Born in Kong Chro town (Gia Lai), Le Thi Ngoc Linh often followed her mother to remote communes to sell goods and buy agricultural products. There, Linh witnessed her peers lacking food, clothing, and not being able to go to school, so she dreamed of becoming a teacher to help children in difficult circumstances.

“In addition to wanting to help children in remote and disadvantaged areas, I like being a teacher because when I was a student, I was cared for by my teachers and they gave me a lot of affection. The image of a teacher is so great that I want to follow in their footsteps,” Ms. Linh shared.

Her dream grew with her studies, Linh was admitted to Quy Nhon University, Faculty of Primary Education. The times she went on field trips and was called teacher by students made Linh very happy, that feeling once again helped her confirm that she had chosen the right career.

In 2017, after being recruited, Le Thi Ngoc Linh applied to work at Le Van Tam Primary and Secondary School (Dak Po Pho commune), a particularly difficult commune in an ethnic minority area of ​​Kong Chro district, about 12km from home.

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Due to the small number of students and the remote location, the class is divided into two levels, sitting together, facing each other. Photo: Tran Hoan

On the first day of class, seeing many students wearing old, torn clothes, almost no learning tools; lack of facilities, broken desks, chairs, doors, no electricity, no running water; when it rained, the classroom lacked light, the students could not see the words to read; on sunny days, the classroom had no fans, the air was hot and stuffy, the young teacher's heart was choked.

Life is difficult, sometimes students have to skip school to work for a small salary, even in exchange for cakes, or stay home to help their families during the harvest season. Faced with this situation, Ms. Linh and teachers in the school connected with benefactors to ask for food, clothes, books and school supplies to support the children.

Being absent from school is one thing, but the children who attend school are also lucky. There were times when the whole group went to the pond to bathe and forgot to go to class. There were times when she was writing on the board and looked down and saw many empty seats because the children had gone out by themselves. Even when teachers were present to observe the class, the students still went out without permission. Feeling sorry for the students, Ms. Linh discussed with her husband to buy a house in the area so that they could have the conditions to discipline the children.

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Break time between teacher and students. Photo: Tran Hoan

Learn Bahnar from students

In the first days of school, the biggest difficulty for teacher Linh was the language barrier. The first graders did not yet understand Vietnamese, so they were shy and reluctant to communicate. They would occasionally smile and talk to each other in their ethnic language. "I remember one time when I saw students chasing each other around, I was afraid they would fall so I advised them to 'be careful not to fall'. I did not expect that the word 'fall' in Bahnar means a sensitive issue (a relationship between a man and a woman), which made the students laugh out loud..." - teacher Linh recalled.

After that, the teacher thought she needed to do something to bridge the gap between teachers and students, so she decided to learn Bahnar. Whenever she had free time, Linh would ask older students who were fluent in Vietnamese to guide her. If she didn’t know something, she would ask them to translate it into Bahnar and write it down on paper to study. After hearing the students speak it a lot, the teacher gradually got used to it.

For students who do not know Vietnamese, the teacher uses Bahnar to instruct. The flexibility in using language has helped students become more confident, knowing how to joke with teachers, making the classroom atmosphere more fun and friendly. Thanks to her love for the profession and children, Ms. Linh has inspired students to be interested in learning, proactively absorb knowledge, and students read well and quite well with a high rate.

After nearly 8 years of working with students in remote areas, on holidays, when the students gave her self-drawn paintings, wild flowers picked from the roadside, or homemade items such as rice, corn, bananas, bamboo shoots, and vegetables, teacher Linh was extremely touched, because she felt that the students knew how to care, love, share joy, and consider her as a relative.

With her tireless contributions, for many consecutive years, teacher Linh has achieved the title of Advanced Worker. In April 2024, she was awarded a certificate of merit by the Gia Lai Provincial Youth Union for being a good person and doing good deeds. On the occasion of November 20 this year, Ms. Le Thi Ngoc Linh was selected as one of 60 outstanding teachers in 2024, the only person representing Gia Lai province to attend the program "Sharing with teachers" held in Hanoi.
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