Nghe An with revolutionary education in the South before 1975

(Baonghean) - Since October 1962, in response to the development requirements of the revolution, the Southern Education Subcommittee, under the Central Propaganda Department, was established with the task of advising, directing, and organizing the implementation of revolutionary education work. Patriotic teachers in the South, combined with nearly 3,000 teachers and excellent cadres trained from the North to join the battlefield, worked with the army and people of the South to build a revolutionary education system, directly training the young generation of the South to have knowledge and patriotism, contributing greatly to enhancing the potential of the Southern revolution.

Since the subcommittee was established, the Party Committee and people of Nghe An have sent excellent teachers to be trained at the Cadre School of the Ministry of Education and the Unification Committee to increase support for the South. More than 200 teachers of Nghe An were present in almost all battlefields, from the Central Liberation Education Subcommittee to the education subcommittees in the Western and Central regions of the South, in the battlefield of Zone 5, in Binh Tri Thien, and in the suburbs of Saigon - Gia Dinh. They not only directly taught the cadet classes but also directly stayed close to the people, stayed close to the land, built the movement, and directly took up arms with the Southern army and people to fight the resistance.

In the life-and-death battle with the enemy, 14 teachers heroically sacrificed their lives, many teachers were injured, leaving part of their bodies on the battlefield. Teacher Tran Dao (alias Sau Thanh), former Head of the Nghe An Education Department, volunteered to go to the South in the first wave of 1964, to the Southern battlefield, and was added to the Southern Education Subcommittee. During a time of commanding in the Saigon - Gia Dinh area, he directly held a gun against the sweep and sacrificed his life on November 20, 1968 in Cu Chi. Teacher Le Thi Bach Cat, daughter of Nghi Huong (Cua Lo), had just graduated from university and volunteered to go to the South, was assigned to the Saigon - Gia Dinh Education Subcommittee, and participated in the City Youth Union's leadership. During the Mau Than campaign in 1968, she led a special forces team deep into the inner city, fought and sacrificed her life very heroically. Immediately after April 30, 1975, the Party Committee and people of Saigon - Gia Dinh City (Ho Chi Minh City) praised her heroic fighting spirit and named a street in the city after Le Thi Bach Cat after Uncle Ho. Teacher Nguyen Hong (Yen Thanh) sacrificed in Can Tho; Kieu Ngoc That, Van Duc Yen, Nguyen Van Dao sacrificed in the Southeast region... Teacher Chu Van Cap (alias Chu Thanh Nghe, My Tho people often called him Ba Nghe) entered the My Tho battlefield in 1965, directly serving as Head of the Provincial Education Subcommittee. In a battle against the enemy in the base, he was captured and taken to 7 prisons on the mainland, brutally tortured, but teacher Chu Van Cap still resolutely refused to confess, so he was exiled to Con Dao, in the same cell as the famous communist prisoner Le Quang Vinh... Many teachers from Nghe An grew up in the fierce bombs and bullets, in hunger and lack of salt, becoming trusted cadres in Party agencies and fronts in the South and in the localities. A typical example is teacher Nguyen Huu Dung (from Nam Dan), a former cadre who went to the South during the anti-French period, was the Head of the General Education Department in the North, was sent to B in 1964, and was appointed as Head of the Southern Education Subcommittee, member of the Central Propaganda Department, setting an example as an exemplary elder brother in the war zone, dedicated, honest and living with integrity. After 1975, he went to the North to work as Deputy Minister of Education. At the Southern Education Subcommittee (after 1969, the Liberation Education Ministry), there were also teachers Phan Van Hoan (Hoa Thanh) - Deputy of the Ministry's Office, Ngo Duc Tien - an officer of the General Propaganda Department, who wrote articles for the liberation radio broadcast every Wednesday and Friday, and Vo Minh Hue in the Organization Department...

More than 200 teachers from Nghe An were sent to B during the years of fighting against the Americans to save the country. Some of them remained on the battlefields, some of them stayed to work on the old battlefields, some of them returned to their homeland, but everyone had the same thought: the years of educational activities in the Southern battlefields were the years of their beautiful youth. Thanks to that, after the South was liberated, no matter where they worked, in which field, the teachers and soldiers of that time still maintained their revolutionary qualities, studied and followed the moral example of Ho Chi Minh, always remembered each other, both the deceased and the living, reminded each other to remember the source, the Southern Education Subcommittee of that 50 years (1962 - 2012), with legitimate pride: Nghe An made an important contribution to the cause of education and liberation.

Ngo Duc Tien