From firefighter to literature teacher in Ho Chi Minh City

3 years in the fire prevention and rescue police team

Mr. Ly Tuan Thien (31 years old this year), graduated from the Faculty of Literature and Pedagogy of Saigon University, after teaching on a contract, he volunteered to join the People's Public Security service because he wanted to train himself more and contribute his youth to the country. He started joining the People's Public Security service in February 2017, after 4 months of military school where he studied politics , martial arts, swimming, police regulations... with strict discipline, he was assigned to participate in the task of the Fire Prevention and Fighting and Rescue Police Team, District 1 Police, Ho Chi Minh City (previously still at the district/county level).

After that, he was assigned to work for about 1 year at the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Team, old District 10 Police.

Từ chiến sĩ phòng cháy chữa cháy tới thầy giáo dạy văn ở TP.HCM - Ảnh 1. — Mr. Ly Tuan Thien joined the People's Public Security service, and has 3 years of experience in the fire prevention and rescue police team.

Mr. Ly Tuan Thien recounted that during his 3 years of service in the People's Public Security, he was trained in physical strength, willpower, and motivation, and was able to contribute to many fire prevention and fighting, and rescue missions in Ho Chi Minh City. A typical example is the fire at the Carina apartment building on Vo Van Kiet Street in 2018.

"Before, I had only seen images and videos of fire police officers rushing into the sea of fire to save people and felt great admiration. When I joined the People's Public Security service, witnessed with my own eyes and trained with and fought with them, I understood and admired even more the will, determination, courage, and willingness to sacrifice of the fire police officers and rescuers. The time I joined the People's Public Security service were extremely precious and proud years of my youth," said Mr. Thien, a literature teacher in Ho Chi Minh City.

Từ chiến sĩ phòng cháy chữa cháy tới thầy giáo dạy văn ở TP.HCM - Ảnh 2. — During his time in the People's Public Security, Mr. Thien and his teammates won third prize in the MC category at the People's Public Security Television Festival.

Từ chiến sĩ phòng cháy chữa cháy tới thầy giáo dạy văn ở TP.HCM - Ảnh 3. — Mr. Thien, during his time participating in the People's Police service, helped children at a kindergarten learn safe escape skills in case of fire.

Enthusiastic teacher with creative literature lessons

Deployed in February 2020, Mr. Thien took the civil service exam and was recruited to work as a literature teacher at Vinh Loc High School (formerly Binh Tan District). Then, from July 1, 2024, he transferred to work at Trung Vuong High School, Saigon Ward.

"Any environment for me is an opportunity, an environment for me to study, practice and be able to do meaningful things in my life," the literature teacher shared.

Từ chiến sĩ phòng cháy chữa cháy tới thầy giáo dạy văn ở TP.HCM - Ảnh 5. — Mr. Thien (left cover) in a teaching session to help the deaf community improve their Vietnamese.

Từ chiến sĩ phòng cháy chữa cháy tới thầy giáo dạy văn ở TP.HCM - Ảnh 6. — The teacher introduced to the deaf students about the time he joined the fire prevention and rescue police team.

The young teacher confided that 3 years of service in the People's Public Security gave him valuable experiences, which became vivid material in many of his literature lessons, helping students better understand heroic examples who were ready to sacrifice in peacetime to protect the Fatherland and protect the people.

In particular, with the 2018 General Education Program focusing on promoting the qualities and abilities of learners, students need to expand their life experiences and knowledge beyond the textbooks, teachers need to arouse the love of discovery and self-study ability in each student. This further urges each literature teacher like Mr. Thien to find a way to help students proactively learn with passion, know how to think and debate, not just study to cope with each exam.

Mr. Thien once organized a math-literature interdisciplinary teaching session with the theme "In math there is literature, in literature there is math" with a math teacher at Trung Vuong High School, which was highly appreciated by many teachers in the professional cluster. In the 2024-2025 school year, teacher Ly Tuan Thien won the title of outstanding young teacher of District 1 (old), Ho Chi Minh City.

"I appreciate Uncle Ho's teaching to students the most, in the letter he sent to students on the first day of independence, in September 1945: "Whether Vietnam's mountains and rivers become beautiful or not, whether the Vietnamese people can step up to the stage of glory to stand shoulder to shoulder with the world powers or not, depends largely on your studies". After 80 years, Uncle Ho's teaching still holds true. It is also the motivation that urges teachers like me to strive every day, helping students love each literature lesson, desire to study, dare to think and dare to do, to gain intelligence and courage, as Uncle Ho advised", teacher Ly Tuan Thien confided.

Từ chiến sĩ phòng cháy chữa cháy tới thầy giáo dạy văn ở TP.HCM - Ảnh 7. — Mr. Thien and his colleagues conduct an interdisciplinary teaching session on math and literature.

Từ chiến sĩ phòng cháy chữa cháy tới thầy giáo dạy văn ở TP.HCM - Ảnh 8. — The demonstration lecture on the topic "In math there is literature, in literature there is math" was highly appreciated by teachers in the professional cluster.

Từ chiến sĩ phòng cháy chữa cháy tới thầy giáo dạy văn ở TP.HCM - Ảnh 9. — In the 2024-2025 school year, teacher Ly Tuan Thien won the title of outstanding young teacher of District 1 (old), Ho Chi Minh City.

Teacher with many achievements

Teacher Ly Tuan Thien has achieved many achievements during his time participating in the People's Public Security service and during his time teaching literature at the schools where he worked.

He and his teammates won third prize in the MC category at the People's Police Television Festival.

Together with the soldiers of the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Team, District 10 Police (old), Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Thien carried out a project to train the blind in fire prevention and fighting skills, and escape when there is a fire at the Bung Sang Shelter (photo), and at the same time participated in many meaningful social activities to help the disadvantaged people in the locality.

During his time teaching literature at Vinh Loc High School, he was also a youth assistant and head of the Vinh Loc High School Culture and Arts Club. He was a member of the club that won third prize in the national Youth Melody Contest; the best instrument contestant award in Group A in the Cicada Singing Festival in Ho Chi Minh City, in the band category using musical instruments. He himself received a certificate of merit from the Central Youth Union for his excellent youth assistant work.

In the 2024-2025 school year, he will continue to work at Trung Vuong High School as a youth assistant. Currently, Mr. Thien is also a Vietnamese advisor for the Free Sign Language Interpreting Support Community project, participating in many free teaching sessions to help the deaf community improve their Vietnamese.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tu-chien-si-phong-chay-chua-chay-toi-thay-giao-day-van-o-tphcm-185250901232945199.htm