Teachers who are passionate about the career of "growing people" in the highlands

Worried about students being hungry and sick

While the mist was still faint on the mountain top, teacher Vu Van Tung (43 years old, teacher at Dinh Nup Primary and Secondary School, Po To Commune, Ia Pa District, Gia Lai) was busy carrying boxes of bread, neatly arranged on shelves, and placing them in front of the classroom door.

After 6am, groups of students from Bi Giong village (Po To commune) come to Mr. Tung's "zero-dong bread cabinet" to line up and receive breakfast before the school bell rings to signal class time.

Over the years, Mr. Tung has called for hundreds of bicycles, clothes, and books to support poor students in Po To commune (Photo: NVCC).

"Many years ago, I saw students constantly skipping class to run home. I followed them on my motorbike and found out that every morning they often didn't eat breakfast and were hungry. That's why I asked for a campaign to build a zero-dong bread cabinet to help them have a nutritious breakfast," said Mr. Tung.

To help the students, Mr. Tung called on benefactors to support funding and build a "zero-dong bread cabinet" model. Initially, the bread cabinet only had 60 loaves of bread for the students at the Bi Giong village school.

Seeing that students had to skip breakfast, Mr. Tung went everywhere to find support to build a "zero-dong bread cabinet" (Photo: NVCC).

Many benefactors have contacted Mr. Tung to provide additional funding to help the children have decent breakfasts. Mr. Tung has also used this support to buy more sticky rice or dumplings to give to the students in the morning.

The bread cabinet currently serves about 200 students and poor people living near the schools.

Mr. Tung also used the "zero-dong bread cabinet" support to build a model of "Giving livelihoods to poor students". Accordingly, he gave 3 breeding goats worth more than 5 million VND and 1 cow worth more than 12 million VND to 2 poor students. To date, 3 goats have bred.

When the students' breakfast was maintained, Mr. Tung coordinated with many benefactors to buy goats and cows to give to poor students' families (Photo: NVCC).

"I want to share the difficult circumstances of students' families. When the family's economy is stable, students can feel secure going to school. The results show that the number of students attending class has improved significantly. That is the biggest encouragement for me," Mr. Tung confided.

To prepare thoughtful breakfasts for students in the highlands, Mr. Tung had to wake up at 4am to ride his motorbike more than 40km to get bread to distribute to the children. Understanding his love for his students, his family always encouraged, shared and took care of the housework so that he could work with peace of mind.

Thanks to practical support, many students in mountainous areas have been able to go to school conveniently (Photo: NVCC).

In particular, Mr. Tung has fought with many students in the highlands against incurable diseases. He himself called for help to bring two students with serious illnesses to see a doctor and get treatment.

In particular, for Dinh H'Lơnh (9th grade student), Mr. Tung contacted and asked for 100% support for the surgery cost from the "Heart Fund for Children". With the support, Mr. Tung and H'Lơnh overcame many difficulties during social distancing due to the Covid epidemic to go to Ho Chi Minh City to perform heart surgery.

Teacher Tung has called on and led many students to treat incurable diseases (Photo: NVCC).

Dinh Phyem (6th grade student) has a skin disease and was funded by teacher Tung to be sent to Quy Nhon City for treatment.

In the 2020-2021 school year alone, Mr. Tung donated 10 bicycles, 100 uniforms, 100 moon cakes and nearly 200 gifts to poor students with a value of nearly 100 million VND.

Many Po To students considered Mr. Tung as a father. Since then, the situation of students dropping out of school has almost disappeared.

With the above work, Mr. Tung was honored to receive the title of grassroots emulation fighter and was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Prime Minister. He was also one of 24 typical advanced examples invited to Hanoi to attend the Ho Chi Minh - Journey of Aspiration program in 2022.

"Staying up all night" to find ways to change teaching and learning

Over the past years, Mr. Bui Quang Vinh - Principal of Tran Cao Van High School (Ia Hlop Commune, Chu Se District, Gia Lai) - has brought new winds to teaching and learning in Chu Se District in particular and Gia Lai Province in general. He has boldly applied new-age educational methods into each lesson.

Mr. Vinh said that since 2016, the school only had a row of classrooms and everything was patched together. Students who wanted to go to school had to overcome many difficulties.

For many years, students have met with Mr. Vinh to hand over their game accounts and make a commitment not to play in order to focus on studying (Photo: NVCC).

"I want the school to be the second home for the children. That's why I've been thinking about, researching, and applying new educational methods to help the children feel comfortable, not bound by boring lessons, but still ensure effective learning," Mr. Vinh confided.

The movement "Teachers, we can change" at Mr. Vinh's school received many positive reviews in Gia Lai province.

Specifically, students in the school are always able to participate in surveys, evaluate, and give feedback about their teachers. They are able to express what they want their teachers to change.

Thanks to that, many teachers in the school have also changed positively and have a better understanding of what students want. When they are allowed to speak their minds, students are also more conscious in their studies. The relationship between teachers and students is closer and they understand each other better.

Every year, Mr. Vinh mobilizes local philanthropists to ask for rice and necessities for poor students in the school (Photo: NVCC).

Mr. Vinh also promotes the application of information technology in school management and teaching.

Recently, Tran Cao Van High School is using Microsoft Teams software with the support of the Vietnam Student Association. With the use of the software, the Board of Directors and homeroom teachers can perform almost all student management and teaching tasks on the software system.

Accordingly, teachers can use electronic lesson plans to teach, with data sources illustrating the lessons visually and vividly through videos and images.

Thanks to the conversion of new educational methods, teaching and learning for students becomes more interesting, attractive, and increases the effectiveness of lesson absorption (Photo: NVCC).

"During the Covid-19 pandemic, I researched a lot of software to help improve online management, teaching and learning. Once I had chosen the right software, I stayed up all night to learn online how to use the software. Once I had mastered it, I disseminated it to teachers and students in the school," said Mr. Vinh.

In addition to teaching, Principal Vinh is dedicated to promoting education. Every year, Mr. Vinh and the school's teachers have mobilized hundreds of scholarships from benefactors to support students.

Typically, in the 2021-2022 school year, scholarships were awarded to 49 students with a total amount of 198 million VND. In the 2022-2023 school year, scholarships were awarded to 64 students with a total amount of 365 million VND.

According to statistics, over the past 5 years, Mr. Vinh and his team of teachers have mobilized more than one billion VND to help poor students.

To make the study encouragement activities more in-depth and practical, teachers in the school regularly visit the homes of disadvantaged students in the class to understand their thoughts and aspirations. From there, they provide practical support to help them not drop out of school.

Teachers often visit students' homes to learn about their circumstances and encourage them to actively attend school (Photo: NVCC).

Dam Van Giang (grade 12 student) has been supported by the school with a scholarship of 500,000 VND/month for the past 3 years. The teachers in the school all give him free extra lessons. Thanks to that, Giang can go to class with peace of mind.

The school has mobilized parents and students to sign a commitment to create all conditions for students to continue going to school and not drop out.

"I am very grateful to Mr. Vinh and all the teachers at the school. My family has 3 siblings and our economic situation is difficult. Without the monthly support, it would be difficult for me to continue my studies. I dream of passing the entrance exam to a gifted school so that I can pursue my passion for martial arts," Giang confided.

The care of teachers has helped students in disadvantaged areas achieve success in their studies (Photo: NVCC).

Over the years, Mr. Vinh has also launched the movement "Each teacher sponsors a student in difficult circumstances". Specifically, teachers sponsor according to their ability to have appropriate support such as school supplies, clothes or necessities.

When teachers see students at risk of dropping out, they will visit their homes to find out the reasons, encourage and persuade them to return to school. On average, each year, about 30-40 students of the school are sponsored.

With those changes, for many consecutive years, Tran Cao Van High School received the title of Excellent Laborer and was awarded many Certificates of Merit by the Chairman of Gia Lai Provincial People's Committee.

In the 2020-2021 school year, the school was honored to receive the emulation flag from the Chairman of the Gia Lai Provincial People's Committee. In the 2021-2022 school year, the school's high school graduation rate reached 100%.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/nhung-giao-vien-nang-long-voi-su-nghiep-trong-nguoi-o-vung-cao-20221117111727428.htm