Bac Son School Village

(Baonghean) - Bac Son village (including 2 hamlets Bac Son 1 and Bac Son 2 in Bac Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district) hidden at the foot of Ru Gam, has a famous tradition of studiousness. No matter the circumstances, the people here always try to create the best conditions for their children to go to school, generation after generation, continuing to strive to study, creating that tradition of studiousness.

Old teacher teaches English for free

Free English class in Bac Son 2 hamlet, organized by village teacher Hoang Danh Vuc, 68 years old. He used to be a lecturer at Vinh University, then he transferred to work at Yen Thanh District Continuing Education Center and became the Center's Director until his retirement.

Mr. Vuc shared: “English is becoming more and more important, especially in today’s integrated environment. It not only helps students achieve good academic results but also helps them choose a career and succeed in life. Therefore, I want to help students realize the role of English, as well as create conditions for them to consolidate and improve their knowledge.”

Free English class of Mr. Hoang Danh Vuc in Bac Son village, Bac Thanh commune (Yen Thanh).

From those concerns, the village's free English class was formed. During the summer, students had free time, so the teacher organized two classes, studying in the afternoon. The number of students attending the class was large, and the teacher could not handle it alone, so he coordinated with other teachers in the village to make teaching effective. Entering this new school year, because students focused their time studying at school, there is currently only one class for 6th and 7th graders.

Village of "hundred teachers"

Over the past few hundred years, Bac Son village has developed prosperously and has a rich identity. Mr. Hoang Danh Vinh, Head of Bac Son 2 village, said that education in the village has long been given special attention. In the fields or in the village, there are names associated with education such as "pond for science" and "pond for ink and pen".

In the Ngo and Hoang family genealogies, the names “Cu Tu Ca” and “Cu Tu Hai” are solemnly recorded... Currently, the whole Bac Son village has over 150 children working as teachers all over the country. It can be said that this is the tradition of the people in the village. There are families with many generations attached to the teaching profession, such as the family of Associate Professor Dr. Ngo Sy Tung, the family of teacher Ngo Xuan Lap...

Nghe An Provincial Library gives books to Bac Son village bookshelf.

The studious nature of Bac Son villagers comes from a lowland area that is inherently poor, where life depends on potatoes and rice. People want their children to escape poverty and make a career through education, so no matter how difficult it is, they try their best to send their children to school.

To support generations of students to go to school, the village's education promotion work is always focused on. Every year, students in Bac Son village achieve high scores in excellent student competitions, and those with especially difficult circumstances who strive to study well are recognized and given encouragement gifts. Last school year, the education promotion gifts from 2 hamlets were worth nearly 4 million VND. The children's education is also given special attention by the families. The village has large families such as Hoang, Ngo, Phan, and Nguyen, all of which have an education promotion fund of over 10 million VND/year.

"Mr. Lac the bookshelf"

As scheduled, we returned to the cultural house to meet Mr. Nguyen Van Lac, the founder of the village bookshelf, affectionately called “Mr. Lac the bookshelf” by the locals. The bookshelf was established in 2010, located in the grounds of the Cultural House of Bac Son 2 hamlet.

Mr. Lac was the former Director of the Yen Thanh District Cultural Center. While struggling with a stack of books that readers had just returned, he told us: “When I was working, I often went to check the activities of the library system in the communes and realized that the activities of the libraries were not effective, because the mentality of people coming to the commune to borrow books was quite hesitant, especially the students. On the other hand, the area of ​​some hamlets and villages was far from the commune administrative center, so traveling was not convenient, and the money to buy books depended on the source from the superiors, so there were many difficulties. When I retired, I had free time, I saw that students rented books at the bookstore near my house, which was quite expensive, and the number of books was not rich, so I asked for the opinion of the Party cell and received the people's support to set up a bookshelf."

For nearly 5 years, every Thursday and Sunday afternoon, Mr. Lac has opened his bookshelf to serve readers, without asking for any salary. He only hopes that the children in the village will study hard to live up to the expectations of their parents, bringing pride to the whole village. Currently, the bookshelf has nearly 2,000 books of all genres: literature, art, law, tourism, advanced books, Buddhism... Mr. Lac said that this is the result of the process of mobilizing people and children in the village who work everywhere to contribute to the construction.

When it was first established, the party members in the village contributed money to buy a bookcase, the commune People's Committee provided 47 books, and the villagers contributed a number of books. After that, he found a way to mobilize people to contribute. I was quite surprised because at this age, Mr. Lac used the method of posting the image of the bookcase on Facebook to introduce it. Thanks to that, the children and grandchildren in the village who do business everywhere knew and contributed to building the bookcase. Also by doing this, every month he publicly announced the list of people who supported the building of the bookcase for everyone to know.

Thanks to the variety of books, people often come to read to learn more about farming and animal husbandry techniques, housewives read cooking books, etc. Every time someone contributes a new book, he turns on the loudspeaker to announce it to people so that they know and come to read if they have a need.

Article and photos:Thai orchid