Minister of Education and Training: Teachers must overcome their own limits

(Dan Tri) - Honoring outstanding teachers representing 1.6 million teachers, Minister Nguyen Kim Son reminded teachers to constantly self-study, overcome their own limits to best promote their excellence.

"Ginger gets spicier with time, teachers get better with years"

The 16th ceremony to award the title of People's Teacher and Excellent Teacher to units under the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) and honor outstanding teachers in 2024 took place on the morning of November 17 in Hanoi.

The event honored 21 People's Teachers, 65 Excellent Teachers and 251 outstanding teachers representing 1.6 million teachers nationwide.

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son affirmed that education is a difficult task. True education, in accordance with ethics, aiming for high quality, attracting learners, spreading the spirit of creativity and endless inspiration for learning to learners is even more difficult.

Minister Nguyen Kim Son awarded the title of People's Teacher conferred bythe President to teachers (Photo: Tran Hiep).

"The ancients said, "Ginger gets spicier with time, teachers get better with age." I sincerely hope that teachers will continue to self-study, self-renew, overcome their own limits to best promote their excellence.

Teachers are the elite who need to be the core for solving new and difficult problems.

Excellence does not wait to be assigned or requested, but that excellence needs to be demonstrated through a spirit of dedication, responsibility, initiative, and positivity in what has been done, is being done, and needs to be done for the country's education," the Minister advised.

Minister Nguyen Kim Son also pointed out the challenging tasks that the education sector will have to face in the new context.

After a successful initial process of innovation in general education and higher education, the education sector must focus on innovation and upgrading preschool education.

Many issues are raised such as mobilizing children to go to school, implementing a new preschool education program, universalizing preschool education by age, ensuring enough teachers, enough facilities, mobilizing social resources, taking care of facilities, school safety, preventing violence and food safety, having enough teachers and ensuring conditions for teachers to feel secure in their work.

Art performance to celebrate the event honoring teachers on the morning of November 17 (Photo: Tran Hiep).

In addition, general education has reached the point of completing the first cycle of curriculum and textbook innovation, requiring an evaluation of the implementation process, drawing on experience, and adjusting necessary content to carry out innovation in more depth.

Many issues will need to be thoroughly and deeply resolved, such as human development in the new challenges of digital education, artificial intelligence, and making English the second language in schools.

For higher education, along with the implementation of university autonomy in depth, one of the immediate tasks that needs to be carried out is to modernize teaching facilities, laboratories, and research equipment, which are still very poor and outdated compared to advanced universities in the world.

Education is not only about the mind but also about the heart.

Sharing at the ceremony, Ms. Vu Thi Hanh - Vice Principal of Chu Van An High School, Yen Bai province, 1 of 21 People's Teachers in 2024 - quoted Uncle Ho's teachings that she always kept in mind as a guideline for her career: "Teachers must find ways to teach. What to teach, how to teach so that students understand quickly, remember for a long time, and progress quickly".

Helping students understand quickly, remember for a long time, and progress quickly is a challenging goal for any teacher, requiring the individual teacher to constantly research, study, and be creative in teaching methods.

Ms. Hanh shared that in each lesson, she invests in research to find a suitable teaching method with the principle: in each lesson, knowledge must be condensed, focused, not spread out.

Lectures must maximize students' activeness so that they can discover and explore knowledge themselves, then they will remember it for a long time. Besides, learning must go hand in hand with practice, linking theory with real life, which will make students see the meaning of each subject.

"Not only imparting knowledge, I believe that education is not only with the mind but also with the heart, and must also "teach people" to my dear students.

"Sincere love and proper care from each teacher can guide students to overcome difficulties and challenges and become exemplary students and useful citizens for society," said Ms. Hanh.

Among the more than 300 teachers honored on the morning of November 17 was Ms. Hoang Thi Huyen Trang, Principal of Be Trieu Kindergarten, Hoa An district, Cao Bang province.

One of Ms. Trang’s outstanding achievements is her initiative to improve the method of calculating food portions for children in kindergartens. This initiative has been replicated in all kindergartens in Hiep Hoa district and neighboring districts of Cao Bang province.

Ms. Hoang Thi Huyen Trang - Principal of Be Trieu Kindergarten, Cao Bang (Photo: Hoang Hong).

In difficult socio-economic conditions, kindergartens do not have the funds to buy specialized software to calculate food rations for children. The school does not have its own kitchen team in charge, so teachers have to take on the responsibility of calculating daily food rations for children.

Manual calculation is complicated, prone to errors, and requires a lot of time and effort. Not only that, a wrong calculation can significantly affect the quality of the lunch meal, such as lack of food, lack of quantity per meal, lack of nutrition, etc.

Ms. Trang has researched a spreadsheet on Excel, with pre-installed calculation formulas. Teachers only need to enter input data such as the number of students, the quantity of food portions to calculate the detailed portion, from which they can calculate the amount of food that needs to be purchased or supplemented for each day, each meal.

Ms. Trang's spreadsheet can be used without an internet connection and is convenient to use. Teachers' workload is reduced. The quality of boarding meals is improved. Children are fed well and well.

Ms. Trang is from Thai Nguyen, graduated from Thai Nguyen University of Education, majoring in preschool education. She went to Cao Bang to work right after graduating and has stayed there for the past 15 years, despite the difficult and harsh conditions in the locality.

"Choosing the teaching profession means not being afraid of difficulties or hardships. If I was afraid of difficulties or hardships, I would not have chosen this profession," Ms. Trang shared.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/bo-truong-bo-gddt-nha-giao-phai-vuot-qua-gioi-han-cua-ban-than-20241117114251068.htm