From a boy crossing the mountain to a village teacher
One day in mid-August, we went to Thung Mai to meet Mr. Tenh, a teacher at Thung Mai school, Hang Kia A Primary and Secondary School, Pa Co commune, Phu Tho province. For more than 20 years, he has been the one who has built the village, overcoming many difficulties to bring the word back to the villagers.
The road to Thung Mai has been paved with concrete but is steep, winding, and drivers must be very careful, said teacher Ngan Thi Lam, Principal of Hang Kia A Primary and Secondary School, to us before crossing nearly 7km of the mountain road.
It is almost noon, in a small classroom in the middle of the village, Mr. Tenh - the pride of the Thung Mai people - is still enthusiastically with the young people. The reading of the poem echoed throughout the forest wind. The children of the H'Mong village with their immature faces and curly hair crawled like a teacher. On the table, instead of plastic chopsticks, there are straight bamboo sticks that the teacher personally spits to practice counting and holding a pen.
Living in a place with more rocks than soil, for generations the HMong people have only worried about food on the corn. Mr. Tenh dared to go to school, become a teacher to teach the village, Mr. Sung A Lu, Thung Mai village, spoke slowly, his eyes lit up with pride.
Born in 1978, Tenh is one of the few Thung Mai children who dare to cross the mountain to find words. That day, the boy walked 17km to get primary school, then continued to attend boarding school, and then continued to college. Once, he was rejected by a girl in the village just because he was "too fascinated by words".
Many people in the village do not know how to write their names, so I thought I had to try to study to bring the words back to teach the villagers. My father carried corn from the village to National Highway 6 to sell to get money for me to go to school, said Mr. Tenh.
At the age of 19, while studying at college, he also taught his hometown class.
The dried worms are bright in high places
In Thung Mai class, the most difficult thing is that students are not fluent in common speech. Mr. Tenh had to patiently teach the "language": Vietnamese is interspersed with H'Mong language. Thanks to that, for more than twenty years, hundreds of children have known how to read and write. Many students continue to study at secondary, high school, or even university. Among them, Ms. Kha Y Sua - who used to sit on the roof of Thung Mai school - has now graduated from university, becoming the pride of the village.
Thung Mai School currently has more than 30 students, 3 of whom are H'Mong. Mr. Tenh is in charge of the 1-2 graft.
"Since Mr. Tenh returned to the village to teach, my children have gone to class until school age, everyone knows how to read and write," Mr. Song A Sang, Thung Mai village enthusiastically said.
There are students like Sung A Sua, orphaned, who once planned to drop out of school to work as a housewife. Mr. Tenh persistently encouraged him, then connected the volunteer group so that he could have someone to guide him. Thanks to that, Sua is now in 8th grade.
"In the past, the classroom lacked everything, now there are TVs, water tanks, and school supplies sponsored by benefactors. More importantly, students are motivated to go to class, said Mr. Tenh.
Ms. Ngan Thi Lam, Principal of Hang Kia A Primary and Secondary School, noted: The role of Mr. Tenh is very special. For more than 20 years, he has not only taught letters, but also sowed students' dreams and sowed the village of faith. Thanks to Mr. Tinh's wholehearted dedication, the number of children dropping out of school in Thung Mai has decreased significantly".
"I just hope they will finish high school, even learn a trade, and study even higher. Later, when I am old, my children in the village will become teachers to continue to teach my hometown, said Mr. Tenh.
