Love for the "sow letters" in the highlands

(Baonghean) -The school year has begun, students from the lowlands to the highlands are eagerly entering a new school year. Teachers are busy preparing their luggage to go to the mountains to carry out the task of "sowing letters" for children in the highlands, people who are dedicating their youth to the villages in the highlands and border areas.

Taking the same bus to the western districts of Nghe An, Mr. Pham Van Tien (teacher at Nhon Mai Secondary School, Tuong Duong District) was crammed with a lot of belongings: lesson plans, books, rice bags and canned foods, fish sauce bottles, dried shrimp packages... Mr. Tien's hometown is Thanh Lam Commune (Thanh Chuong), his wife is working at Thanh Son Kindergarten (resettlement area of ​​Ban Ve Hydropower Reservoir), about 30 km from home. Their first son is not yet 1 year old. At home, there are only his elderly parents, his father is seriously ill and has just been taken to Bach Mai Hospital for treatment. Bringing his father back from Hanoi, he had to prepare to go to school quickly to start the new school year.

Combined class at Xieng My Primary School (Tuong Duong)

This is his 7th year of studying in Nhon Mai, a very remote commune of Tuong Duong district. From home, he has to take 3 bus trips, then go to Ban Ve hydropower plant, take a boat for 3-4 hours across the lake, then walk for more than half an hour to get to school. In normal weather conditions, it takes almost a day, but on rainy or windy days, floods are unpredictable. Far from the district center, traffic is difficult, there are no markets, no phone signals, and the villagers are poor, so every time he returns to his hometown or to town, Mr. Tien takes the opportunity to buy food, groceries and household items to store for daily life.

Going to Ky Son in early August, when the new school year was approaching, we were more aware of the hardships and difficulties of teachers in the highlands. Arriving at Muong Tip commune, one of the localities that suffered the most from the terrible flash flood at the end of June, we witnessed the scene of the school devastated and submerged in a layer of mud about 2.5 m thick. Teachers of Muong Tip Primary School had to go to school 2 weeks in advance to coordinate with the government and people to clear the mud and build temporary classrooms out of bamboo to ensure the plan and program of the new school year. Mr. Nguyen Van Hoang (from Anh Son district) said: “After the flash flood, the nearly 30 km road from Muong Xen was broken and continuously eroded, making it extremely difficult to travel, in some sections we had to carry motorbikes through mud. I had just returned home for a few days of summer vacation when I heard that the school had been flooded, so I had to come here to see what was happening. The Khmu people here were already poor and now they are even poorer after the flood. Therefore, mobilizing students to go to school in the new school year will be extremely difficult, more difficult than rebuilding the school...”.

Both living in Anh Son district, Mr. Tran Van Hung and his wife have been teaching in Ky Son for more than 6 years. He works in Keng Du commune (80 km from Ky Son district center), she works in Nam Can commune. Although they work in the same district, they are nearly 100 km apart and always live in a state of "being on opposite ends of longing". Their first daughter is often sick. Mr. Hung confided: "Many times I knew my daughter was sick but because of work I could not return. At times like that, I felt so sorry that I cried because I missed my wife and my daughter."

At the end of the 2010-2011 school year, we had the opportunity to visit Bung village, Mon Son commune (Con Cuong), the source of the Giang river. This is where the Dan Lai people live, life here is still very difficult, from the commune center to the village currently only takes about 3-4 hours by motorboat. In this remote place, there is a teacher who is about to retire but still sticks to the remote and poor Dan Lai village. That is Ms. Lo Thi Thanh (born in 1958), in Tan Son village (near the commune center). Before returning to her hometown in Con Cuong to work, Ms. Thanh spent a long time teaching in Huoi Tu and My Ly communes of the remote Ky Son district. Her family situation is quite sad, her husband died early, her children are still in school age so her shoulders are always heavy with worries. Having been assigned to Bung village for 4 years, she had to leave her children with her grandmother to take care of them. Sometimes, when it rains and the Giang River rises, she cannot visit her children for months. Every time she goes back to visit her children and to the main office for meetings, it costs hundreds of thousands of dong to pay for boat rides. However, Ms. Thanh said: "The conditions here are many times more difficult than in the commune center, but the benefits and income are the same. I don't think it's fair."

Road to the highlands

Mr. Tien, Mr. Hoang, Ms. Thanh and Mr. Hung and his wife are just a few of the teachers who have been dedicating their intelligence, strength and youth to the cause of education in the highlands. They can be considered the pioneers in the fight to eliminate poverty and backwardness in the highlands and border areas. It is thought that the State needs to have more preferential policies on income and effectively implement the rotation of teachers between regions to ensure fairness and motivate teachers to work with peace of mind.

Cong Kien