Yen Bai: Footprints of teachers carrying letters up the mountains

(PLVN) - Teachers temporarily left their families, traveled thousands of miles to carry letters to the mountains to continue writing the beautiful story of education in the mountainous region of Yen Bai. After 9 months of being immersed in the mountains and forests, the "seconded" teachers returned with a luggage full of memories, leaving footprints imprinted in the middle of the mountainous region.

The presence of "seconded" teachers helps students in mountainous areas no longer have to "skip meals" in English. Photo: Contributor.

May is bright

The sound of cicadas echoes in the sky of brilliant pink phoenix flowers, replacing the drumbeat to signal the end of a school year. Reluctance, attachment, longing, and hope are mixed emotions in the season when teachers and students say goodbye to move on to a new journey. In Yen Bai , the last days of May are a time filled with emotions for "seconded" teachers.

In a small room at Khao Mang Primary School for Ethnic Minorities (Mu Cang Chai – Yen Bai), Ms. Do Thi Thom looked out the window at the towering mountains and neatly folded the farewell letters from her students. The confidences, simple drawings and hastily written poems of the Mong students pierced directly into Ms. Thom’s heart. The sincere feelings of the Mong students and parents seemed to want to keep Ms. Thom in this peaceful life.

Nine months ago, Ms. Thom temporarily left her family and Yen Ninh Primary School (Yen Bai City) and traveled nearly 200km to Mu Cang Chai to teach English to students in the highlands. Khao Mang Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities is spaciously built, with 15 classes from grades 3 to 5 with nearly 500 students. Each week, each class has to study 4 English periods with only 1 teacher, so Ms. Thom has to teach directly in this class and also connect online to other classes to ensure that the teaching program is not interrupted.

After class, the "seconded" teachers immerse themselves in the culture of the Mong people in Mu Cang Chai to sympathize with the life of students in the highlands. Photo: Contributor.

Like Ms. Thom, Ms. Tran Thi Lan Huong is one of 15 "seconded" teachers of Yen Bai province in the 2024-2025 school year, assigned to teach English at La Pan Tan Primary and Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities (Mu Cang Chai). Because of motion sickness, on Sunday afternoon, Ms. Huong had to take a bus from Yen Bai city to Mu Cang Chai, then hitchhiked on her parent's motorbike to get to school. The school has a large number of students and Ms. Huong is the only one teaching English, so she has to teach all week long and the students have to combine 2 classes into 1 to ensure teaching and learning progress.

A school year is 9 months long, which is the same as the time a child is carried in the mother's womb. Coming to Mu Cang Chai was to carry out a mission, but after 9 months of attachment, Ms. Huong fell in love with the Mong children and the terraced fields in La Pan Tan. Ms. Huong compared the past 9 months to an extremely special experience and her luggage when returning to Le Hong Phong Secondary School (Yen Bai City) was full of memories and simple feelings of students in the highlands.

As a volunteer teacher, Ms. Le Thi Thanh Huyen, an English teacher at Phuc Ninh Primary and Secondary School (Yen Binh District - Yen Bai) said that for the past 3 years, she has been attached to 2 schools in remote areas of Tram Tau District. In the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years, she was "assigned" to Tram Tau Primary and Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities. In the 2024-2025 school year, Ms. Huyen continued her "assignment" journey to Xa Ho Primary and Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities, one of the most remote and disadvantaged schools in Tram Tau District, Yen Bai Province.

Ms. Le Thi Thanh Huyen has volunteered to go on a "secondment" for the past 3 years to teach English to students in the mountainous area of ​​Tram Tau. Photo: Contributor.

Through the lessons, Ms. Huyen hopes that the students in the highlands will change their thinking to have the opportunity to develop themselves and approach the general level of society. As the 2024-2025 school year comes to an end, Ms. Huyen also rearranges her luggage, records memories and cherishes plans to contribute to the developmentof education in the highlands in the coming school year.

Future hope

In the 2024-2025 school year, the entire Yen Bai province lacks 311 English teachers compared to the norm, of which primary schools lack 181, secondary schools lack 94, and high schools lack 36. The ratio of English teachers/class is 0.11, equal to 50% of the demand for English teachers. In particular, the two districts of Tram Tau and Mu Cang Chai only have about 0.07 teachers/class.

To solve the problem of local teacher shortage, from 2022, Yen Bai province will "dispatch" teachers from the lowlands to the mountainous areas. In 2024, Yen Bai will continue to "dispatch" 15 English teachers, including 7 teachers from Yen Bai city and 3 teachers from Tran Yen district to support teaching in Mu Cang Chai district; at the same time, 3 teachers from Yen Binh district and 2 teachers from Nghia Lo town will be mobilized to support teaching in Tram Tau district from September 5, 2024 to May 31, 2025. The "dispatched" teachers selected are all people with solid professional qualifications, a lot of teaching experience, and can meet the job requirements well.

Farewell letters from highland students to their "seconded" teachers. Photo: Contributor.

Before the departure, the leaders of the lowland localities organized meetings and encouraged the teachers to devote themselves to the cause of education. And on the day of return, the local leaders and teachers and students of the highlands expressed their gratitude to the "seconded" teachers with warm feelings like family members. Such meetings and farewells have become a good tradition in the education career of the mountainous province of Yen Bai.

As one of the first "seconded" teachers in the 2022-2023 school year, Ms. Dang Thi Hong Hanh - Teacher at Yen Ninh Secondary School (Yen Bai City), recalls that her time at Khao Mang Boarding Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities brought her a whole sky of memories and experiences. When interacting with Mong students, she saw that they were all very hard-working and thoughtful about the future. Many of them set specific goals, determined to learn English to become tour guides or work abroad in the future.

Mr. Pham Xuan Truong - Principal of Khao Mang Boarding Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities (Mu Cang Chai - Yen Bai) shared that the presence of additional teachers is like a breath of fresh air, helping the school and local teachers gain more experience. In particular, the application of information technology and modern teaching materials has contributed to helping Mong students quickly catch up with the development trend. The school and local teachers have made efforts and collaborated so that the "seconded" teachers have the best conditions to teach in the spirit of all for the beloved students.

The luggage of 7 "seconded" teachers returning to Yen Bai city was filled with memories of the mountainous region of Mu Cang Chai. Photo: Contributor.

In recent years, Yen Bai province has “dispatched” English teachers to highland schools in the two highland districts of Tram Tau and Mu Cang Chai, which has partly solved the problem of local teacher shortages. At the same time, the “mobilization” of teachers from the lowlands to the mountains has shared human resources, contributed to improving the quality of education and helped highland schools ensure the completion of teaching and learning programs according to regulations.

Ms. Nguyen Thu Huong - Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Yen Bai province, said that in recent years, Yen Bai province has implemented many synchronous solutions, in which "dispatching" teachers to two difficult districts is an immediate solution. Through short-term mobilization, highland schools have basically had enough teachers to implement the 2018 general education program and at the same time, the "dispatched" teachers are the driving force to promote the development of highland education. Overcoming many difficulties, the "dispatched" teachers have strived to complete the mission of carrying letters to the mountains with the spirit of all for the beloved students, for the development and prosperity of the homeland and country.

Nhat Nguyen

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/yen-bai-dau-chan-nhung-giao-vien-gui-chu-len-non-ngan-post550042.html