Education has never been as important as it is today.
Speaking at the program, Minister Nguyen Kim Son shared: For many years now, every time the Vietnamese Teachers' Day, November 20, the Ministry of Education and Training has coordinated with Vietnam Television to organize the program Thay Loi Tri An. This is also a deep gratitude to the teaching staff across the country.
The program has become a bridge connecting love, expressing affection, recognizing the contributions of teachers and spreading the noble and humane values of the teaching profession.
With the theme "Lighting up the future", this year's program has many profound meanings, affirming that teachers bring light to generations of students.
Education is the profession of sowing seeds and nurturing the future, silently but persistently, quietly but brilliantly. Teachers are the ones who light the fire of knowledge, creative inspiration, build personality, create trust and aspiration in each student; turn knowledge into light so that students can illuminate their own path to adulthood and create their own future.
The anniversary of November 20 this year has a profound historical significance, associated with the 80th anniversary of the country's founding and the tradition of the education sector. Never before has the education and training sector had such a position, mission and concern as it does today. Education and training is the top national policy that determines the future of the nation.
Teachers are considered the driving force for educational development, the decisive factor in the quality of education. Many new policies have been issued by the Party and the State to develop the teaching staff. This is a great joy, encouragement and motivation for those who are working in education.
This year, for the first time, the teaching profession has been codified in the Law on Teachers, replacing the spirit of respecting teachers as a culture and social custom. From now on, the promotion of educators, the development of the teaching staff, the responsibilities and obligations of teachers, and the protection of teachers have been codified in law.
Ethics combined with the law creates certainty, sustainability and transparency for the profession of teachers. This is an honor and a condition for teachers to promote their social role.
To the teachers, Minister Nguyen Kim Son shared: The Party, the State, society, parents, and all students honor and give us good feelings, respect and love, gratitude and affection. On our part, we also need to do what is worthy. Teachers need to be grateful to society for bringing nobility to their profession.
Every day in the highlands is a beautiful journey
With the theme "Lighting up the future", the program "Instead of gratitude" 2025 is a journey of emotions and beautiful stories about the teaching profession - where each teacher is a silent but persistent flame that contributes to lighting up the future for millions of students.
The emotional flow leads the audience to the touching story of the teachers of Thach Lam Kindergarten (Quang Lam commune, Cao Bang ) carrying each package of food across streams and mountains to bring meals with meat to their students. They walk in the fog, on the long road, just to exchange for the smiles and eager eyes of the children in the highlands.
From 5am, teacher Nong Le Luyen started to tie nearly 20kg of food and a backpack of books onto an old motorbike. The journey to Ho Nhi school - more than 16km from the main school - was a challenging one. She could only ride her motorbike for about 5km, then had to walk, carry food and books uphill and across streams for nearly two hours to pick up the children at 7am.
Except for storms, landslide warnings, and dangers, this journey has never been delayed. Once, when crossing a stream, the water rose high and she fell, all the vegetables and fruits fell, she cried because she could not bring food to her students. "It is not a task, no one pays me, but because the children do not have enough rice and food to eat every day, I try to carry food for them to eat every day," said Ms. Luyen.
On the stage of Thay Loi Tuong, Ms. Nong Le Luyen sent a message to her colleagues at remote schools: Every day in the highlands is a beautiful journey, where we sow letters and sow love. Don't be afraid of difficulties or hardships because they will make us more mature. Bringing letters to students in the highlands is always a great happiness for every teacher.
Ms. Luyen also expressed her wish to have a road to the school so that students would not fall, so that people would have less trouble traveling, so that teachers could safely go to the school rain or shine, so that she could bring food to school without any trouble. She wished for electricity so that students could have fans to cool down, and for a phone signal to make it easier to contact parents.
Sharing more about the journey of teachers in the highlands, Ms. Nong Thi Hang Thao, a teacher at Na O school, said: The classroom is in a state of disrepair, and she and her students have to study at the village cultural house, with a makeshift kitchen, and homemade utensils and toys made from recycled materials. The school lacks water, so they have to ask for help from local people. The students live far away, are in difficult circumstances, and do not have enough food or clothes.
The school is about 8km from the commune center. When it is sunny, you can go by car, but when it rains, you have to walk because the road is very slippery. If you are unlucky, you can fall straight into the waterfall. There was a teacher who fell and broke her arm on her way to work. Although the road to school is still difficult, she always strives to overcome the difficulties, contributing her little effort to the children in the highlands.
Ms. Vuong Thi Ve - Vice Principal of Thach Lam Kindergarten, shared: Currently, the school has 16 campuses, of which 7 are disadvantaged campuses. Right from the beginning of the school year, the school's Board of Directors listened to the wishes, then assigned tasks appropriate to the abilities of each teacher.
During the school year, the Board of Directors also visits each school and classroom to visit and encourage teachers to stay with the school and classroom. They especially coordinate with the village schools to visit the children's families, thereby promoting parents to send their children to school more often. They regularly encourage and create a friendly and united working environment, always listening to teachers' opinions.
Nurturing the dream of going to school for students in remote areas
In the middle of the dirt roads, in the middle of the remote villages of the Central Highlands, Ms. Pham Thi Hong - Literature teacher, Tran Quoc Toan Secondary School, Nam Ka Commune (Dak Lak), still quietly and regularly goes to each house to call students to class. For nearly 10 years, that journey has never stopped.
According to teachers here, at the beginning of the new school year or after the Lunar New Year holiday, some students, due to poverty, stay home to help their parents with farming, or drop out of school to go to the southern provinces to work as workers. There are also cases where, due to tradition, they get married early...
There were times when Ms. Hong traveled dozens of kilometers just to convince a mother to let her child continue studying. Like the case of Vu Thi Sanh (Mong village, Plao Sieng hamlet, Nam Ka commune, Dak Lak) - a Mong female student who lost her father in 8th grade, and almost had to drop out of school to work for hire.
Ms. Hong not only came to persuade and persuade Sanh's mother to let her son go to school once, but many times in different periods of time, even after junior high school. Ms. Hong herself not only helped with food and tuition, but also asked friends, colleagues and the press to support Sanh so that he could continue to finish high school with good results and be admitted to the Jrai Primary Education program at Tay Nguyen University.
Now, the “seeds” like Vu Thi Sanh and other students that Ms. Hong has nurtured are gradually growing, becoming the most genuine evidence on the steadfast journey of the “ferryman”. For students in remote areas, Ms. Hong is not only a teacher, but also a person who opens the way for their future.
Ms. Hong could not forget the first time she received a gift from a student: “The student walked into the classroom, his shirt was worn out, his sandals had broken straps and had to be tied back, his hair was sunburned and yellow. He said nothing, just shyly held out the flower: This is for me! That moment moved me to the point of being speechless and I realized that my choice to study pedagogy was absolutely correct.”
Ms. Pham Thi Hong is not only a teacher, but also a “bridge” connecting countless hearts to help poor students continue to go to school. Thanks to her, many students have warm clothes, new sandals, full books, and more importantly, they are given more confidence so that they do not give up their dream of studying.
“I hope that the local people’s knowledge will be raised, so that parents will pay more attention to education. I hope that there will be more scholarships and more attention from benefactors for disadvantaged areas, not just where I am teaching, so that students who strive to improve will have the opportunity to continue studying,” Ms. Hong expressed.
Inspirational stories
In the context of rapid changes in education, many teachers are making efforts to innovate and innovate teaching and learning methods to help students proactively acquire and apply knowledge into practice. One of the typical models is the "flipped classroom" initiated by Dr. Le Trong Duc - a teacher at Hau Nghia High School (Tay Ninh), and recognized as a provincial initiative in 2024.
In this model, students no longer passively listen to lectures throughout the lesson but study at home through videos and documents prepared by the teacher. When in class, time is spent on discussion, practice and solving practical situations. This change helps each lesson become more lively, while improving students' self-study ability and knowledge application skills.
The surprising and touching thing in the program was the special meeting between teacher Nguyen Thi Tuyet Hoa and her former student - Dr. Le Trong Duc. Looking at her student, who was once small and gentle, traveling a long distance to come to class, now becoming a dedicated teacher, she could not hide her pride.
She emotionally shared: “In the past, Duc was small and gentle. He had a hard time studying, but he loved to learn. He graduated and then went on to study for a master's and doctorate... Today, standing here watching him grow up, I feel all the sacrifices were worth it.”
For Dr. Le Trong Duc, the journey to becoming a teacher is also a journey of overcoming himself. He said he used to be a student lacking in confidence, until he met a teacher who helped him see that Chemistry was no longer dry but a world worth exploring.
“I just want my students to explore, try and make mistakes, and have fun. Therefore, I changed the way I teach. I take them to the lab, let them do it themselves and understand it themselves. When students really experience it, they will be much more proactive,” Mr. Duc shared.
The program also brings the inspirational story of Associate Professor Dr. Truong Thanh Tung - lecturer at Phenikaa University - representing the generation of young scientists who dare to dream, strive to pursue their dream of inventing medicine, and realize their aspiration to develop the country's economy and society.
Turning down many attractive invitations to Vietnam to teach and do research, Mr. Truong Thanh Tung shared that the reason came from his desire to inspire the young generation of Vietnam, as he had been inspired by previous generations of teachers.
Mr. Tung added that currently, the Party, the State, and the Ministry of Education and Training have issued many policies to create very good conditions for scientific research and innovation, but he sent a message to students with the saying "Don't ask what the Fatherland has done for you, but ask yourself what you have done for the Fatherland today".
His wish is to help young people participate in research and realize their dreams right in the country without having to study abroad; thereby contributing to the development of the country and the world.
Closing with the medley The First Lesson and Bright Prosperity of Vietnam, the program "Instead of Gratitude 2025" not only honors the teaching profession, but also spreads the belief in a humane - creative - integrated education, where each teacher is the one who lights up the future of the country.
Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/thay-loi-tri-an-hanh-trinh-thap-sang-tuong-lai-post758719.html
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