Mr. Khang was one of the first students majoring in Mathematics in Vietnam. In 1968, he studied Physics at Hanoi University. Many of his classmates at that time joined the army to fight to protect the Fatherland. Due to poor eyesight and health, he could not join the battlefield. After graduating, he chose to stay and teach Physics for the general Mathematics class.
When he first started teaching, the young teacher only had one set of clothes to wear to class. His students saw this and asked him, “Do you only have one set of clothes?” The teacher had to “fix” the situation by saying that he had five identical sets.
But in reality, during the day the teacher wore it to teach, and at night he washed and dried it so that he could wear it again the next morning. The students then secretly used a ballpoint pen to mark the hem of his shirt without the teacher knowing. A few days later, the students wondered again: "Did the teacher change his clothes?" When they realized the teacher was lying, they pulled the hem of his shirt to show him.
Teacher Khang choked up, not expecting his students to care about him like that. That was the time between 1972 and 1975, when he had just graduated and started working. The parents who knew about the story, even though they had nothing, still bought and sent him a new set of clothes.
“At that time, the students were poor and the teacher was also poor, but the students' affection for the teacher was the most precious thing,” Mr. Khang recalled.
After many years of struggling with education, Mr. Khang now confidently affirms that he is no longer poor. From a boy born in Vinh city, 12 years old, selling ice cream in the middle of the hot summer wind, wearing rubber sandals, with an ice cream thermos on each hip, and for 3 summer months collecting coins to buy books at the beginning of the school year, Mr. Khang now feels "satisfied with what he has".
“I am a torn leaf, wishing to become a healthy leaf. To do that, I must strive and persevere, not only to be able to take care of myself but also to help others,” said Mr. Khang.
Therefore, in early 2021, having a "fateful relationship" with the northernmost land of Ha Giang, Mr. Khang asked the local authorities to plant 10,000 trees in Meo Vac district. Everything was decided and implemented quickly after only about 1 week. His survey team went to work with the local authorities on seedlings, planting methods and necessary procedures. 5 months later, 20,000 cajuput trees were planted in Meo Vac. This project is still in phase 2 and will be completed by the end of this year.
In 2022, when he heard his colleagues talk about the severe shortage of English teachers at the primary level in Meo Vac, Mr. Khang lost sleep all night thinking about it. Not long after, he initiated a project to teach English online to more than 2,600 students there.
In the first semester, teachers in Hanoi taught Meo Vac students (mainly H'Mong ethnic group) English through computer screens. To help teachers and students understand each other, build closeness and trust, Mr. Khang organized two trips for 22 teachers to Meo Vac to directly interact with students.
“After four months of only seeing each other through the screen, the day the teacher and students met was extremely emotional. Everyone met, chatted, had a meal together, then returned home to continue teaching and learning through the computer screen,” Mr. Khang recalled.
At the end of the school year, the project was considered a special success, with four students participating in the provincial excellent student competition in Ha Giang. This project has now entered its third year. Mr. Khang's support initiative has also spread widely. Many schools have pledged to support disadvantaged areas in sending online teachers to students to solve the immediate teacher shortage.
Although teaching English to Meo Vac students has stabilized, Mr. Khang is still worried that this method is only a temporary solution. Thinking so, in 2023, he proposed to the Meo Vac District People's Committee to "order" training for more than 30 local English teachers through the form of recruitment, with an estimated total cost of about 12 billion VND.
English teacher training students who are selected and commit to returning to teach in Meo Vac will be supported by Mr. Khang and Marie Curie School with tuition fees and accommodation costs with a minimum support of 5 million VND/month. In addition, Mr. Khang will buy a motorbike for each student after they graduate and start teaching. According to the plan, starting from 2025, there will be successive batches of graduates returning to teach English to Meo Vac students.
Also during this time, Mr. Khang continued to make a surprising decision when he started the project to build the Marie Curie – Meo Vac Ethnic Boarding School with a total budget of about 100 billion VND. However, according to Mr. Khang, this decision was not impulsive. “Giving a school to a northern border area has been my long-standing wish,” he said.
This school is located on a 1.5-hectare plot of land in the center of the district town, managed and operated as a public school. It is expected that the school will be built from 2025, completed around July 2026, then handed over to Meo Vac and start enrolling students from the 2026-2027 school year.
Mr. Ngo Manh Cuong, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Meo Vac District (Ha Giang) said that Meo Vac is a poor district with extremely difficult circumstances. Having a spacious school is something that the people here always dream of. However, this is not the first project that Mr. Khang has implemented in Meo Vac.
Having done many things for the land at the head of the Fatherland, Mr. Khang explained: “45 years ago, I wrote a letter volunteering to protect the northern border but was not satisfied because my left eye was damaged and my right eye had poor vision. Many of my friends sacrificed their lives, some of them later returned but were full of injuries. I always thought I owed them a debt. I was not able to contribute my blood and bones to protect the northern border, now I would like to use my sweat and tears to contribute to protecting the land and water at the Fatherland's border.”
While he was busy with many projects for Meo Vac, news came about the flash flood in Lang Nu village (Phuc Khanh commune, Bao Yen district, Lao Cai province) that suddenly made many children orphans. Very soon after, Mr. Khang decided to adopt all the children in Lang Nu.
It is estimated that the basic support for the children is about 5.6 billion VND, not including any additional costs. Teacher Khang added: "During the development process, if the children need anything else, I will take care of it."
“Now I am the one who ‘wants to live the most’. The grandfather of the 22 Lang Nu children wishes to live at least 15 more years to see all of them grow up. But even if he has to go far away, his family and Marie Curie School will continue to take good care of them. They will still be warm, well-fed and well-educated as he wished when he decided to adopt them. He has enough strength to take care of them until they all grow up.”
Back to normal life, in Mr. Khang’s office at Marie Curie school, there are no certificates or awards hanging. On the wall are only photos of “grandpa” with his “little students” and the gifts they made for him.
“Grandpa” is also the affectionate way students at Marie Curie School call Mr. Khang. As for him, he believes that “if I stay close to them, they will feel that I am approachable and like to talk and share, thanks to that, the distance between teachers and students will gradually be eliminated.”
Now, talking to his students every day has become Mr. Khang’s hobby. Whenever the 75-year-old “grandfather” has free time, he often sits on the edge of the soccer field to cheer on his students. Mr. Khang is also nicknamed “Plastic Chair Principal” because when he needs to sit and concentrate, even during the opening ceremony, he always chooses a plastic chair, right in the middle of a crowd of students.
During lunchtime, the teacher often chooses to sit and eat with his students. “Today I eat with this friend, tomorrow I sit with another friend to chat. Gradually, the children listen to everything I say and are always willing to share with the teacher. Because of me, my colleagues, from teachers, security guards, drivers, and caterers, all love the children and never scold them, so everyone feels happy.”
Always taking care of students, when building a school, the toilet is the place that the teacher pays the most attention to. He said that the design and construction must be done carefully and conveniently so that students do not have to go out in the rain or sun. The toilets must meet 4 criteria: bright, clean, beautiful and fragrant.
“At Ba Dinh Square or the Opera House, no one dares to throw away a cigarette butt or a cake wrapper because it is so clean and beautiful. Such an environment will make us not want to destroy the beauty. But when we go to the bus station, it is very easy to throw away a cigarette butt or an ice cream stick. Therefore, we need to educate children through beauty,” said Mr. Khang.
Before each important exam, Mr. Khang writes a letter to encourage his students. For him, the greatest asset is the children. “They can fail the exam but their good character is still fine. Even after finishing school and going to vocational school, they can become good workers. The path of students is not only university, there are many other things in life for them to conquer. The most important thing is to learn how to live, how to behave and how to be a human being.”
Content: Thuy Nga
Photo: Thach Thao
Design: Amy Nguyen
Vietnamnet.vn
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/hieu-truong-ghe-nhua-va-ngoi-truong-100-ty-o-huyen-bien-gioi-2343541.html
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