"Pink swallow" Ngo Thi Thu Ha

(Baonghean) - Imbued with Uncle Ho's teachings to the team of cadres in charge of children: "Children's education is a science, so you must try to study, research and exchange experiences to progress forever", for 22 years as the head of the Youth Union, teacher Ngo Thi Thu Ha has always been concerned about the role and position of a sister and mother to her beloved students.

When mentioning Ms. Ngo Thi Thu Ha, students of Le Loi Secondary School (Vinh City) all respect her because she always cares and has appropriate methods of managing and educating students. Students who violate traffic safety or fight anywhere, Ms. Ha will invite them to a "meeting" the next day. Therefore, students at the school obediently listen to "Ms. Ha's orders". To do this, she has closely coordinated with local authorities and families. At the beginning of each new school year, she and the homeroom teachers of grade 6 review the list of students in the class, any student with special family circumstances such as: divorced parents, children of policy families, or who have shown signs of violations in the block, she keeps a separate list.

To facilitate communication, she provided all students in the school with her phone number and email address so that they could contact her immediately when needed. Not only that, she also had a way to manage students by establishing an "underground security team" in each classroom. Therefore, students in the school who had problems that could not be resolved would come to her. I remember, once, during recess, a female student, upset about family matters, climbed to the third floor of the school intending to jump down, she stood below to persuade her. After doing ideological work, the female student understood the problem and stopped that foolish intention. After that, that student always considered Ms. Ha as her second mother. Ms. Ha confided: "Doing Team work is not simple, you must always innovate methods, be close to the students every inch, absolutely cannot be rigid, impose, and must love them like your own children at home to be successful".

Teacher Ngo Thi Thu Ha and students of Le Loi Secondary School in an after-school activity.

During her years working in the Youth Union, she has always been concerned with coming up with initiatives and proposals to improve the quality of movements and activities. A typical example is the initiative: "Some measures in organizing extracurricular activities" which is highly practical and widely applied in schools. According to her, extracurricular activities are the basis for success in cultivating life skills and teamwork, which is also a factor that students today lack. On holidays such as December 22, she organizes students to visit historical sites, participate in activities to return to the source, visit and help families with preferential policies. From these activities, students gain more life experience, know how to love the community, are more responsible for the previous generation, and thereby have a positive attitude towards life. For her, teaching must first teach people to be human, and teach them how to love others.

From her initiative of “Saving breakfast gifts” (each student saves 500 VND of breakfast gifts to support friends in difficult circumstances), Le Loi Secondary School has raised a movement of mutual love and support in the school community, not only students but also teachers contribute to the fund to help poor students. Thanks to that, at the beginning of the school year, poor students all receive gifts from the scholarship fund contributed by students and parents. She confided: “Helping poor students is sometimes books, sometimes clothes, although the material value is not much, but through that, students learn to live more frugally, to love each other. In the school, in the class, anyone who has difficult circumstances and hardships receives sharing from their friends. That makes the recipient happy and the giver happy too”. And it is also these initiatives that helped her win the “Pink Swallow” award given to 10 outstanding Team leaders nationwide out of 100 nominated Team leaders. And Le Loi Secondary School's Union has won the title of Excellent Union at the provincial and central levels for 5 consecutive years (2008 - 2013). She herself has been a Provincial Emulation Fighter for many years, receiving certificates of merit and commemorative medals from the Ministry of Education and Training.

Article and photos: Thanh Nga