That is the sharing of young teacher Huynh Thi Ha (28 years old, Co ethnic group), in charge of Ong Phung school, one of the most remote schools in the highlands of Nam Tra My, Quang Nam.
Absent from school because of following mother to the fields
The afternoon rain poured down on Ong Phung's roof, splashing red soil all over the newly built school. The three female teachers were busy cleaning and looking towards the village on the mountain peak - home to nearly 50 Cadong students - with their hearts full of worry.
For many days, the boy Ho Quoc Khanh (6 years old, Cadong ethnic group) has not gone to class.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lieu (Khanh's mother) got married and became pregnant at the age of 17. Before Khanh was born, his paternal grandparents and father died in a fire. Shortly after, his maternal grandfather also died of a serious illness. Since the incident, his paternal relatives became more distant, Ms. Lieu held her newborn baby in her arms and sought refuge with her maternal grandmother.
“Every day, my mother goes to work on the mountain fields from early morning until late at night, and I have to go up to help her. There is no one to look after my child at home, so I have to take him along,” said Ms. Lieu.
“The people here live with their backs against the mountains, and their hunger and hunger depend on the forests. Sending their children to school is a story of great effort. On the contrary, the children have mud on their feet and suffer many disadvantages, but they are very eager to learn. I hope the students can go to class and learn to read and write so that they will have less hardship in the future,” teacher Ha encouraged.
The first time I heard the school drum
Mr. Phung's school (belonging to Tra Don Primary Boarding School, Nam Tra My district) currently has 50 students, including Cadong kindergarten and primary school, taught by 2 Co teachers and 1 Kinh teacher.
“With high mountains and deep ravines on all sides, difficult traffic conditions, makeshift schools, no national grid electricity, no phone signal, no Internet, no clean water... so in previous years, the opening ceremony at Mr. Phung's school was only simple with a brief ritual, teachers used pots and pans to make noise instead of the school drum" - teacher Le Huy Phuong - Principal of Tra Don Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities confided.
The 2024-2025 school year is the first time teachers and students will hear the school drum and the children will study in a new, spacious school, worth more than 1 billion VND, sponsored by the Friends Club (Da Nang), inaugurated before the new school year.
Teacher Than Thi Hoa (54 years old), who has been teaching at schools in Tra Don for 32 years, was moved: “This is a historic opening ceremony, when for the first time the school drum rang out in the curiosity and strangeness of the children. I hope that from now on, every child will have enough books, clothes, and enough to eat, so that the road to school will be less bumpy and arduous.”
Speaking with Lao Dong, Mr. Vo Dang Thuan - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Nam Tra My district said that the whole district has dozens of small schools scattered in remote villages, many of which are still makeshift, made of bamboo and thatch.
Although the difficulties cannot be fully expressed in words, there are still hundreds of young teachers who stay in the villages to teach at schools touching the clouds, with contract teaching positions.
