'As long as I have health, I will teach poor students to read and write!'

At over 80 years old, Ms. Kinh is still diligently and tirelessly teaching with a strange love for her students! In this rural area, many poor Khmer families love and admire her and affectionately call her "the Fairy of the children".

Ms. Kinh when she was teaching "Love Class"

Later, due to her health not being as good as before, and her children and grandchildren wanting her to take care of her health, Ms. Kinh had to leave the podium after more than 50 years of working inthe education sector, with the charity classes that she worked hard to build.

Going back in time to see more clearly and deeply the image of a thin, frail teacher but hiding great determination and great compassion for the miserable, unfortunate lives...

The Beginning of a Khmer Girl's Teaching Career

Born into a poor family in Phu Tam commune (Chau Thanh district, Soc Trang province), since childhood, little Kinh had to brave the sun and rain to catch snails and crabs, harvest rice for hire, and glean rice in the fields after the harvest...

Thanks to her mother being a teacher at a village school, despite her family's difficult circumstances, little Kính's parents still saved up enough to send her to school.

Following her mother's footsteps, in 1958, she entered the teaching profession with a great desire to contribute to this remote and isolated land.

In 1967, she followed her husband to Ke Sach town, Ke Sach district, Soc Trang province. The years of teaching left her with a deep love for children, especially Khmer primary school students.

She thought to herself: "Poverty is not a crime, but is due to the circumstances and starting point of each family. One of the first causes of poverty is lack of education! With education, there will be knowledge, understanding... I hope this generation of children will grow up to be different, will change their lives from the education at school."

Love your students as you love yourself

In 1992, Ms. Kinh retired but still yearned for the gentle little students she had once worked with. The fire of enthusiasm and love burned again, and coincidentally, that was also the time when the policy and plan for universal primary education were put forward - at the time when Soc Trang province was re-established.

With her love and responsibility, she passionately and boldly proposed to open a "Love Class" for illiterate Khmer children and was approved by the authorities. In the beginning, starting from zero, she borrowed a pagoda in Ke Sach town as a temporary learning location.

The name "Love Class" is true to its meaning! Because gathered here are children of all ages, barefoot, bareheaded, hair sunburned from having to work with their parents to sell lottery tickets, work for hire...

With her old bicycle, she roamed around the hamlets to find each uneducated student, whom she jokingly called "picking up students", and asked their parents to take them to class.

She classifies each group according to relative levels to teach effectively because each child's learning ability and receptiveness are different. The charity class must both "teach" and "coax" the children with true love; with patience and perseverance to "win over" the children, so that they cooperate to study and play together.

Realizing that the method of teaching on schedule, on time, on day cannot be applied to this "Charity Class" because the number of students always fluctuates depending on the season, because sometimes when the semester is almost over, they have to take a leave of absence to follow their parents to work far away..., she thought that there must be another way, more suitable, closer to reality. That is the "credit" learning method: when students complete a part, the result of that part is recorded, only when they complete the entire program can they move up to the next class.

This method, which she colloquially calls "turn off the fire when the rice is cooked", creates conditions for the children to return to school and complete the prescribed program. She confided that if she loves them, she loves them to the end, not giving up halfway, poor things...

This effective method was accepted by the district education department, which included her charity classes in the literacy program. On the other hand, the education department also provided partial funding and learning materials such as pens, notebooks, and textbooks to encourage and motivate her and her students.

In this "Love Class", during recess, she sits and braids and combs each girl's hair, confiding in them like a mother confiding in her child, from taking care of her body during menstruation to avoiding risks in life. Because of poverty and illiterate parents, there is not much sex education for their children. The children grow up like gourds and squashes, so they are easily sexually abused. With the boys, she gently advises them not to fight or swear; not to practice drinking or smoking because it will cause many consequences later.

In her free time at home, she would bring her students' torn clothes home to mend and sew... At these times, she was not only a teacher but also a close, dear mother and grandmother to the children and the poor.

The poor students were taught and grew up every day when she wholeheartedly instructed them, from small things to big things... "Every day at school is a happy day", a day of gaining more knowledge, from understanding each letter to understanding the ways of life and lifestyle that Ms. Kinh taught through each page of the book, each easy-to-understand, easy-to-remember story.

Her teaching in the "Charity Class" was effective, "good news spread far and wide", so many social organizations of the district and province enthusiastically supported her; provided notebooks, clothes, school bags; and even sponsored field trips and sightseeing trips. Therefore, parents and students were more excited, and rarely dropped out of school halfway. The Po Thi Kh' Sach Pagoda where she borrowed to teach also created many favorable conditions in the beginning when there was no separate classroom.

The image of Ms. Kinh, her voice trembling with each breath but still diligently instructing each stroke and each lesson for her students, made everyone admire and love the noble personality of the Khmer teacher...

Joy from the sweet fruits of life

If on average, each charity class has 20-25 students, then during her decades of involvement, she has contributed to eliminating illiteracy and training over 1,000 students for the locality.

Many children move on to junior high school and then to high school every year. Literacy has opened up bright futures for poor Khmer students.

Many children have grown up from the "Love Class", joined the army, police, became teachers... but they do not forget that on November 20th, they invite each other to visit their respected, loving, tolerant, and generous teacher.

With her contributions to the education cause, Ms. Kinh was awarded the medal "For the cause of protecting and caring for Vietnamese children", received many Certificates of Merit from the Provincial People's Committee, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee and many certificates of merit from the locality and departments in Soc Trang province.

Ms. Kinh proudly and excitedly said: "Thanks to the knowledge, the children's faces are now brighter and fresher. I'm so happy!"

Your progress, maturity, and becoming useful to society are the greatest and most wonderful rewards I have received! Not everyone has this lifelong honor, right?

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/con-suc-khoe-tui-con-cho-tro-ngheo-cai-chu-185230919172650513.htm