In a place where "school is home, teachers are like parents"
From this school year, Yen Tinh Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities (formerly Tuong Duong district) has had a new step: In addition to the group of ethnic minority students who already enjoy the policy, dozens of other students, although not eligible for State support, are also given the opportunity to eat and stay at the school under the boarding model.
Pick upstudents return to school
Just one week after the opening ceremony of the new school year 2025 - 2026, 58 students from 3 villages Canh Toong, Cap Chang, and Hat, Yen Na commune were welcomed by teachers at Yen Tinh Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities to stay in the school's dormitory. Next to that, dozens of other students from Yen Tinh Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities were also welcomed to the main school.
This is also the first time the students have experienced "eating and staying" at school with the regime of a student.boarding school, even though they do not have a government subsidy. The planned support until the end of December is not much, just over 50 million VND, but the entire cost is supported by the Yen Na commune government. The money is mobilized thanks to contributions from organizations, businesses and philanthropists with a simple purpose: "Each meal helps children grow up one step further".
Lam Thi Diem - class 9B, lives in Canh Toong village, her family is poor, her father is a farmer, her mother is disabled and cannot work. In previous years, although her house is nearly 5 km from school, Diem still goes back and forth every day. On days when she has extra classes or the school has an event, Diem has to bring lunch to school. Knowing her family's situation, this year the school has put Diem on the support list so she can have lunch and stay at school. This female student said: I am very happy because every noon I can stay at school and eat with my classmates. My parents are very happy to see me being supported and having free food and accommodation because they don't have to worry every time it rains or storms.
From the first students, up to now, the number of students enjoying the boarding system has also increased every day. After more than 2 months of implementation, Ms. Vy Thi Bich Thuy - Secretary of the Party Committee of Yen Na commune has not forgotten the time of the new school year opening and the commune decided to send out a letter calling for "Support for organizing boarding for students in Yen Na commune".
In fact, at that time, the commune's context was very difficult, because the Yen Na commune government had just been completed and was not yet operating stably with a lot of work. Meanwhile, the educational task of the 2025 - 2026 school year was very heavy when the Education sector decided to implement 2 sessions/day, but many students in the commune lived far from the center, making it difficult to travel. To reduce the need to travel between 2 sessions, contribute to ensuring safety, health, stabilize learning habits, reduce absenteeism and dropout rates, the only solution was to implement a semi-boarding model.
Although the direction has been found, it is not easy to implement. Because, although Yen Na is a mountainous commune, the socio-economic conditions are still difficult, but at that time, the whole commune at both primary and secondary levels only had 677/1,326 students enjoying the policy for boarding students. The rest, although the rate of poor and near-poor households accounted for over 60%, but they were not eligible for support. Many households had difficulty contributing money for their children to eat lunch at school with an average minimum of 18,000 VND/main meal.
Recounting this, the Party Secretary of Yen Na commune added: When posting the appeal letter, I wrote on my personal page "1,000 VND is also very precious! Let's start from the smallest number". However, I myself also think that to maintain this model for a long time will be very difficult. Therefore, we set goals step by step, step 1 is 100% of students have meals at school, step 2 is to improve meals better than the current level... then consider steps 3, step 4. Fortunately, when the policy was just put forward, the whole political system got involved and the people agreed.
From the contributions, joint efforts, and joint hearts, some more, some less, we have reached the finish line after just over a week of launching. Up to now, we have mobilized more than 120 million VND, enough to cover the cost of organizing boarding and purchasing facilities for lunch for nearly 100 students at 2 schools: Yen Tinh Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities and Yen Tinh Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities until the end of December 2025. Of which, the lunch support for students in especially difficult circumstances is 15,000 VND/student, poor students is 8,000 VND/student and near-poor households is 5,000 VND/student.
Ms. Vy Thi Bich Thuy - Secretary of Yen Na Commune Party Committee
Where "school is home, teachers are parents""
Before the merger, Yen Tinh was a school located in the middle of the "flood center" of Tuong Duong district (old). Just one heavy rain, water from upstream could submerge the entire school. Before 2022, the story of students having to evacuate urgently had become familiar. Even in the 2019-2020 school year, although the school had a dormitory and a semi-boarding system, many families were still forced to let their children rent rooms outside because of the fear of "floods coming at night".
After each flood, teachers and students stand and watch as books, personal belongings, and household items are damaged, disrupting teaching and learning.
Due to the hardship, Yen Tinh commune has had a very unique "characteristic" for many years: The teaching staff is almost entirely male. In the past 5 years, the school has had more staff, but there are only 2 female teachers working. Ms. Ngan Thi Thuy - the first female teacher - still remembers the time she took up the job in 2020 with a lack of facilities and boarding life being frequently interrupted by floods. Here, teachers have to shoulder the work of their mothers and sisters. Therefore, to fulfill their role, each teacher must work twice or three times harder than in other schools. That role makes the relationship between teachers and students here special and is connected and nurtured every day...
Also from that hardship, the desire for change became even stronger. 2022 marked a major turning point when the school was urgently relocated to a new location and invested more than 30 billion VND to rebuild. Thanks to that, the school has truly "changed its skin" with spacious, modern classrooms, and clean, well-maintained boarding houses. Coming to Yen Tinh School, you will also be impressed by the green, cool campus, green grass, and many beautiful miniature landscapes cared for by the hands of teachers.
When the fear of floods is no longer heavy, teaching and learning has also improved significantly, the quality of education has made great progress. In the past 3 years alone, the school's provincial and district excellent student competitions have met and exceeded the planned targets in both quality and number of awards, ranking in the top 5 of Tuong Duong district (old). Every year, the school has many students admitted to the province's boarding school. From a school in the bottom of the district, for the past 3 consecutive years, the school has been awarded the title of Excellent Labor Collective by the Provincial People's Committee, and has received a Certificate of Merit from the Ministry of Education and Training and the Provincial People's Committee. What is admirable is that, although still located in a difficult area, for many years, teachers and students of the school have still built a "Friendship Gift Box" to annually give dozens of gifts to students in difficult circumstances inside and outside the school.
With the results achieved, Yen Tinh Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities has become a bright spot in the boarding school model in the whole province.
In the boarding environment, we determine that teachers must not only teach letters but also teach people. In addition, teachers are not simply teachers but must be relatives of students, so that when students come to school, they feel like they are returning to their family... The achievements are not only thanks to teachers, but also thanks to the care of local authorities, the support of parents, village elders and village chiefs.
Teacher Nguyen Van Tho - School Principal
Saying goodbye to this school, I understand more the meaning of the saying of the Party Secretary of Yen Na commune: Although there are many difficulties, we always believe that education must be the top priority and in any circumstances, we always strive and "give the best to students"!
