Nguyen Thi Thong, a retired teacher has been teaching disadvantaged children living in Ngu Loc Commune, Hau Loc District, Thanh Hoa for nearly 10 years.
Unlike conventional classrooms, the classroom of teacher Thong is just a small alley covered with old bamboo tied together. Pupils here go to class in the morning then go to work in the afternoon.
Thong has been a teacher for 30 years. She retired in 2001 and lives with her blind sister. After retirement, she opened a free class to teach disadvantaged children and adults who wanted to go to school but didn't have enough money.
Thong has always been a dedicated teacher
“I want to help disadvantaged children to become literate. I don’t charge them a penny, I just want them attend my class,” said Thong.
At first, she approach families persuade them to allow their children to go to school. Gradually, more and more children wanted to attend her class. Her house was too small so she decided to teach them right in the alley.
Her pupils don’t have enough money to buy books then she made a lot of effort to collect used books and documents to help them.
After each lesson, she continues finding disadvantaged families and convincing their parents to allow their kids to attend her class. She met the Head of the Branch of Association for Promoting Education and asked them to help her find street children, disadvantaged or disabled children so that she can invite them to join her class.
However, many families don’t want to allow their children to go to school and the children themselves often don't want to attend. Despite this, Thong never gave up and she continued finding children and convincing them to attend her class.
If any pupil is absent from her class twice, she will go to their house and ask them why they missed class. Thong and her sister are surviving on a modest retirement pension and she manages to save some money to buy books for her students. She has asked social organisations to support families who are in need and asks some families who have better conditions to donate their old clothes so that she can give them to her pupils who even don’t have enough clothes to wear.
Her small savings is also spent to buy some food for her disadvantaged pupils.
A class full of love
“One time when I was teaching, one student's blood pressure suddenly went down and I took him to a dispensary. After class, I came to see him and I knew that his mother couldn’t go to work due to her sickness so his family didn’t have enough money to buy food. I reported it to the People’s Committee of the commune and asked them for help. They gave 10kg of rice to each family member,” added Thong.
In addition, she also spends time giving lectures to those who are not good at studying. With her help and care, many pupils from her class have enough knowledge to continue to higher classes at schools.
Many individuals and organisations offered a hand to help Thong to continue teaching her class. With such great efforts, she has created a studying movement in a poor commune.