Math teacher spent 10 years saving each child in the highlands from the practice of child marriage

Free math lessons for kids who don't believe they can be good at it

Hong Thai Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities is nestled at the foot of mountains over 1,000m high in the old Na Hang district, Tuyen Quang province - where every morning, the school yard is covered in white mist and the feet of Dao and Mong students are still covered in mud when they go to class. The road to school has many steep passes, and is occasionally eroded by floods.

There, for more than 10 years now, teacher Duong Kim Ngan (born in 1992) has quietly started each day earlier than the sound of jungle fowls and finished later than the fire in the kitchen at dusk.

Ms. Ngan was born and raised in Cao Bang . Her father was also a teacher. After graduating from Thai Nguyen University of Education, Ms. Ngan worked in Tuyen Quang and has been attached to Hong Thai school ever since.

Ms. Duong Kim Ngan - teacher at Hong Thai Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, Tuyen Quang province (Photo: Hai Long).

10 years of teaching in Hong Thai is also 10 years that Ms. Ngan has brought highland children into math.

In addition to the regular classes in class, she focuses on students who have not yet mastered the knowledge and skills needed to study in the afternoon. She also opens review classes for 9th grade students preparing for the 10th grade entrance exam, to help them consolidate theory, practice test-taking skills, and prepare well for the transfer exam. All classes are free.

Sharing with Dan Tri reporter , Ms. Duong Kim Ngan said that most of her students come from difficult and deprived circumstances. If they want them to study hard, teachers must find every way to encourage and "entice" them.

“If students are weak in a subject, they will be self-conscious about it. And when they are self-conscious, they will study even worse. Therefore, I have to do everything I can to help them regain their confidence that they can also do well in math.

What motivates me more is the determination to change in their eyes. They truly yearn for a better future through education. I want to nurture that belief in them, that education will help them overcome mountains and forests, fly high and far,” Ms. Ngan expressed.

To teach weak students, Ms. Ngan spends a lot of time preparing exercises in a close, practical way with levels from easy to difficult. She chooses to teach slowly, with concise and easy-to-understand language because most of the students are ethnic minorities and speak Vietnamese as a second language.

Whenever the children got it right, even if the calculation was easy, she took the opportunity to praise them. And when they made a mistake, she encouraged them to think and do it again.

For grade 9, she closely tutors students on each subject. Every 2-3 months, she gives 1-2 mock tests so that students can identify weak areas of knowledge, detect common mistakes and promptly correct them.

“I always remind students that high or low scores are not important, what is important is that they improve every day and have confidence in themselves,” Ms. Ngan said.

Math teacher for 10 years saves each child in the highlands from the custom of early marriage - 2

Image of Ms. Kim Ngan in daily life (Photo: NVCC).

Over the years, Ms. Ngan and her highland students have reaped sweet rewards.

In the 3 consecutive school years from 2021 to 2024, the quality of the 10th grade math entrance exam of students at Hong Thai Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities was higher than the average score of the whole province. Many students passed the entrance exam to famous high schools in and outside the province such as Tuyen Quang Provincial Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, Na Hang Secondary and High School for Ethnic Minorities, Viet Bac High School for Ethnic Minorities, Friendship School 80, etc.

"Clever mass mobilization" to keep students in mountainous areas with letters

In Hong Thai, persuading a student not to marry early is sometimes more difficult than teaching them to solve a multi-step math problem. Many of them grow up in Dao and Mong villages, where early marriage is considered natural and long-term education is a luxury.

For Ms. Ngan, student counseling has therefore become the most time-consuming part of her job outside of class hours.

Ms. Ngan's conversations with her students often start with small things, asking about family and study, then slowly explaining to them about the legal age of marriage and the consequences of leaving school too early.

She mentioned cases of early marriage with many difficulties in life, and at the same time introduced to the children learning examples of people in the village, thanks to knowledge, the future is bright, returning to their hometown to work in the medical field, the education field...

Math teacher for 10 years saves each child in the highlands from the custom of early marriage - 3

Ms. Kim Ngan at the Ceremony to Celebrate Vietnamese Teachers' Day November 20 and the 8th Patriotic Emulation Congress of the Education Sector held in Hanoi on the morning of November 17 (Photo: Hai Long).

At the same time, to ensure that the propaganda work does not only depend on the school, Ms. Ngan established a club to prevent child marriage. Each month, the club will have activities based on a theme with various forms such as drawing, performing skits, and answering situational questions. In addition, she also trains and develops students in speaking, interpreting, and presenting skills so that they can truly become young propagandists about child marriage.

These activities gradually created opportunities for students to stand in front of the class and express their own opinions. Seeing students organize an extracurricular activity and set up propaganda billboards, Ms. Ngan was moved to realize that her children had truly changed and were helping each other change.

But to overcome the barrier of child marriage, propaganda alone is not enough. In many cases, Ms. Ngan herself had to visit the student’s home 5 to 7 times, find enough arguments, and provide both material and spiritual support to be able to sway the parents.

One of the students that Ms. Ngan successfully rescued from the hands of the evil custom of child marriage was D. - a beautiful 14-year-old Mong girl.

One day at the beginning of the second semester of grade 9, D. suddenly asked to leave school with the reason of wanting to get married to reduce the financial burden on her parents. D.'s family has five siblings, she is the eldest. Upon hearing the news, Ms. Ngan immediately dropped all her work and went with other teachers to D.'s house, met with her parents to analyze the legal consequences as well as the difficulties that early marriage can bring.

After much persuasion by Ms. Ngan, D.'s family finally agreed to let him return to school. But three days later, D. still missed school. Unsure, Ms. Ngan went back to the house, this time with D.'s classmates. Faced with the teacher's determination, D.'s parents had to tell the truth: they had no money to support him, so they had to let D. stay home and help them for a while before getting married. "Someone has come to ask for his hand in marriage."

Fearing that she would lose her student, Ms. Ngan reported to the Board of Directors to launch a fundraising campaign for D.'s family. Everyone contributed whatever they had, from rice, clothes, supplies, and cash. The purpose of the fundraising was not to solve the problem, but to show the family that if D. continued to study, he would not be alone.

Finally, D.'s parents were touched by the sincerity of the teachers and the school. D. returned to class. After completing junior high school, he studied at Na Hang Vocational Education - Continuing Education Center. In the 2023-2024 school year, he graduated from high school.

For Ms. Ngan, cases like D. are not rare. On average, each year, she rescues 5-6 students from child marriage. In recent years, Hong Thai school has no more students dropping out to get married, contributing to maintaining universal education in the whole commune.

When asked about the difficulties she still keeps hidden in her heart, Ms. Ngan honestly said: "It is that I have spent too much time and mind on my students and school, sometimes neglecting my family."

Hong Thai School is a boarding school, the children are far away from their parents, living and studying at school. There are days when after 4-5 morning classes, Ms. Ngan has to be on duty at the boarding school, not going home but staying to supervise the students' meals and sleep. When the children take a nap, she has time to quickly eat a pack of noodles or a cake to prepare for the afternoon class. "We worry about the children more than we worry about our own children," she said.

However, what makes her persevere is the diligence and effort of her students. Every time she sees a Hmong or Dao student get high scores, confidently stand in front of the class or get into a dream school, she is so happy that she forgets all the hardships. It proves that they can go as far as anyone else, if they have the conditions and faith.

On her personal page, Ms. Ngan left a caption: "Live normally but not mediocrely." That is both her ideal in life and the expectation she sends to her students: Always strive to overcome yourself, overcome familiar mountain slopes, so that one day you can return and help the children in Hong Thai - where you grew up.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/co-giao-day-toan-10-nam-gianh-tung-dua-tre-vung-cao-khoi-hu-tuc-tao-hon-20251117211451279.htm