Meritorious Teacher Vo Thi Tuyet Chinh: 'In the teaching profession, heart must be put first'

PV: Madam, to be awarded the title of Excellent Teacher, one of the criteria that the nominee must have is “Passion and dedication to the profession”. What do you think about this criterion?

Meritorious Teacher Vo Thi Tuyet Chinh:“Passion and dedication to the profession” is not a standard that can be measured, but in my opinion, it is the most necessary standard of an Excellent Teacher. In the teaching profession, the word “heart” must be put first. The heart is the love for children, tolerance, and professional ethics. That is the passion and dedication to the job, working responsibly.Dedicated teacher, dedicated to the profession, they will always try to find ways to overcome the shortcomings in the most reasonable way to bring true values.

If a teacher is not dedicated and not committed to the profession, will the values ​​they bring to students be truly useful and effective? Without dedication and passion, will they be able to stick with the teaching profession? Therefore, as aExcellent Teacher, first of all must be a dedicated teacher, devoted to the profession.

PV: You worked in a mountainous district during the most difficult time. During that time, did you ever think about going back to the lowlands?

Meritorious Teacher Vo Thi Tuyet Chinh:Although the mountainous district is not my hometown, Tuong Duong is where I was born and raised, so I always consider this land as my second hometown. Having been involved in Tuong Duong education for many years, since the time when the roads were difficult, the schools were makeshift, the quality of the staff and the quality of the students were still limited. I always wondered how to improve education in the mountainous region. To do that, I always thought and searched for solutions.

The joy of work, combined with passion, I was caught up in that cycle. I found life more meaningful when I was always busy, always struggling with my career. That's why I never thought about working in another environment.

PV: You once achieved an impressive achievement when you received the title of excellent teacher at the provincial level after only 2 years of teaching. Can you share about this competition and what the award meant to you at that time?

Meritorious Teacher Vo Thi Tuyet Chinh:After graduating, I got a job at a unit 10 km from home. I cycled there in the morning and back at noon, on dirt roads with dust and gravel. Sometimes my bike got a flat tire along the way, sometimes I slipped on a rock and both bike and person tumbled. Not to mention the cold rainy days and the hot sunny days.

So my motivation at that time was how to get closer to home, because according to the Head of the Department of Education and Training at that time, achieving the provincial-level excellent teacher title would give me priority in arranging a job according to my wishes. That's why I registered to participate in the provincial-level excellent teacher exam in my second year of working.

During the competition, I was quite lucky to pass the theory and practice rounds easily. However, when I received the results, I was quite surprised to be ranked excellent. The results of the provincial excellent teacher competition that time were the motivation for me to continue participating in the following provincial excellent teacher competition cycles.

During 10 years of teaching, I have never missed a provincial-level teacher competition. There was a time when I was subjective and failed because of a small mistake.

But because of that failure, I set a goal for the next time: To regain the title of excellent teacher at the provincial level that I had won. It was not until the Department of Education and Training assigned me to judge the excellent teacher exam at the provincial level that I stopped participating in the exam.

EXCELLENT TEACHER Vo Thi Tuyet Chinh

During the process of professional guidance, I often talk to teachers: Participating in excellent teacher competitions is an opportunity to practice one's own capacity. Because of the accumulation of experience from oneself, learning from colleagues, and being bold and confident when facing professional aspects. Through each competition, teachers will grow up a lot.

PV: One of the current difficulties in education in the highlands is the situation of teachers asking to work in the lowlands, including many good teachers. From a personal and management perspective, how do you view this issue?

Meritorious Teacher Vo Thi Tuyet Chinh:Over the years, there have been quite a few teachers transferring to work in the lowlands, and the majority of the transferred teachers are teachers who have achieved provincial-level excellent teachers and are key teachers in the industry. From a personal perspective, I also realize that choosing a favorable working environment, creating conditions for myself to develop more, and letting my children study in a place with better conditions is what everyone wants.

However, from the perspective of managers, we feel quite sad. The land of Tuong Duong has trained and helped them grow up. We hope that they will be effective arms in the effort to improve the quality of education in disadvantaged areas. But Tuong Duong education is not strong enough to keep teachers here.

To limit the above situation, my wish is to have a satisfactory treatment for teachers in the highlands. How can teachers in the highlands have a working environment that ensures facilities, how can the social community have a thorough interest in education, so that teachers in the highlands can be in the right role as teachers, not having to take on many tasks like a worker.

PV: On social networks, you have shared many trips and practical and meaningful activities that teachers in the highlands have done for their students. Is it true that “necessity is the mother of invention” and what is the motivation for you to overcome difficulties?

Meritorious Teacher Vo Thi Tuyet Chinh:As I said before, the educational conditions in the mountainous district of Tuong Duong in particular, and in the disadvantaged districts in general, are still full of hardships. Teachers are not only tasked with holding chalk to the board, but they also have to worry about many things: First of all, they have to worry about motivating students to come to class; worry about calling for and finding funds to build facilities for students to eat, stay, and study, worry about every meal and sleep for students... with so many worries, teachers are required to be dedicated, responsible, and try their best to adapt to the requirements.

I would like to tell the story of building school libraries in schools. 6 years ago when the policy was first introduced, we thought that this would be really difficult because at that time, not only parents and students but also many teachers did not realize the importance of reading culture in schools, or thought that this was not feasible because the price of a book was too expensive compared to the standard of living in the highlands.

However, when it came to implementation, the school and teachers were extremely creative and dedicated, such as building mini libraries, green libraries, bringing libraries to each remote school, each village, and each teacher's home to create a reading environment for students. Teachers also connected with many organizations and volunteer groups to mobilize and donate thousands of books each year.

Now in Tuong Duong, every school has a library, the reading movement has spread to every student and even to their parents. In addition to primary and secondary schools, we are continuing to expand to kindergartens to build libraries in schools.

With many practical actions and efforts, Tuong Duong education has had positive changes.

I think that behind those results there is the shadow of teachers. Perhaps, teachers, like myself, in addition to going to work to take care of the family economy, the motivation to stick with and do well the work of a teacher is the joy in the job, the meaning of the work that we do, and the value of a teacher when being respected.

Meritorious teacher VO Thi Tuyet Chinh

PV: Compared to the plains and lowlands, education in the highlands still has many gaps for many different reasons. For you, after more than 30 years of attachment, what is your biggest concern? Besides objective reasons, do you think there are any other reasons?

Meritorious Teacher Vo Thi Tuyet Chinh:Tuong Duong is still a poor district, the economic conditions of the people are still too difficult. The infrastructure system invested in education has not met the requirements. The human resources are increasingly thin, because Tuong Duong education is not strong enough to attract talents. Meanwhile, many students have no jobs after graduating. The majority of people of working age have to go to work far away, a few, after finishing their vocational studies, also start a business in a foreign land. They consider finishing junior high school and high school is not the only way to earn money.

Therefore, many students are not interested in studying, leading to the situation of dropping out of school halfway which has not been completely resolved. Therefore, my biggest concern is the sustainable development of education in Tuong Duong.

How to have enough resources to meet the requirements for teaching and learning, how to attract and retain teachers, how to motivate students to study. Only then, can education in Tuong Duong in particular and education in the highlands in general have sustainable development.

PV: What does the title of Excellent Teacher mean to you? What do you personally think about being worthy of this honor?

Meritorious Teacher Vo Thi Tuyet Chinh:The title of Excellent Teacher is not only a noble title for me but also an honor from the Party, the State and the whole society for the teaching profession. This is a great motivation for me to continue to contribute. However, I will not be complacent, but always remind myself to be more and more responsible to continue to contribute to the education sector, to my homeland and country./.