Bright spot in teaching letters and people

(Baonghean) - 30 years is a memorable period, marking a journey of tireless efforts to build Nghe An Ethnic Boarding School into one of the bright spots in education of the province and a leading bird in the system of ethnic boarding schools nationwide.

The provincial Ethnic Boarding High School was established on December 4, 1982 with the first name of "Nghe Tinh Highland Ethnic Youth School". This is a memorable milestone, because the policy of building a school for students in the highlands was set by our province in the 60s of the previous decade, but due to war and many other reasons, it was not possible to implement it until nearly 20 years later.

Students of the provincial Ethnic Boarding School participate in the National Ethnic Boarding School Cultural and Sports Competition.

The school was established to gather ethnic children to study in the city to access the advanced education movement and was expected to be a place to "create resources and train ethnic cadres". However, due to its own characteristics, from the time it was named until it welcomed the first batch of students, the school encountered many difficulties, taking more than 2 years to prepare. Recalling those days, teacher Nguyen Xuan Trach - former Vice Principal of the school confided: At that time, the school had a complete apparatus, but even the members of the leadership board did not know where to start when the school did not have a location, did not know how it would operate. Some people were even worried: "Will there be students coming to study?". In that situation, we had to "march and line up at the same time", following the motto "both recruiting students and opening a school".

The provincial leaders personally went with their colleagues to survey the Viet Bac Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities and the Tay Nguyen Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities to learn about the school's construction. Finding a location was a long and arduous journey," Mr. Trach recalled. With so much preparation time, how could I forget the school's first opening ceremony on October 15, 1984. Even though it rained heavily that day, the first course had only 154 students from both grades 6 to 11. The school had just been renovated on the foundation of an old factory, the schoolyard was flooded, but on the faces of the 34 leaders, teachers of the school and guests from the Central to the province, no one could hide their joy. From that day, the school was officially renamed Nghe Tinh Highland Ethnic Minorities High School.

During the process of operation, difficulties still piled up, of which the most worrying was the diligence of students and the quality of education. This was also understandable, because the province's policy at that time was to only enroll students in 130 especially difficult communes, with priority given to Mong and Khmu students. However, at that time, many students agreed to go to school for a while and then skipped school and returned home. Among the students who dropped out, the most were 6th graders, the first school year had a dropout rate of up to 30%. To keep the students, teachers had to eat and stay with them every day. During Tet and holidays, in addition to taking care of the students' trips to and from school, the school also organized cooking of Chung cakes for the students to take home as gifts, encouraging them to return to school after Tet. The quality of education in the early days was also a concern for the school's teachers. No one could be happy when the first graduating class, 17 students took the university entrance exam and their combined scores were still not enough to qualify. In the 1985-1986 school year, the school had its first student take the Pedagogical University entrance exam and scored 10 points, enough to be admitted to the Central Ethnic School for Preparatory Studies.

The school's educational quality began to change positively after 1990, when the school became more proactive in recruiting students, shifting from "recruitment" to "enrollment", from "inviting" to "examining" and the school's teaching staff was increasingly improved in both qualifications and quantity. In addition, the school has also boldly built many new teaching methods, such as reducing the program to suit students in mountainous areas, adding classes, adding periods, linking teaching with practice, encouraging teachers to design lessons suitable to students' ability to absorb in order to attract and create interest and passion for the students in the lesson. With the school's own characteristics, in parallel with teaching according to the A timetable, the school also organizes teaching according to the B timetable for students in the afternoons when there are no main classes, on Saturdays and Sundays, and in the evenings, to enhance tutoring for students, especially those with weak academic performance.

Investment in facilities, accommodation and meals for students is also of interest. The school has a spacious dormitory, a communal kitchen, and fully invested functional houses. The regime for students is always guaranteed and in accordance with policies. These positive changes have helped the number of students registering for the school increase gradually over the years and up to now, the school has met 20-30% of applications for admission each year. From 2010 to now, the school has been ranked in Group A for excellent students along with other high schools and the average rate of excellent students each year is 60-70%, the rate of students passing university and college entrance exams is 80-85%, many students have high scores and are valedictorians to study abroad. Nationwide, the school is always in the top group in talent competitions in basic cultural subjects, arts, and sports.

In 2014 alone, at the National Cultural - Sports Competition for Ethnic Minority Schools held in Can Tho, the school won 7/9 Gold Medals, 8/9 Silver Medals, ranking 2nd out of 47 participating delegations. Sharing about the school's growth process, teacher Nguyen Thi Cam Van, Head of the Literature Group, shared: Not only the students but also us teachers, when we first entered the school, we were all bewildered by the difficulties in communication, habits, customs and practices. But in that situation, the brothers and sisters in the school told each other that we had to be much more dedicated, to stick to the school and class twice or three times more than teachers from other schools. The final result is the students' learning results. We understand that all successes come from this school, from our beloved students.

Female students practice embroidery at the school dormitory. Photo: MH

The success of the Nghe An Ethnic Boarding School model has proven that this is an effective educational model and many other localities have come to learn from its experience. More importantly, since the establishment of the Provincial Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities, the issue of creating a new source of ethnic minority cadres has been raised strongly and with proper investment. Looking back at the process of formation, construction and development of the school, it can be seen that from its establishment until now, regardless of difficulties or advantages, at every step of the school's journey, it has always received priority from the provincial leaders, departments, branches and especially the direct attention of senior leaders and ethnic minorities in the mountainous areas of the province. This special attention also requires the school to make more efforts to continue to affirm that it is a high-quality ethnic minority education center of the province's education and a leading bird in the system of ethnic minority boarding schools nationwide.

Clearly identifying this important task, according to teacher Nguyen Van Trung - Principal of the school: In the coming time, in the spirit of Resolution 8 of the Central Committee (term XI) on "Comprehensive fundamental innovation of education and training", the school will build a suitable and practical teaching program system for students. Actively have a tutoring plan to help students grasp basic knowledge. Resolutely avoid the disease of achievement, only paying attention to key achievements without paying attention to mass quality. In addition, in addition to studying culture, it is necessary to maintain discipline, education and create the best conditions for students to preserve national cultural identity through activities such as arts, sports, and exchanges.

The school will also focus on educating teachers and students to grasp the Party's guidelines and policies on ethnic minority issues in general, and on ethnic minority boarding education in particular. From there, determine for teachers and staff the spirit and attitude of serving the work in a special unit such as the Ethnic Boarding School. That is to wholeheartedly love students, be persistent, patient, hard-working, close to students, take students as the center of all activities, take educational and training results as the greatest goal, the most valuable measure for completing the school's noble mission.

Over the past 30 years, the most important mark is not only the Medals and Awards, not only the certificates of merit, but more importantly, from here the school has truly created a second home to teach letters and people to the children of the ethnic minorities of Nghe An. And then, in the memory of each student, we will never forget: "The beloved city welcomes us from hundreds of directions/Here gives us human love/Here gives us life/Gives us so much intelligence/Brings the scent of the forest to bring back sweet fruits/Builds beautiful villages/Builds beautiful homelands...".

My Ha