Tay teacher 'stands side by side' with poor students

Do everything to send students to school

Ms. Dong Thi Thoa is a Chemistry teacher at Dinh Lap High School, Dinh Lap District ( Lang Son ). Born and raised in Cao Loc District, a border district of Lang Son Province, since her school days, Ms. Thoa has been very studious and always strived to achieve good results.

Ms. Dong Thi Thoa, teacher at Dinh Lap High School, guides students to review the lesson.

With her strong point in studying natural sciences , after graduating from high school, she decided to take the entrance exam for Chemistry Pedagogy at Thai Nguyen University of Education. Ms. Thoa said: “Before 2010, in my hometown, there was one person who passed the university entrance exam, which was the pride of the whole commune. Because in the commune, the number of people who went to university could be counted on the fingers of one hand, especially women, and those who passed the pedagogy major were even rarer.”

In 2013, after graduating from university, Ms. Thoa passed the civil service exam and was assigned to work at Dinh Lap High School. In the first years of working at the school, Ms. Thoa often shed tears when hearing that her students had to drop out of school because of their families' financial difficulties. The Tay teacher was heartbroken by the fact that many families forced their children to drop out of school to help with the economy.

“When I heard the news, I felt so sorry for the children. They are still young and have many dreams ahead of them in life. Instead of going to school every day to study and explore new horizons of knowledge, they have to go to the forest to collect pine resin or work as factory workers in industrial zones to make a living.

Many times, when my colleagues and I heard that students were dropping out of school, we went to their homes to encourage them and ask their parents to let them return to school to finish high school. When they are 18 years old, having a high school diploma will make it easier for them to find a job. However, all we got in return was a shake of the head from their families. We felt extremely heartbroken,” Ms. Thoa confided.

Sympathizing with and understanding the hardships and disadvantages that students face when they are away from home to study, Ms. Thoa does not mind the difficulties, determined to stay in school, stay in class, and bring knowledge to her students. In addition to teaching knowledge, Ms. Thoa always takes the time to talk, share, encourage and guide students in soft skills, self-protection skills when living away from family, and how to nurture ambitions and dreams...

During her many years working at Dinh Lap High School, Ms. Thoa has always been concerned about how to keep students in class. She has worked closely with the class officers to understand and listen to the students' difficulties. When she sees a student at risk of dropping out of school, after each lesson she takes time to talk to the student and find a solution. Thanks to the closeness of Ms. Thoa and her colleagues, in recent years, Dinh Lap High School has no more students dropping out of school.

Youth in the highlands

As a young teacher, fresh out of school and working in a poor mountainous district, her love for the profession has helped Ms. Thoa overcome all difficulties, dedicating her youth to the highland school. In the 2019-2020 school year, Ms. Thoa was assigned by the school board and colleagues to take on the role of Head of the Chemistry Department of the school and carry out the task of nurturing excellent students in Chemistry to participate in the annual provincial excellent student competitions.

In the 2020-2021 school year, in the context of the complicated developments of the Covid-19 pandemic, students had to switch to online learning. In the mountainous area where Ms. Thoa works, many students come from poor families and do not have equipment or internet access, making teaching and learning extremely difficult and tiring.

Worried that students being distracted by the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic would affect their graduation exam results, the Board of Directors of Dinh Lap High School borrowed the location of the Dinh Lap District Boarding Secondary School for Ethnic Minority Students to let students without smartphones or Internet access to study online come and stay here to study in person. At that time, Ms. Thoa and her colleagues took turns cooking for the students. "In addition to teaching students during the day to review their graduation exams, we also went to school in the evening to tutor them, especially those who were weak in their studies and at risk of failing the graduation exam," Ms. Thoa shared.

Having worked with Ms. Thoa for many years, Ms. Tran Thi Xuan, Principal of Dinh Lap High School, said: “Ms. Thoa is a teacher with solid expertise; high awareness of self-improvement. She always works responsibly and is willing to help her colleagues. For her students, she is always dedicated, spending a lot of time teaching as well as accompanying them so that they can study with peace of mind.”

Source: https://moet.gov.vn/tintuc/Pages/tin-tong-hop.aspx?ItemID=9620