatization by labelling this group as excluded? In doing this report the team might enhance the notion of them being perceived as different or a burden. This is of course not the reports goal or our intention; therefore it is important to start a transparent discussion of the team as researchers and the unintentional consequences of participation in the larger context of development field studies.
4. SUMMARY RESEARCH
Group 1
The research team performed three interviews with children. Two of the respondents were boys, and one was a girl. All three of them go to the secondary school Truong Tieu Hoc & Trung Hoc Co So Nam Dich.
Studying situation
The general studying situation for our three students showed some common features. All of them have the same road to school, but different means of getting there. No one actually complained about the distance, but one mentions that she gets very tired. They all need to go up around 5 am. One respondent can sometimes borrow his families motorbike and are therefore able to sometimes sleep an hour longer. All of them put about one to two hours on homework. Two say that they can get help from their parents, but one of them put it like this; she can get help, she needs help, but she doesn’t ask her parents for it. The parents to the third respondent don’t have the ability to help him, his mom speak Vietnamese very poorly. In school all three state that they only occasionally raise their hands and that they sometimes think it’s hard to understand the teacher. All three of them still like school both for knowledge but foremost for being able to meet their friends. All three of our respondents know about other people who have dropped out, this is due to different reasons. The respondents name marriage, distance between home and school, family situation or money as common obstacles. Also many don’t come regularly due to farming or customs. Besides school all three have different responsibilities at home, this include; feed the animals, herding the buffaloes, do the dishes or ploughing rice fields. Here one of them differs markedly, he had a lot more chores and the other two - they did not mention herding or ploughing.
Viewing this from a capability approach the workload at home and the long road to school are two external factors that circumcise these children’s ability to utilize their education. This in it turn does that it hinders them to make use of functionings they might value for them selves. Functionings or being able to utilize what ever functionings they wish mirror the potential freedom they have within the reach of their own capability.
Purpose of education
All three respondents think that education is important, but it is in some aspects a bit unclear why. The team tried to ask them in what way it is important and we got some varied answers. One says that education is important because it brings knowledge, but when asked what he will use this knowledge for, he answer that he will apply it for his homework. Another also expresses that he knows it is important, but he is unsure why. This effect the opportunity to achieve the functionings wished and that circumcise their capability to achieve or generate valuable outcomes for them as individuals. Two of them want to continue to higher education, but the third state that it depends if his parents wants him to or not. One of the boys wants to become a policeman; and the girl says she wants to be a teacher. The second boy says he wants to become a farmer, because that is how you make a living, but when asked what he prefers to do a regular day, farm work or go to school, he states that he rather go to school.
Parent’s sentiments
The two who wants to continue to higher education are unsure what their parents wants, even though one states that his dad wants him to become a doctor. The third respondent says it’s up to his parent’s decision if he will continue or not, and he is not sure what they want him to be.
Group 2
The research team performed five parent interviews, with twelve different respondents. Not all of these belonged to our target group but they still contributed to the discussion.
General views of education
Overall the view of education is positive, all our respondents think it is important and speak very highly of it. It is seen as a way to further development, in all our ranking exercises it was seen as one of the four most important aspects, although infrastructure (road building) and irrigations was seen as more important. Education was often ranked as number three or four together with health and sanitation. In the development discussion a lot was said, but foremost about the necessity of good roads. That can be related to one of the obstacles talked about when it comes to education, the poor road conditions when the children walk to school.
Factual knowledge about education: opportunities etc.
Many of our respondents seemed to believe that education can lead to other opportunities, but it was a bit unclear of what kind or how. Some mentioned state enterprises or other positions in the commune or just knowledge and other benefits. Not many from the village go to high school, but all the respondents knew about at least one. The village leader (interview number 7) said it was three in total who were enrolled at the moment and that an additional three in the village had high school diploma. The ones with a diploma were working, one as the local policeman and the other two as farmers.
The mom working as a teacher (number 8), the village leader (number 7) and the respondent from interview number 5 was most aware of the perks of education and also the ones who spoke the most of its importance.
Expectation on their children
All respondents had different expectations on their children. Many emphasised that they wanted their children to continue to higher education. One mom, did not have an educated background but she stilled wished education for her daughters – but it dependent much on their own potential. Overall many assessed it from a potential point of view, education is expensive and seen as an investment for the family. That means that if the daughter or sons don’t excel early on in school their opportunities to continue are slim. Many of the respondents also expressed that what the child wanted to do also is taken into account to some extent. But most central when it comes to education is the different costs. Even in secondary school (not tuition fees, unclear what kind of cost, hard to get a straight answer) this is seen as a problem and later in high school the child has to move into a dorm, since the high school is far away, at the parents expense. In interview 5 we had the opportunity to speak to parents with a son in the special ethnic minority secondary school in Huang Sofie. The son was on a scholarship from the government that he had earned by being an excellent student. He was only allowed to visit his parents once a month according to school policy.
Why do children stop coming to school
All our respondents had much to say about why children stop coming to school, and it can be summarised in these six points: * Poor family conditions * Live far away * Don’t understand the role of education * Language problems * Problem with self-studying * Lack of ability
All assessed the financial aspect as very problematic. Next was the road condition and distance. The erosion of the road makes parents sometimes afraid to let their children walk in bad weather. Some children are afraid of walking the long way alone and therefore choose to stay home. Many families don’t understand the point of education; it has been presented to them in an unintelligible way. The parents have a low education level and are not able to assist their children with homework or the children don’t have time to do it. Lack of ability is mentioned as a fact on its own and not seen as a consequence of other barriers. If the children don’t have ability they will not be able to continue. The primary teacher/mom also mentions customs.
Their own recommendations for support or how to remedy the situation
Almost all of our respondents think that governmental support is necessary, especially concerning the road issue. Some of the respondents think that families should get financial support and encouragement.
Interconnection with the children’s opportunity and the capability approach
The general view and expectation of the parents says a lot you assess the children’s capability, understood as the potential freedom to achieve their wished functionings. Evan if the parents view education as something of importance and positive the questions still remains if they actually make it available for their children. This has more to do with what kind of other obligations they put on them, and of course if they can support them, both financially and with their homework. It is also of vital importance to review the parents overall understanding concerning the purpose of education. This is another dimension of the hindrance for continuing school; it is not physical but social.
Group 3
The research team performed two informant interviews with teachers from the secondary school in Nam Dich.
Respondent from interview number 3
Sometimes the kids don’t come regularly because of the distance. There is also a general lack of understanding the importance of coming. The respondent tells us that she tries to tell the children why they should come. At harvest time it’s even harder for the kids to show since the family need them for farm work.
The level of concentration is low and the states the main reasons behind this as: * The conditions in the families, not enough to eat, and when the weather is bad – not enough clothes. * Many children are ethnic minority so their limited access to information technique makes it harder to teach them. * The distance from home to school.
The school get limited support; in the winter the kids receive one winter overcoat from donors, but its used and often in bad condition or quality, so it doesn’t keep them warm outside or in class. The respondent sees effort, but very limited. She is also aware that many of the children gets up really early to eat breakfast before school, about 4.30 am, before walking to school. The government also provide some support like money for lunch or building dorms for accommodation, but the family or village must put up the rest of the costs. Also if the student stays in a dorm, they don’t have time to help their family with the workload.
We asked her if she could name some resounds why children stop coming to school. The respondent name these as the primary ones: * Ethnic minority don’t understand the role of education fully. * Their own custom, early marriage and so on. * Their life conditions are not so good.
To remedy the situation the respondent think the need is to: * Enhance quality of life * Sustainable conditions with the families so they let their children go to school * The government should provide propaganda to promote education as a road for the ethnic minorities – they do not fully recognise it. * The government should discourage the ethnic minorities from bad customs (namely early marriage). * Make effective investment on school infrastructure.
Respondent from interview number 9
The respondent has been working in the secondary school for two years and according to him there have been no dropouts since he started teaching. He does notice absentees, the short-term perspective of children not showing up for school. This happens because of the different customs, but the children always come back. The very few children who are sometimes absent are always ethnic minority, they live furthest away. They can sometimes also be absent because of farming.
The concentration level is about 30% of the capacity of city students according to our respondent. This has to do with the road conditions – which tiers out the children on their way to school and their limited access to information (he does not specify what kind of information).
The government support them with different materials but whether it’s enough he is not sure. He states that “I’m not a student, so I wouldn’t know” (Interview 9, 2013).
The respondent is Tay and born and raised in Ha Giang, he also studied here. When asked about his own suggestions concerning keeping kids in school, he says that he have just been here fore a very short time and doesn’t know. He thinks that cooperation between the schools, family and government could help, for example phone contact with the parents. When asked about families understanding of education he explains that he cannot answer this, because every family has different ways of thinking.
Interconnection with the children’s opportunity and the capability approach
The hindrance mentioned from group 3 is consistent with what has been previously mentioned from both group 1 and group 2. What the group 3 interviews has contributed is widening our understanding about the social exclusion that can be stigmatizing in some aspects. The teachers are in this case talking about the non-access to information technology or Internet. Children in this area, and especially from the ethnic minorities, can from these hinders have difficulty to utilize the knowledge presented. The third aspect is also the language barrier. All three of these aspects are things that contribute to social exclusion and making it harder for them to assess their own capability or the freedom of opportunity to achieve what they think is important. This exclusion also contributes to lack of opportunity presented; it closes the door without it ever being opened.
5. TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS
There are no easy answers when assessing the reports conclusion. * What are the most common obstacles preventing secondary children within Tay minority, in village three of Nam Dich commune, from continuing with secondary school or move on to higher education? * How do the children review their opportunities in compared to the parents perception?
The answers to our research questions are multifaceted and relates to both physical and social barriers. The physical obstacles create the social ones in some ways. The distance or being overworked is not just a physical challenge; the effects are also that the student finds it more difficult to utilizing their education. This in its turn creates poorer grades that make the parent see the child’s education as a bad investment. Struggling in school has also the effect that the children themselves feel un-confident and need extra support. This support is supposedly to come from parents that might not even have the ability to help because lack of education.
The problem with sufficient means to afford an education one of the clearest obstacles found. This was something that everyone mentioned. The effects of this are of course further social exclusion
and lack of opportunity to change ones situation. But an interesting conclusion the team also notice is that money is not the solution to remedy the situation alone, lack of understanding for what the education is for also play a role in determining of continuing school. Implementation of primary education in society overall have been successful in Vietnam, but on a grass root level it seems like not everyone is fully aware of its utilization or see it as an resource (WB, 73). This dimension also contribute to a continuing of the social exclusion and (coming back to our discussion from summary research group 3) making it harder for them to assess their own capability or the freedom of opportunity to achieve what they think is important. As previously stated, the door is closed without it ever being opened. 6. RECOMMENDATIONS
The dropout situation is not clearly illustrated quantitatively due to the results we collected from the three target groups. It is one of the driving forces that prolong the low enrolment in higher education among people in Nam Dich commune. However, all informants really want the secondary students to follow higher education because that is good for them and let them access and be well recognized of their own capability.
The low level development in Village 3 is one of the main reasons that constraints the access of secondary students to school. Specifically, many house holds make their own living through doing farming without modern machines and it is obvious that the manual working requires many labour forces and children are no exception. The government should help household by supplying fertilizer, agricultural technical support, seeds to sustain their living.
Road conditions are not good. In order to go to school on time, the children often get shortcut which is very bad and often get worsen if it is rainy in spite of the fact that very small part of road is cement. Currently, the government provides theconstruction materials such as sand, cement and the technical supervisor to make sure that the cement road is well-finished. In addition, the local people cooperate as the voluntary workers under the government supervision to complete the road. However, many parts of road in village 3 leading to the centre of the Communce Nam Dich in which the secondary school located is incompleted due to the lack of investment. Hence, our recommendation is that the government will continue to provide financial support for this project to finish the road as soon as possible and the involvement of local people in completing the road should be carefully considered and well- respected.
Vietnamese is the second language. As far as we know, children was taught ethnic minority language when they were small in the family. After that, they were taught Vietnamese in kinder garten and primary school. The problem is that if students are not good at Vietnamese in primary school, they cannot study well in secondary school. Hence, our suggestion is that government should pay more attention to enhance the Vietnamese teaching in local areas. We hope that the kindergarten in Village 3, Nam Dich, Hoang Su Phi, Ha Giang near our host family house will be completed soon.
Presently, the primay school in Village 3 Nam Dich only receives the children from grade 1 to 3 equivalent to 6 to 8 yearsold with 3 classrooms. In order to make ease for the children at grade grade 4 and 5 who have to go to Nam Dich to study, from Mr Xien’s perspecive, primary school should be upgraded. We strongly agree with his idea. Further more, according to Ms Suong, information technology is an essential factor the empower the access of secondary students to their “capability”. The secondary school should have two or three computers for teaching
It can be seen that the role of education is not well-recognized by all the children. For example, Xoan – 13 yearsold – grade 7 understands that education is very important but he does not know why and how. In addition, Tuyen recognizes the importance of education but he will apply the knowledge from school to do his homework. The two examples show that partly the children do not know deeply why their presence in school. It can be explained that their awareness towards education is not good but the other explanation may come from the inefficent activities of local government and family in promoting the role of education and help children to visualize their studying to reality.
1.INTRODUCTION 2 1.2 BACKGROUND 2 1.3 RESEARCH TOPIC 2 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3 2. THEORETICAL DEFINITIONS 3 3. METHOD & METHODOLOGY 3 3.1 TARGET GROUP 4 3.2 SAMPLING 4 3.3 METHODS APPLIED & ISSUES ENCOUNTERED 5 3.4 ETHICAL CONCERNS 10 4. SUMMARY RESEARCH 11 5. TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS 16 6. RECOMMENDATIONS 17
1. INTRODUCTION
For twelve days in March 2013, one student form SGS and one from FIS, performed a minor field study in the third village of Nam Dich. This has been a part of a course that has been composed through collaboration between the faculty of Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg and the faculty of International Studies at Hanoi University. The course is an opportunity for the students to perform a minor study within a subject that they find interesting in the local context of Nam Dich. In doing this the students have had the opportunity to use different academic methods in collecting data and also assess how they as researcher relate to ethical and methodological concerns.
1.2 BACKGROUND
Ethnic minority group’s makes up for 15% of Vietnams total population, but they are still representing 47% of Vietnams poor. According to the World Bank report, poverty in Vietnam is still closely linked to low education attainment. The report also states that the enrolment in primary school is high and at the same level across different social categories. When looking at the lower secondary school, the figures change, the minorities have a tendency to drop out, especially if they are within the category of poor or extreme poor (WB. R 73, 76). In Ha Giang province education is seen as an important aspect of development but the enrolment continuously drop after primary school and few pursue higher education (Jörgensen, 2006, 139-141). Our field research has taken place in the third village of Nam Dich within the ethnic minority Tay.
1.3 RESEARCH TOPIC
The multifaceted aspects of why dropouts occur are the core issue in our field report. Assessing the different reasons why the children are not able to succeed within the education system is important seen to the broader context presented above and something that caught our attention during our first stay in Village 3 of Nam Dich Commune. Central in the report is what kind of possibilities that are presented to the children. How do they percive their opportunities and what effects do that have on their ambitions? Therefore our research also includes assessing the parents and teachers perspective in relation to what the children wants. This means that the report will take into account the perspectives from children, parents and teacher with a common focus to understand hindrance for succeeding in school. Also a big focus of ours is to assess the opportunity and will of the children.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The reports main research questions are: * What are the most common obstacles preventing secondary children within Tay minority, in village three of Nam Dich commune, from continuing with secondary school or move on to higher education? * How do the children review their opportunities in compared to the parents perception?
2. THEORETICAL DEFINITIONS
To put our topic and research in a broader theoretical context we have chosen to assess our findings from the capability and functionings approach (Tikley, Barrett).
We choose to understand capability as the opportunities of realising different functionings that an individual value for one self. Capability here is not understood as skills but rather freedom and opportunity for these children to make use of their own assets as individuals into achievements or outcomes within the school system (Tikley, Barrett).
Functionings is understood as states and activities that constitute a person. To simplify, we will use these terms to look at opportunity to achieve and the actual achievement. Our main focus is the children’s perspective and what they tell us about what they would like to pursue and if it’s within the educational system - and then assess their possibility to do so. (Tikley, Barrett).
3. METHOD & METHODOLOGY
The team has been collecting qualitative data as a part of conducting social research. The field studies was structured in the following way, four days on location in Nam Dich and then go back for reviewing and writing the research plan before heading out again for eight days. Since neither team member had any clear idea or local knowledge of Nam Dich beforehand we decided to have an inductive approach. This meant that the team basically assessed what ever information that was presented by our immediate surroundings over dinner, small talk or by observations during the first four days. After reviewing our data and impressions after the first period, the team became interested in education issues and drop out tendencies. This led the team to a change their approach to a more deductive one. The team now worked with the notion, or idea, that this phenomenon is recurrent; that it is a problem and that the study was centralising around collecting empirical data concerning the obstacles for children in continuing with education - and also assess how they themselves review their opportunities (Mikkelsen, 168).
One other very important aspect and one that the team has been constantly aware of is how us posing as researchers, or just our persona, has a direct impact on our surroundings. Not just that the team work with a conscious or sub-conscious pre-understanding, that affect them when reviewing collected data. Mikkelsen explain this about empirical data collected in general, the respondent’s answers are always adapted to us as receivers and therefore have a direct inflict on what kind of results our study will find (Mikkelsen 177).
Another methodological concern is the fact that the study was conducted in Vietnamese. Only one out of two speaks Vietnamese and even that part of the team had trouble in the interview situation at times, since the village members often spoke in Tay domestically. This means that the data is translated from Vietnamese into English and that can lead to misinterpretations and misrepresentations. The research might have lost a dimension of the respondent’s discussion because of this. Therefore the researchers are open to the possibility that the some findings could be misunderstood or that some aspects are not visible.
Because of all these methodological concerns the team has tried to work with triangulation, as to not be dependent on a single method, theory or data (Mikkelsen 96).
3.1Target group
The team has chosen to answer the research questions from three different perspectives; teachers, students in secondary school and their parents. This because we try to assess the capability and functionings perspective from the child’s point of view, but the other two groups are still vital in deciding or affecting the child.
3.2 Sampling
The research team have done necessary sampling decisions to be able to have a narrow focus. It is only children within Tay in secondary school from the third village of Nam Dich the report concern. The team chose children in secondary school because primary or high school will not be appropriate due to following reasons:
1. Children in primary school might not be fully aware the distance between their hope, dream and reality and therefore have not started to assess their actual possibilities. The choice of continuing their education is still to far away.
2. Students have to pay tuition fee to go to high schools.
3. Students in secondary schools probably have the ability to view their dream or hopes and relate contextualise them.
The reason why the report only concerns Tay within the third village is access; the research team was placed in a host family in this neighbourhood and they are Tay. In locating these children the team have taken help from the host family who wrote a list of Tay families which have children in secondary school in the third village. Our sampling concerning which parent to interview was random. This has to do with the problems in locating family members. The team visited as many households as possible but whom we were able to talk to depend on the possibility of locating family members. Often the family is out during the day, especially the women; the team had much easier finding dads. This has not to do exclusively with the aspect of locating it is has also a gendered dimension. The team member who conducted the interviews was a man and it became harder to access the female sphere. On the other hand, it was easier to access the male sphere, but because of this dilemma we have chosen not to conduct conscious gendered sampling. Whenever an interview was conducted the team tried harder to locate that particular respondents parents or children. The team wanted the perspective from different members within the same family, because it resonance better with our analytical tools.
The teachers were chosen randomly by asking who had time and desire to help us with our research. Our only requirements were that they worked as secondary teachers in the secondary school of Nam Dich.
Sampling is always unruly and random. That of course always affects the result. To clarify, we are not trying to do any generalisations or presumptions about dropouts in the commune of Nam Dich or even the third village. As researchers we acknowledge that the answers to our research question are probably multifaceted and that a very short field report will not take into account all possible explanations, aspects or opinions.
3.3 Methods applied and issues encountered
The research team applied three different methods while in field, besides observation. We performed semi-structured interviews, structured interviews and PRA ranking exercises. What kind of method we chose had primarily to do with what kind of information we were gathering. We have numbered our target groups 1-3. 1. Children 2. Parents 3. Teachers
Our interviews are numbered 1-10 in an time orderly fashion.
Semi structured interview
We performed seven semi-structured interviews with fifteen different people. Some of these were group interviews. Since we had three different target groups, our interview structure differed. Only with two of these groups did we conduct semi-structured interviews, the children (group 1) and the parents (group 2). We chose this method in hope of being able to spur up a more open and less affected interview session. Our aim was to make the respondents feel comfortable and safe.
Group 1
Our interview structure for the children was centred on three themes, studying situation, purpose of education and parents sentiments. The themes were an attempt to centralize our main question from different aspects. How they themselves assess their own situation in relation to school/studying/ability and what they want to do in relation to their parents wishes. This is directly related to capability/functionings and we will come back to our analytical discussion under tentative conclusion.
The team often opened with small talk and questions about family to make sure that the interview situation wouldn’t feel as awkward. In the initiation of the interview we tried to start up with quite general question and try to stir it to the subject matter. Under these themes we had prepared a couple of sub questions. They were for the team to fall back on if the interview didn’t run as smoothly as one would have wished. These sub-questions evolved during our stay. This has to do with experience; it took a few interviews before the team started to understand what kind of context that was of interest to decipher in hope of grasping the situation. For example; under the theme studying situation, we asked questions like the following: 1. What kind of chores do you perform at home besides going to school? 2. Do you often raise your hand in the classroom?
Our intention with question A was to understand the amount of work they perform on a daily basis. This gives us further understanding about ability when we discuss with group 2 or 3. Often group 2 and 3 say that school or continuing school depends on the child’s potential. The potential of the child is directly linked with work amount, hence the relevance of question A. Question B was an attempt to see if they feel comfortable in school and/or if they do their homework. Something that often came up in our interviews was that sometimes children stay home from school when/if they haven’t done their homework or did not understand the lesson they had the day before. This is because of the risk of not passing the teachers questions.
One big methodological problem for our interviews was to get the respondent to feel comfortable. This was especially hard when approaching group 1. It was a lot of factors that influenced the situation and often made the respondent very nervous. The most prominent was often the research team itself, as foreigners, as a man or woman, our seniority etc. These are factors that weigh very heavily when we assess our interviews. That’s why in our resultant part we will depend profoundly on observation as a way to triangulate the answers. One example of an extreme situation was respondant from interview number 10. The repondante was so uncomfortable that the team took a decision to change the semi-structured approach to a more structured one, in a vain attempt to collect any data. This interview is therefore not classified as a semi-structured interview.
Group 2
The interview structure for parents was centred on four themes; general views of education, factual knowledge about education – opportunities etc., expectation on their children, why children stop coming to school and their recommendations for support. The team tried to get their perspective in relation to their children’s expectations or dreams and understand their sentiment about education, which is directly linked to their children’s opportunity.
Initially in the interview the interviewers often had to go around the subject matter and approach the question carefully, this is due to being polite and an attempt to get the respondent to start talking by her or his own accord. A very thankful way of get the conversation flowing was to begin by asking about their children and then continue from there. Another approach was to actually state our main research question quite upfront but phrased in as a very general matter. The question is quite general in it self and are therefore an upstart for talking about a lot of different aspects of barriers in relation to education.
Our goal was to talk with both mum and dads but more often it was the dad we could get a hold of during daytime. In interview number 1, the team were able to speak to a mom alone. She was very uncomfortable and the interview did not go as planned. By observation we can conclude the respondent felt that she could not answer adequately and expressed a concern about not answering correctly. The respondent did not maintain eye contact while talking and had a tendency to become distracted by her son. The team felt that they had failed her in that perspective that the situation had made her feel inadequate. This is something that the team are very well aware of when assessing the answers and also an experience that stayed with us in the continuation of our field research. Within the category 2 the team also managed to have three group interviews. They were in fact rather unintentional but non the less a very welcome addition to our report. Two were initiated when we came to visit the parent and that person had guests who participated in the conversation. This mean that the group involved were not all part of intended target group. This opened up for a more general conversation about education and development for the village in general. The third group interview (number 8) was with a mom and dad. To be able to interview both parents was for us a great advantage. Not just in getting answers from both parties, but also the possibility to observe the interaction between them while answering. The mom in this scenario was actually a teacher in primary school. She lead the conversation around education and the team also choose to ad questions that were used in informant interviews with teachers to further take advantage from her experience as both a teacher in our area and parent. It was first when we approached development questions that the husband also got more deeply involved in the conversation and their perspective actually differed on the subject matter.
The research encountered numerous methodological difficulties with group 2. The most prominent were; lack of interest in the subject matter, the interview situation made them uncomfortable, alcohol intoxication, answering what they think we want to hear rather than what they actually believe. An example of one of these issues was in conversation with a semi-intoxicated respondent in interview number 2. The respondent told us that his son always had to put school first, that he was suppose to do at least two hour of homework everyday and first after helped with the domestic work. At the same time the time saw, by observation, his son ploughing the field just outside the house. In addition to this, the day after the team walked with the boys from our village to school and this particular respondents son were missing due to farm work. Central here is awareness that sometimes the answers were adapted to us and are misrepresentative of what’s actually going on.
Structured interviews
Only three out of our ten interviews was structured interviews. As previously mentioned this was due to methodological problems with interview number 10. The research team applied structured interviews with teachers, group 3 (number 3 and 9). This was a decision in accordance with using them as informants rather than respondents. The team had quite specific questions and that makes a more structured interview more ideal. With that said, the team still got very broad, insightful and interesting answers from interview number 3. It was in some aspects easier to talk in a more direct way with the teachers because they had no difficulties grasping the concept of being interviewed. Also the more formal approach felt more apt as we foremost asked them about information from their perspective as teachers. The team’s questions were centred on the problems with dropouts and absentee in general, from their perspective as teachers in secondary school. They differed vastly in their answers. The respondent from interview number 3 gave a very long and problem-raising answer which was confirmed of the mom/primary teacher from interview 8, but the second teacher from interview number 9 was very evasive, saying that no such problems existed. The team choose to evaluate these differing answers by relate them to what information we been gathering through out our interviews with all target groups. No one else of our respondents have made such a statement when discussing our subject matter, the village leader in interview 7 did say the situation has become better but nothing about the problems non-existence. This was one of our first questions in our interview with respondant number 9 and his answer became a huge methodological problem since our following questions was concerning that our subject matter was an actual problem. The research team then had to try and approach the subject from a different angle and tried to ask about absentee and the educational level in general. Even though the team did not get answers in relation to the actual problem or his opinion of the matter, his silence or reluctance still speaks for it self, and the team has been assessing this more under observations.
Ranking
In all three of our group interviews the team were able to perform ranking exercises. Why we chose to do ranking exercises in our group interviews was because it became a shortcut in inviting our participants to a broader discussion and reflection. Using ranking in the one on one interviews is something the team should have given more consideration. According to Mikkelsen it is a valuable method when seeking the background or information concerning peoples attitueds (Mikkelsen, 90). But at the time the teams assessment of the if/when/how concerning ranking often fell to mere chance and if it felt suitable for the occasion. The team used ranking exercises in an emancipatory fashion, asking the participants to name the four key aspects for the development of their village. The answers from the participants were then written down on different sheets of paper and the team asked them to rank them 1-4, where one is the most important. In one case this was done orally. This was a good way for the research team to assess what is the most important for them when it comes to development questions, which relates to our background and the broader context of the World Bank report about how poverty in Vietnam is still closely linked to low education attainment. They were not asked to put education as one of the key aspects though; this is also a methodological consideration and an attempt to try and see if/how they perceive education as a development factor for themselves. This exercise often spurred a broader discussion, the problem was just that the participants chose do this in their mother tongue, Tay. This made it impossible for the research team to actually understand how they’re reasoning before the provided answer. In one case (number 5) our respondents were a father and four sons, whereof one of the sons was our intended respondent. In their discussion it became quite obvious, despite them speaking in Tay, that it were the father that had the final word in the conversation. He and our intendent respondant were the ones who discussed intently while the other three were quiet or just made a small comment. Using discussion to understand or to get answers is always problematic, since it will always be the person or persons that feel free to speak up who will be heard. The research team is therefore fully aware of not being able to understand everyone’s individual opinion and will not use the ranking data as to make any generalisations. It was still a valuable method because of its effectiveness in get a discussion going, but it is very clear that the information needs to be supplemented with observation.
Observation
Observation has been a very effective method when assessing our data. What we have been told have often differed with what we have observed, and therefore it has had complementing our data. In some cases it also an effective tool when understanding our respondents better, there interaction as a group, sentiments towards us, or intoxication are all methodological considerations. Observation has been a vital part of the experience for the one team member who does not speak Vietnamese. While the FIS student function as both the interviewer and translator is fully engaged in the conversation, the GUS student is free to make thorough notes and pay more attention to what is not said but implied by the social interaction between the respondents or the respondent and the team itself. It is also these observations and contradictions that have become the foundation of our analytical discussion in our report. Methodologically though we are fully aware that our observation are subjective and that we might over interpret situations because of our own pre-understanding. This is a great disadvantage but it can also be seen as an advantage, having the outside and looking in perspective can lead to new insights. Still it is important to emphasize that observing social situations as an outsider under a very limited time gives us no right to make general assumptions. The team it self will also have an effect on the social environment created and observations therefore always be touched by our presence.
3.4 ETHICAL CONCERNS
Performing field research within a development context is always difficult. Many of the team’s respondents expressed their hopes for this research to lead to change. Mikkelsen discusses development work and how/if change and intervention in the name of development is all that it is said to be (Mikkelsen 333). Are there positive forces in doing this research or does it (very unintentionally) just highlight and therefore deepening the social stigmatization by labelling this group as excluded? In doing this report the team might enhance the notion of them being perceived as different or a burden. This is of course not the reports goal or our intention; therefore it is important to start a transparent discussion of the team as researchers and the unintentional consequences of participation in the larger context of development field studies.
4. SUMMARY RESEARCH
Group 1
The research team performed three interviews with children. Two of the respondents were boys, and one was a girl. All three of them go to the secondary school Truong Tieu Hoc & Trung Hoc Co So Nam Dich.
Studying situation
The general studying situation for our three students showed some common features. All of them have the same road to school, but different means of getting there. No one actually complained about the distance, but one mentions that she gets very tired. They all need to go up around 5 am. One respondent can sometimes borrow his families motorbike and are therefore able to sometimes sleep an hour longer. All of them put about one to two hours on homework. Two say that they can get help from their parents, but one of them put it like this; she can get help, she needs help, but she doesn’t ask her parents for it. The parents to the third respondent don’t have the ability to help him, his mom speak Vietnamese very poorly. In school all three state that they only occasionally raise their hands and that they sometimes think it’s hard to understand the teacher. All three of them still like school both for knowledge but foremost for being able to meet their friends. All three of our respondents know about other people who have dropped out, this is due to different reasons. The respondents name marriage, distance between home and school, family situation or money as common obstacles. Also many don’t come regularly due to farming or customs. Besides school all three have different responsibilities at home, this include; feed the animals, herding the buffaloes, do the dishes or ploughing rice fields. Here one of them differs markedly, he had a lot more chores and the other two - they did not mention herding or ploughing.
Viewing this from a capability approach the workload at home and the long road to school are two external factors that circumcise these children’s ability to utilize their education. This in it turn does that it hinders them to make use of functionings they might value for them selves. Functionings or being able to utilize what ever functionings they wish mirror the potential freedom they have within the reach of their own capability.
Purpose of education
All three respondents think that education is important, but it is in some aspects a bit unclear why. The team tried to ask them in what way it is important and we got some varied answers. One says that education is important because it brings knowledge, but when asked what he will use this knowledge for, he answer that he will apply it for his homework. Another also expresses that he knows it is important, but he is unsure why. This effect the opportunity to achieve the functionings wished and that circumcise their capability to achieve or generate valuable outcomes for them as individuals. Two of them want to continue to higher education, but the third state that it depends if his parents wants him to or not. One of the boys wants to become a policeman; and the girl says she wants to be a teacher. The second boy says he wants to become a farmer, because that is how you make a living, but when asked what he prefers to do a regular day, farm work or go to school, he states that he rather go to school.
Parent’s sentiments
The two who wants to continue to higher education are unsure what their parents wants, even though one states that his dad wants him to become a doctor. The third respondent says it’s up to his parent’s decision if he will continue or not, and he is not sure what they want him to be.
Group 2
The research team performed five parent interviews, with twelve different respondents. Not all of these belonged to our target group but they still contributed to the discussion.
General views of education
Overall the view of education is positive, all our respondents think it is important and speak very highly of it. It is seen as a way to further development, in all our ranking exercises it was seen as one of the four most important aspects, although infrastructure (road building) and irrigations was seen as more important. Education was often ranked as number three or four together with health and sanitation. In the development discussion a lot was said, but foremost about the necessity of good roads. That can be related to one of the obstacles talked about when it comes to education, the poor road conditions when the children walk to school.
Factual knowledge about education: opportunities etc.
Many of our respondents seemed to believe that education can lead to other opportunities, but it was a bit unclear of what kind or how. Some mentioned state enterprises or other positions in the commune or just knowledge and other benefits. Not many from the village go to high school, but all the respondents knew about at least one. The village leader (interview number 7) said it was three in total who were enrolled at the moment and that an additional three in the village had high school diploma. The ones with a diploma were working, one as the local policeman and the other two as farmers.
The mom working as a teacher (number 8), the village leader (number 7) and the respondent from interview number 5 was most aware of the perks of education and also the ones who spoke the most of its importance.
Expectation on their children
All respondents had different expectations on their children. Many emphasised that they wanted their children to continue to higher education. One mom, did not have an educated background but she stilled wished education for her daughters – but it dependent much on their own potential. Overall many assessed it from a potential point of view, education is expensive and seen as an investment for the family. That means that if the daughter or sons don’t excel early on in school their opportunities to continue are slim. Many of the respondents also expressed that what the child wanted to do also is taken into account to some extent. But most central when it comes to education is the different costs. Even in secondary school (not tuition fees, unclear what kind of cost, hard to get a straight answer) this is seen as a problem and later in high school the child has to move into a dorm, since the high school is far away, at the parents expense. In interview 5 we had the opportunity to speak to parents with a son in the special ethnic minority secondary school in Huang Sofie. The son was on a scholarship from the government that he had earned by being an excellent student. He was only allowed to visit his parents once a month according to school policy.
Why do children stop coming to school
All our respondents had much to say about why children stop coming to school, and it can be summarised in these six points: * Poor family conditions * Live far away * Don’t understand the role of education * Language problems * Problem with self-studying * Lack of ability
All assessed the financial aspect as very problematic. Next was the road condition and distance. The erosion of the road makes parents sometimes afraid to let their children walk in bad weather. Some children are afraid of walking the long way alone and therefore choose to stay home. Many families don’t understand the point of education; it has been presented to them in an unintelligible way. The parents have a low education level and are not able to assist their children with homework or the children don’t have time to do it. Lack of ability is mentioned as a fact on its own and not seen as a consequence of other barriers. If the children don’t have ability they will not be able to continue. The primary teacher/mom also mentions customs.
Their own recommendations for support or how to remedy the situation
Almost all of our respondents think that governmental support is necessary, especially concerning the road issue. Some of the respondents think that families should get financial support and encouragement.
Interconnection with the children’s opportunity and the capability approach
The general view and expectation of the parents says a lot you assess the children’s capability, understood as the potential freedom to achieve their wished functionings. Evan if the parents view education as something of importance and positive the questions still remains if they actually make it available for their children. This has more to do with what kind of other obligations they put on them, and of course if they can support them, both financially and with their homework. It is also of vital importance to review the parents overall understanding concerning the purpose of education. This is another dimension of the hindrance for continuing school; it is not physical but social.
Group 3
The research team performed two informant interviews with teachers from the secondary school in Nam Dich.
Respondent from interview number 3
Sometimes the kids don’t come regularly because of the distance. There is also a general lack of understanding the importance of coming. The respondent tells us that she tries to tell the children why they should come. At harvest time it’s even harder for the kids to show since the family need them for farm work.
The level of concentration is low and the states the main reasons behind this as: * The conditions in the families, not enough to eat, and when the weather is bad – not enough clothes. * Many children are ethnic minority so their limited access to information technique makes it harder to teach them. * The distance from home to school.
The school get limited support; in the winter the kids receive one winter overcoat from donors, but its used and often in bad condition or quality, so it doesn’t keep them warm outside or in class. The respondent sees effort, but very limited. She is also aware that many of the children gets up really early to eat breakfast before school, about 4.30 am, before walking to school. The government also provide some support like money for lunch or building dorms for accommodation, but the family or village must put up the rest of the costs. Also if the student stays in a dorm, they don’t have time to help their family with the workload.
We asked her if she could name some resounds why children stop coming to school. The respondent name these as the primary ones: * Ethnic minority don’t understand the role of education fully. * Their own custom, early marriage and so on. * Their life conditions are not so good.
To remedy the situation the respondent think the need is to: * Enhance quality of life * Sustainable conditions with the families so they let their children go to school * The government should provide propaganda to promote education as a road for the ethnic minorities – they do not fully recognise it. * The government should discourage the ethnic minorities from bad customs (namely early marriage). * Make effective investment on school infrastructure.
Respondent from interview number 9
The respondent has been working in the secondary school for two years and according to him there have been no dropouts since he started teaching. He does notice absentees, the short-term perspective of children not showing up for school. This happens because of the different customs, but the children always come back. The very few children who are sometimes absent are always ethnic minority, they live furthest away. They can sometimes also be absent because of farming.
The concentration level is about 30% of the capacity of city students according to our respondent. This has to do with the road conditions – which tiers out the children on their way to school and their limited access to information (he does not specify what kind of information).
The government support them with different materials but whether it’s enough he is not sure. He states that “I’m not a student, so I wouldn’t know” (Interview 9, 2013).
The respondent is Tay and born and raised in Ha Giang, he also studied here. When asked about his own suggestions concerning keeping kids in school, he says that he have just been here fore a very short time and doesn’t know. He thinks that cooperation between the schools, family and government could help, for example phone contact with the parents. When asked about families understanding of education he explains that he cannot answer this, because every family has different ways of thinking.
Interconnection with the children’s opportunity and the capability approach
The hindrance mentioned from group 3 is consistent with what has been previously mentioned from both group 1 and group 2. What the group 3 interviews has contributed is widening our understanding about the social exclusion that can be stigmatizing in some aspects. The teachers are in this case talking about the non-access to information technology or Internet. Children in this area, and especially from the ethnic minorities, can from these hinders have difficulty to utilize the knowledge presented. The third aspect is also the language barrier. All three of these aspects are things that contribute to social exclusion and making it harder for them to assess their own capability or the freedom of opportunity to achieve what they think is important. This exclusion also contributes to lack of opportunity presented; it closes the door without it ever being opened.
5. TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS
There are no easy answers when assessing the reports conclusion. * What are the most common obstacles preventing secondary children within Tay minority, in village three of Nam Dich commune, from continuing with secondary school or move on to higher education? * How do the children review their opportunities in compared to the parents perception?
The answers to our research questions are multifaceted and relates to both physical and social barriers. The physical obstacles create the social ones in some ways. The distance or being overworked is not just a physical challenge; the effects are also that the student finds it more difficult to utilizing their education. This in its turn creates poorer grades that make the parent see the child’s education as a bad investment. Struggling in school has also the effect that the children themselves feel un-confident and need extra support. This support is supposedly to come from parents that might not even have the ability to help because lack of education.
The problem with sufficient means to afford an education one of the clearest obstacles found. This was something that everyone mentioned. The effects of this are of course further social exclusion
and lack of opportunity to change ones situation. But an interesting conclusion the team also notice is that money is not the solution to remedy the situation alone, lack of understanding for what the education is for also play a role in determining of continuing school. Implementation of primary education in society overall have been successful in Vietnam, but on a grass root level it seems like not everyone is fully aware of its utilization or see it as an resource (WB, 73). This dimension also contribute to a continuing of the social exclusion and (coming back to our discussion from summary research group 3) making it harder for them to assess their own capability or the freedom of opportunity to achieve what they think is important. As previously stated, the door is closed without it ever being opened. 6. RECOMMENDATIONS
The dropout situation is not clearly illustrated quantitatively due to the results we collected from the three target groups. It is one of the driving forces that prolong the low enrolment in higher education among people in Nam Dich commune. However, all informants really want the secondary students to follow higher education because that is good for them and let them access and be well recognized of their own capability.
The low level development in Village 3 is one of the main reasons that constraints the access of secondary students to school. Specifically, many house holds make their own living through doing farming without modern machines and it is obvious that the manual working requires many labour forces and children are no exception. The government should help household by supplying fertilizer, agricultural technical support, seeds to sustain their living.
Road conditions are not good. In order to go to school on time, the children often get shortcut which is very bad and often get worsen if it is rainy in spite of the fact that very small part of road is cement. Currently, the government provides theconstruction materials such as sand, cement and the technical supervisor to make sure that the cement road is well-finished. In addition, the local people cooperate as the voluntary workers under the government supervision to complete the road. However, many parts of road in village 3 leading to the centre of the Communce Nam Dich in which the secondary school located is incompleted due to the lack of investment. Hence, our recommendation is that the government will continue to provide financial support for this project to finish the road as soon as possible and the involvement of local people in completing the road should be carefully considered and well- respected.
Vietnamese is the second language. As far as we know, children was taught ethnic minority language when they were small in the family. After that, they were taught Vietnamese in kinder garten and primary school. The problem is that if students are not good at Vietnamese in primary school, they cannot study well in secondary school. Hence, our suggestion is that government should pay more attention to enhance the Vietnamese teaching in local areas. We hope that the kindergarten in Village 3, Nam Dich, Hoang Su Phi, Ha Giang near our host family house will be completed soon.
Presently, the primay school in Village 3 Nam Dich only receives the children from grade 1 to 3 equivalent to 6 to 8 yearsold with 3 classrooms. In order to make ease for the children at grade grade 4 and 5 who have to go to Nam Dich to study, from Mr Xien’s perspecive, primary school should be upgraded. We strongly agree with his idea. Further more, according to Ms Suong, information technology is an essential factor the empower the access of secondary students to their “capability”. The secondary school should have two or three computers for teaching
It can be seen that the role of education is not well-recognized by all the children. For example, Xoan – 13 yearsold – grade 7 understands that education is very important but he does not know why and how. In addition, Tuyen recognizes the importance of education but he will apply the knowledge from school to do his homework. The two examples show that partly the children do not know deeply why their presence in school. It can be explained that their awareness towards education is not good but the other explanation may come from the inefficent activities of local government and family in promoting the role of education and help children to visualize their studying to reality.
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