Touching stories of the teaching profession at the Vo Truong Toan Award ceremony

On the evening of November 19, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City held a ceremony to honor outstanding teachers in the cause of building, innovating and developing education and training in Ho Chi Minh City (1975-2025) and presented the 28th Vo Truong Toan Award in 2025.

This year, the number of managers and teachers nominated for the Vo Truong Toan Award nearly doubled compared to 2024.

Of which, the secondary school level has the most nominations with 63 people, followed by the primary school level with 57 people, the preschool level with 48 people, the high school level with 35 people and the Continuing Education system, the Department of Culture - Social Affairs under the People's Committee of the ward and commune has 24 people.

At the exchange, the teachers receiving this award shared very emotional stories about their profession and innovative ideas in teaching.

TP HCM vinh danh nhà giáo tiêu biểu, 9 cá nhân được trao huân chương lao động của Chủ tịch nước - Ảnh 6. — Stories about a difficult but also happy profession

Ms. Pham Thi Ngoc Tuyen, a teacher at Thao Dien Special Education School (An Khanh Ward), emotionally said she was overwhelmed with happiness when she heard her student babble his first words.

Although they are also teachers, the work of specialized teachers is much more difficult. Not only do they impart knowledge, they also teach children daily living skills, help them learn self-care and basic communication.

Ms. Tuyen confided that children in special education have many difficulties in communication, many of them cannot speak. She has often felt helpless because she could not understand what her students meant.

That’s why she came up with the idea of posting illustrations around the classroom such as: Cake, water, notebook, book, toilet… Initially, students would run to point at the symbols they needed. After a while, Ms. Tuyen guided the children to repeat the single words of those symbols. Day by day, the children gradually understood better and actively communicated, knowing how to speak up when they needed something.

"Although those are just very basic words, unclear in pronunciation and meaning, they somehow show an effective teaching method, the children are receptive and try hard" - Ms. Tuyen said happily.

TP HCM vinh danh nhà giáo tiêu biểu, 9 cá nhân được trao huân chương lao động của Chủ tịch nước - Ảnh 7. — Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Van Thi Bach Tuyet (right) and Ms. Tran Thi Dieu Thuy, Vice Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, presented certificates of merit to teachers.

TP HCM vinh danh nhà giáo tiêu biểu, 9 cá nhân được trao huân chương lao động của Chủ tịch nước - Ảnh 8. — Through the selection process, the Department of Education and Training has selected 50 managers and teachers with the most outstanding achievements to present awards. Among them, the person with the lowest number of years of experience is 15 years, the longest is 35 years of work.

During her work, Ms. Phan Thi Ngoc Bich, a teacher at Tran Nguyen Han High School (Tam Thang Ward), has proactively improved her digital skills by participating in intensive courses on artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalizing lectures. She aims to develop students' digital skills through her lessons.

"In class, I guide students to look up information from AI tools, and at the same time guide them to cross-check and evaluate the reliability of each collected information. This method also helps students practice critical thinking," Ms. Bich added.

The female teacher affirmed that AI does not replace teachers, on the contrary, AI helps to enhance the value of teachers even more when humans can master technology.