People who 'carry letters' up the mountains in Western Nghe An

Thanh Chung• October 3, 2020 09:28

(Baonghean.vn) - The image of teachers “carrying letters” up the high mountains has a very sacred beauty. However, in order to have such a poetic “picture”, teachers have to go through many hardships and sufferings. And only teachers who love their profession dare to endure and accept a life of deprivation in all aspects.

Cô giáo trẻ Vi Thị Lê với học sinh của mình. Ảnh: Thành Cường
Young teacher Vi Thi Le with her students. Photo: Thanh Cuong

The salary is not enough to live on.

The 2020-2021 school year is the third year.teacherYoung Vi Thi Le has been attached to her favorite teaching profession since childhood, with the little students she loves dearly in the highlands of the Western region of Nghe An, her hometown. Through the story, it is known: "In 2018, Le graduated and applied to be a teacher at Nam Can Primary School (Ky Son).

Le is a teacher under the school's contract, signed annually. Her monthly salary is 3.5 million VND but is paid by semester. The school advances half for travel and meals. By the end of the 2018-2019 school year, Nam Can Primary School had enoughteacherLe was forced to quit teaching and go to other schools that were short of teachers to ask to "fill the vacancy".

In the 2019 - 2020 school year, Vi Thi Le was fortunate to be contracted and assigned to teach children by Tam Hop Primary School (Tuong Duong).pupilHmong people at Pha Lom school; this 2020-2021 school year, she was assigned to teach Tay Pong students at Phong village school. In the past 2 years, Le has been closer to her home (Thach Giam town), but on the contrary, her salary has decreased to 3 million VND/month.

Các thầy cô giáo trường TH Tam Hợp hái rau rừng cùng học sinh. Ảnh: Thành Cường
Teachers of Tam Hop Primary School pick wild vegetables with students. Photo: Thanh Cuong
Teacher Le confided: “I have loved teaching since I was a child and have been determined to pursue it. But there are truly unimaginable hardships, such as the difficulties of unpredictable weather, landslides, and slippery roads in the highlands. Living conditions are also miserable, with no electricity, no water, and no market; the same goes for teaching and learning activities, as the people in the highlands do not care much about their children's education... However, the most "hard" thing is that the salary is not enough to help us live on the job. On my days off, I still "practice" online business. I buy goods from the lowlands and sell them to people up here and vice versa.”

Despite the hardship, Vi Thi Le is currently happy with her teaching job.

There is nothing more joyful than helping children who cannot speak Vietnamese to read and write fluently, making progress every day; being loved and respected by the children and their parents. Difficulties and hardships will certainly pass. The villagers are poor, but every time they have new rice, bamboo shoots, or eggs, they bring them to give to the teachers... how can one not love and respect them?

Teacher Vi Thi Le, teacher at Phong village school (Tuong Duong)

Must get used to the "4 no" life

Like Vi Thi Le, the boundless love for her job, her school, and her students is the driving force for young teacher Tran Thi Hong Ngan (25 years old) to leave her hometown of Hung Nguyen and go to the highlands. In 2018, teacher Ngan returned to work at Nam Can Kindergarten (Ky Son).

Unlike teacher Le, teacher Ngan is luckier because she enjoys the regime according to Decree No. 06/2018/ND-CP (being a civil servant with salary, insurance, allowances, and salary increases like a tenured teacher). However, the nature of the work is not different.

Các cô giáo Trường Mầm non Nậm Cắn vào điểm trường Huồi Pốc. Ảnh: Thành Cường
Teachers from Nam Can Kindergarten at Huoi Poc school. Photo: Thanh Cuong
Last school year, teacher Ngan was assigned to teach at Huoi Poc school. Huoi Poc is located close to the Vietnam - Laos border, one of the most difficult villages in Ky Son district and the whole province. The village has 165 Mong households, 847 people. The people cultivate slash-and-burn agriculture, the poverty rate of the village is 53%...

Education in Huoi Poc is full of difficulties when parents do not pay much attention to their children's education. Children are often sent to the fields by their parents at a very early age and "forced" to grow up. When children are encouraged to go to school, the family completely "hands over" the children's eating and studying to the teachers.

The only road from the centerNam Can communeThe road to Huoi Poc is about 16 km long, steep, and prone to landslides. On this road, it is impossible to count the number of times teachers have slipped and fallen, resulting in bruises.

“I have been walking this road for more than a year, but it still doesn’t let me get used to it, especially on rainy days. There are days when I come to school with only my eyes clean of mud. Many times along the way, I just want to cry...”

Young teacher Tran Thi Hong Ngan (25 years old), teacher at Huoi Poc school (Ky Son)

SchoolHoi PocLocated on a high hill. After 15 years of use, the facilities here have deteriorated, are damaged, and are unsafe. The pillars and wooden walls of the classrooms, the dining and living areas of the teachers are all rotten and infested with termites.

Điểm trường Huồi Pốc nằm trên một quả đồi cao. Ảnh: Thành Cường
Huoi Poc school is located on a high hill. Photo: Thanh Cuong
“Huoi Poc school has no market, no phone signal, no clean water, no electricity. To survive here, the teachers have to grow crops and be self-sufficient in food. Every time the teachers have to go to the village, they bring along plastic cans to ask for water for use. The new school year has begun, but this also coincides with the time when preschool students still follow their parents to “sleep in the fields” and harvest crops, so bringing them back to school is also a difficult task,” said teacher Ngan.

Find your own joy

Teacher Lo Thi Thanh Hien (who has taught at Nam Can Kindergarten for 17 years, and also taught at Huoi Poc school with teacher Ngan) shared: “There are many difficulties, but eventually, each teacher here gets used to them, tries to overcome them and finds joy for themselves. The common joy of preschool teachers is to be able to perform their assigned tasks well, ensuring the care of children according to the boarding school model in extremely difficult and arduous conditions; from there, gradually helping the children to study at higher levels. My personal joy is that every weekend I get to return to my family in Nam Can - where my husband and two sons live together, because my mother is a teacher, although she teaches near but far away”.

Để sống được nơi điểm trường 4 không, các cô giáo Huồi Pốc đều phải tăng gia, tự túc lương thực, thực phẩm. Ảnh: Thành Cường
To survive at the "4 no" school, Huoi Poc teachers must increase production and be self-sufficient in food. Photo: Thanh Cuong
Being a large area, home to many ethnic minorities, the border commune of Tri Le (Que Phong) has up to 3 primary schools. Of which, Tri Le 4 Primary School has up to 4 campuses: Muong Long, Nam Tot, Huoi Xai, Huoi Moi, with 100% of students being Mong. For the past 40 years, the school has only had male teachers because the villages are located at the "end of the world", with difficult traffic and difficult conditions, so the female teachers cannot stay in the villages.

Tri Le 4 Primary School has 335 students this year. Of which, the main school in Muong Long village has 100 students, Huoi Xai has 103 students, Nam Tot has 43 students and Huoi Moi has 86 students. The whole school has 22 classes, including 3 combined classes with 33 staff and teachers.

This new school year, Mr. Lu Van Phong, after visiting all the remote locations, returned to Huoi Moi. He was assigned to be a 2nd teacher (teaching subjects such as Ethics, Music, Art, and Technology).

"Being able to teach students and contribute to my hometown's highlands makes me very happy...".

Mr. Lu Van Phong, teacher of Huoi Moi School (Que Phong)

After 26 years of teaching in Tri Le, this teacher has mastered the language and understood the customs and practices of the Mong people down to the smallest detail. The lessons he has, is, and will impart are certainly more valuable than mere numbers.

Niềm vui của thầy Phòng là mỗi ngày được đón các em học sinh đến lớp. Ảnh: Thành Cường
Teacher Phong's joy is to welcome students to class every day. Photo: Thanh Cuong
Teachers in the highlands are like that. They are happy to live in the love and respect of the people. But that happiness is also pitifully "fragile".

Hopefully, all levels and sectors will pay more attention to education in mountainous areas, to teachers who love their job of carrying letters up the mountains; and when philanthropists come to the highlands, in addition to paying attention to the students, they also need to give more encouragement to those respected teachers.

Thanh Chung