Border guards and teachers clean Thượng Hoá Primary and Secondary School in Quảng Trị Province after the floods caused by Typhoon Kajiki and Typhoon Nongfa. VNA/VNS Photo

QUẢNG TRỊ - Many schools in Quảng Trị Province, particularly in mountainous areas along the Lao border, remain cut off by floodwaters brought by Typhoon Kajiki and Typhoon Nongfa even as teachers and students prepare for the upcoming new academic year.

A 500m section of Hung Trâu Road in Kim Phú Commune remains underwater, isolating three villages and forcing teachers to travel by boats instead of motorbike.

Thượng Hoá Primary and Secondary School has three campuses across the commune with 96 children at primary level and 50 at secondary level, all belonging to ethnic minorities.

According to Phan Thế Dũng, principal of the school, due to the schools’ remote locations, teachers had volunteered to stay in the villages.

In recent days dozens of troops from the Cà Xèng Border Guard unit in Quảng Trị have been joining hands with the teachers to clean the school after the floods.

Đinh Thị Huyền Như, an eighth grader at the school, said her family usually struggles to buy new books for her but this year she received them as gifts from teachers and the soldiers.

Phan Thanh Bình, deputy chairman of the Kim Phú Commune People’s Committee, said local authorities have coordinated with the school to arrange boats to transport teachers and students across flooded sections. – VNS