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The story of a teacher from Hai Duong who sowed knowledge in the vast Kon Ka Kinh forest

GOING STRONG June 17, 2024 05:20

Krong Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, located in the heart of Kon Ka Kinh National Park (Gia Lai), used to be one of the most disadvantaged educational institutions in the country. Today, the school has made great strides with the great contribution of teacher Nguyen Van Thuan from Hai Duong.

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Thầy
Teacher Nguyen Van Thuan (back) and his colleagues once went into the forest to persuade the Ba Na ethnic people to send their children to school.

Crossing mountains and forests to bring students to class

Although we have been to Gia Lai many times, the end of May was the first time we learned about Kon Ka Kinh National Park. This national park has a total area of ​​41,780 hectares, located in the three districts of Mang Yang, Kbang and Dak Doa, of which 80% is natural forest.

Mr. Huynh Ngoc Bao Long, Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department of the Kbang District Party Committee, told us many stories related to Kon Ka Kinh National Park and the Hai Duong people who came to this land to settle down nearly half a century ago. But the person who impressed us the most was a Hai Duong teacher named Nguyen Van Thuan, Principal of the Krong Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities.

“In the midst of a vast wilderness of deprivation and hardship, Mr. Thuan overcame many hardships and difficulties, determined to sow knowledge and open up a future for the children of the Ba Na ethnic group. The people here are very grateful to him,” said Mr. Long.

We met Mr. Thuan (born in 1978, from Co Bi commune, Binh Giang district) at the time when the school had just concluded the 2023-2024 school year. He warmly welcomed us and happily told us about his career of educating people in Kbang.

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Teacher Nguyen Van Thuan interviewed by Hai Duong Newspaper reporter

For a long time, through each page of books, the love for the Central Highlands has been deeply ingrained in the mind of the young man from Hai Duong. In 1997, after graduating from high school, Thuan applied to Gia Lai Pedagogical College. In 2000, after graduating, he was assigned to work as a literature teacher at Nguyen Binh Khiem Secondary School in Kbang town - more than 120 km from the center of Pleiku city. With his tireless efforts, Thuan gradually affirmed his professional capacity. In 2008, he was appointed as Vice Principal of Krong Primary School (now Krong Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities).

Krong Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities is located in the core area of ​​Kon Ka Kinh National Park, nearly 50 km from the center of Kbang town. In the past, there were no roads like there are now. To get to his workplace, Mr. Thuan had to drive a motorbike along a forest trail. The first time he came here, what caught his eye was a dilapidated school with only 2 fourth-grade classrooms and a dormitory for teachers built of bamboo and forest leaves.

Due to difficult transportation, Mr. Thuan often had to stay at school for a week before returning home. When the rainy season came, the stream water rose, and sometimes he could only return home for a month. Living conditions at the school were also extremely poor and difficult, with no electricity or clean water. Every time he went from home to school, he had to carry a sack of food and household items. “At first, I felt discouraged and wanted to go home. But then I realized that as a party member, I had to try to complete the assigned tasks. If everyone wanted to work near home, who would be left in this remote, isolated, and difficult place?” Mr. Thuan confided.

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Teacher Nguyen Van Thuan had to live with ethnic minority families many times to propagate and persuade them to send their children to school.

But the difficulties in working and living conditions are nothing compared to the arduous work of mobilizing students to go to class that Thuan and his colleagues have to carry out. The people living in the core area of ​​Kon Ka Kinh National Park are mainly Ba Na ethnic people, with low education levels, few people knowing Kinh language, and not valuing education. At that time, in the school's enrollment area, there were 80 students, but nearly half did not go to school but stayed home to work in the fields with their parents. The community here is sparsely populated, with houses separated by a hill, dozens of kilometers from the school, and all the roads are difficult to travel in the forest.

Every day, Mr. Thuan and 5 teachers of the school spend half a day teaching, and the other half a day going to each household, going to the fields to propagate and encourage people to send their children to school. The forest roads are difficult to travel, sometimes motorbikes cannot go, Mr. Thuan and his colleagues have to walk for many hours to reach the houses. However, they cannot always reach the houses because they are in the fields and sometimes only return once every 2-3 days.

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The work of motivating students to go to school is arduous and hard but not always successful.

Mr. Duong Van Phuc, Vice Principal of Krong Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, confided: “It is impossible to tell all the hardships that Mr. Thuan and we have gone through in the process of mobilizing students to go to school. Some of our team members had their legs dislocated, were attacked by wild boars, another had malaria, and was sick for a week… Yet when we met people to spread the word, many people still refused to let their children go to school.”

Many times, Mr. Thuan did not return home on weekends but spent his time campaigning for his fellow countrymen to send their children to school. He stayed to work, eat, and sleep with them to create closeness. Mr. Thuan said: “Many families chased them away and scolded me, but I still persevered. Gradually, they understood the importance of sending their children to school and agreed. But it did not happen in a few days, some families campaigned for a whole year before succeeding. Persistently year after year, the rate of Ba Na children going to school increased every day.”

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The cafeteria of Krong Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities is built spacious and clean.

In 2015, the State invested in opening roads and bringing electricity to Krong commune. At the same time, Krong Primary School was also renamed as it is now, and invested in a spacious infrastructure. On an area of ​​15,600 m2, the school invested in building a new principal's house, a 2-storey classroom block, 4 subject classrooms, a multi-purpose house, a dining room, an outdoor library, rooms for staff, teachers, students, a TV room, a swimming pool, an artificial football field, etc. This was considered an important turning point to attract students, opening a new development period for the school in this particularly difficult area. In the same year, Mr. Thuan was appointed as principal.

The facilities have been invested in synchronously, the mentality of the school staff and teachers has improved. However, Mr. Thuan is always concerned about the quality of education. The academic performance of students is uneven because many students come to school late, cannot read or write fluently in Kinh, cannot keep up with the program, and have limited life skills.

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The staff and teachers of Krong Primary and Secondary Boarding School always love their students like their own children.

As the head of the unit, Mr. Thuan has carried out a strong reform of the school's activities. He called on every teacher in the school to "treat students as their own children". Mr. Thuan and the staff and teachers in the school make the most of their time to teach extra lessons, care for, nurture, and educate life skills for students. Focus on teaching students how to take care of themselves, participate in labor, improve their health, understand social knowledge, thinking ability, solidarity, and overcome difficulties through many activities. He requested professional groups to regularly organize thematic activities to mobilize collective intelligence and find new and effective educational methods. The school has expanded twinning and exchange activities to help staff and teachers accumulate a lot of good experience in managing, caring for, and educating ethnic minority students...

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Teacher Nguyen Van Thuan and his students harvest vegetables to prepare for meals.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, a teacher who has worked at the school for 10 years, commented that her principal is a person who is especially dedicated and responsible for his work. Mr. Thuan always promotes the collective spirit, motivating employees to use solidarity as a foundation to overcome difficulties and rise up. “He is always proactive in grasping the thoughts and aspirations, understanding the capacity of teachers to arrange work in the most favorable way for each person but always promoting efficiency. Whoever has difficulties, he joins hands to help. In the past, when the school was still in difficulty, I thought about quitting my job several times. But Mr. Thuan always encouraged and inspired me to stick with the job,” Ms. Huong shared.

Sweet fruit

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The school's educational quality is improving day by day thanks to the great contribution of teacher Nguyen Van Thuan.

Mr. Thuan's dedication and responsibility have been duly rewarded when the school has made great strides and changed completely. In recent school years, the school has always mobilized 100% of school-age students to attend school. From a low-quality educational institution, in the 2017-2018 school year, the school had for the first time 2 students achieving the title of excellent students at the district level. This achievement has been maintained since then. In the last 7 school years, the rate of good and excellent students has always been from 30-35%, more than 50% of grade 9 students have been admitted to ethnic boarding schools in the province. This achievement is nothing compared to schools in urban areas or civilized and modern rural areas. However, in a place where all students are ethnic minorities, this is an achievement that deserves to be respected.

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Teacher Nguyen Van Thuan (7th from right) and the school staff have united to make comprehensive changes for the school in remote areas.

Mr. Tran Trung Truc, Head of the Department of Education and Training of Kbang district, informed that in the past 10 years, Krong Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities has been a collective with many outstanding achievements in the system of boarding schools for ethnic minorities in Gia Lai province. In the 2020-2021 school year, the school achieved national standards level 1 and achieved education quality accreditation level 2. The collective and some individuals of the school have received many certificates of merit from the Ministry of Education and Training, the Provincial People's Committee... In the 2023-2024 school year, the school was honored to welcome a delegation from the Ministry of Education and Training to inspect and encourage. Teacher Nguyen Van Thuan was recommended by the competent authority to the Prime Minister to award a certificate of merit. "The change of this school has the clear pioneering and exemplary mark of teacher Thuan. His professional capacity, management, and organization of task implementation are learned by many people," said Mr. Truc.

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Ba Na ethnic students in the core area of ​​Kon Ka Kinh National Park not only learn to read and write but also receive skills education to have the best preparation for life.

Once chasing away Mr. Thuan to campaign for their children to go to school, the Ba Na people in the core area of ​​Kon Ka Kinh National Park now always show gratitude to the teacher from Hai Duong. Many of their children now have a better future.

Mr. Dinh Ot, the father of Dinh Van Tiec, who was just admitted to the Nguyen Van Troi Military Culture School (Thai Nguyen), excitedly said: "My son knows how to read and write, has knowledge, and now he can go to school so that he will have the opportunity to become a civil servant in a state agency in the future, with a bright future. I am very proud of my son and will never forget the help of Mr. Thuan."

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The story of a teacher from Hai Duong who sowed knowledge in the vast Kon Ka Kinh forest